logistics

Logistics is the backbone of every industrial island in Captain of Industry. Good production is not enough on its own: materials must be moved, sorted, stored, and delivered efficiently across land, water, and remote outposts.

Core transport network

Your main logistics network is built around moving resources between mines, factories, storage, ports, and outside settlements. The more your island expands, the more important it becomes to shape transport around distance, cargo type, and bottlenecks.

Vehicle roles

• Pickup is the starting transport vehicle and can carry loose, unit, and fluid products.
• Truck carries the same cargo types and serves as the general-purpose workhorse.
• Amphibious Truck works on both land and water and carries loose, unit, and fluid products.
• Haul Truck (Dump) is for loose products only, with much higher capacity.
• Haul Truck (Tank) is for fluid products only, with much higher capacity.
• Trains move large volumes across the map and can carry all the cargo types above; with the ''''Trains expanded'-DLC''' they can also transport molten products.

Resource harvesters and handling

• Excavators mine loose resources from the island and load them onto transport vehicles.
• Tree Harvesters cut trees and convert them into wood for transport.
• Large harvesting operations need enough service vehicles to keep up with output.

Cargo Docks, Cargo Ship, and outposts

Cargo Docks connect your island to the world map and outposts. They are the main logistics link for importing and exporting resources that are not produced locally.

Cargo Ship behavior

The Cargo Ship departs automatically when enough cargo is available on the world map. Each voyage has a fixed fuel cost based on ship size, and larger ships are more fuel-efficient. The ship automatically collects cargo; it does not need to be assigned to individual mines or oil rigs. It can carry multiple product types at once and will make sure all of them are supplied.

Cargo Dock module setup

After construction, each Cargo Dock module must be configured with its cargo type in the UI. If only one valid cargo type is available when built, it is selected automatically.

Cargo selection can be mixed between adjacent modules, and different module types can share the same dock. In practice, identical pairs are common because mixed cargo on one dock can slow departures: the ship may wait for the less-used cargo to empty before leaving, reducing throughput for the busier cargo.

Cargo Dock module types

• Unit Module (S): for the Sawmill product.
• Loose Module (S): for loose products from Coal Mine, Sulfur Mine, Limestone Quarry, Quartz Mine, Uranium Mine, and Rock Mine.
• Fluid Module (S): for Oil Rig and Groundwater Well outputs.

Throughput and planning

Cargo Dock throughput must be matched against outpost production. A single small Cargo Dock module can keep up with low-output outposts, but higher-output sites and high-duty-cycle operations may require multiple modules or better routing. In practice, the more heavily an outpost is worked, the more docks and dock modules it needs to avoid congestion.

Placement

Cargo Docks can be awkward to place along uneven shorelines. Flattening shorelines with dumped materials can make placement easier. When placed along parallel shorelines, a minimum separation is required between the structural parts of depots to prevent blockage.

• Cargo Depot (2) reserves space so it can later be upgraded to Cargo Depot (4) without rebuilding.
• Cargo Depot (2) requires the same blocking clearance as the larger upgrade because of its reserved footprint.
• Cargo Depot (4) requires more separation between structures than the smaller version.

Routes, docks, and vehicle assignment

Efficient logistics depends on controlling where vehicles go and what they are allowed to carry.

Custom routes

Custom routes let you manually link buildings so trucks follow specific paths. They are supported by storage buildings and also let you assign trucks to individual storages.

This is useful when you want to:

• keep traffic predictable,
• dedicate vehicles to specific supply chains,
• avoid random routing across the island.

Logistics Zones

Logistics Zones divide the island into controlled sections. They limit which vehicles can enter a zone and how cargo and materials are shared. They are especially useful when expanding over large areas and can be managed from the Vehicle Management window.

Mine and forest control

• Mine Control Tower assigns excavators and trucks to designated mining areas.
• Only mining designations inside the tower’s influence can be worked.
• When trucks cannot unload, they return to the tower and idle.
• Forestry Control Tower assigns tree planters and harvesters to designated forest areas.
• Only forest areas inside the tower’s influence can be used.

Sorting, compaction, and mixed loads

Many logistics problems come from cargo not being in the right form for transport.

Ore Sorting Plant

The Ore Sorting Plant sorts mixed materials loaded by excavators onto trucks. This is necessary because trucks cannot directly deliver mixed loads to storage units or buildings.

Compactor

The Compactor presses loose items into compact units for easier transport. A shredder can restore compacted products to their original state.

Recyclables and overproduction

Recycling can create a strong stream of recovered materials, but high-efficiency recycling can also flood your storage and belts with output faster than it is consumed. When recycled products loop back into the system too quickly, add buffers or reduce initial smelting to prevent clogging.

Molten materials

Molten products use their own transport rules and do not belong in ordinary truck logistics.

Blast Furnace and Blast Furnace II

Both furnaces smelt materials such as iron and copper into molten output. That output must be moved through molten channel transport into a caster or similar processor. Molten materials cannot be transported by trucks.

Maintenance and support goods

Some logistics chains exist to keep your machines running rather than to move raw materials.

Maintenance Depot

The Maintenance Depot converts products into maintenance, which is distributed to all machines, buildings, and vehicles that need it. If maintenance runs low, vehicles and machines can temporarily break down.

Shipyard and world-map support

The Shipyard is a support hub for your ship and a catch-all for difficult cargo handling.

• It refuels, repairs, and modifies your ship.
• It also handles loading and unloading cargo.
• If a truck is carrying cargo that cannot be delivered anywhere else, it can be dropped off at the Shipyard.

Specialized large vehicles

Large-scale logistics eventually depends on bigger transport and support vehicles.

• Large Vehicles are intended to scale mining and logistics operations.
• Their production requires glass, which must be obtained through trade until you unlock your own production.
• Large Tree Harvester is the fastest way to harvest trees and requires many service trucks to keep up.
• Mega Excavator is a very large excavator that can dig any terrain, but it is too tall to pass under conveyor belts and pipes; ramps are needed where it crosses them.

Rail logistics

Trains are the right answer when distance becomes the main problem.

Train Station

The Train Station is the base structure for creating rail stations. Add adjacent loading and unloading modules to make a cargo station, or use it as a simple pass-through point.

Train Depot

The Train Depot is used to build and dismantle locomotives and wagons. Train length and internal capacity can be increased by building depot extensions.

Why rail matters

Long, narrow maps and large distances between key regions make rail transport essential. When island layout or terrain forces long hauls, trains provide the scale needed to keep industrial growth moving.

Map shapes that emphasize logistics

Some maps are built specifically to stress transport planning.

Shattered Isles

Shattered Isles is a fractured archipelago built around multi-island logistics. Resources and expansion space are spread across separate islands, so success depends on building bridges, using amphibious vehicles, and planning how materials flow across water.

Dragontail Isle

Dragontail Isle is exceptionally long and narrow, making it ideal for trains. The large distances between regions make efficient rail transport essential for scaling industry.

Curland

Curland is a long, winding island shaped like a spiral. It tests your logistics across great distances, rewards circular transport loops, and offers large flat areas for factories plus rocky highlands that can be used for landfill to expand buildable space.