Euro Truck Simulator 2 is awesome, and you should play it. There's a demo on the ETS2 website: http://www.eurotrucksimulator2.com/ Or just cut to the chase and buy it on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/227300/ On the face of it, trucking seems like a simple enough career - driving from point A to point B, with trailer in tow. As ever, the devil is in the details - and there are a whole host of impediments, hazards and other risk factors than can conspire to delay your delivery. And as a trucker, deliveries are your business - while you can drive aimlessly about the roads of Europe, in order to make any money you will need to find some source of employment. There are two different job types available: Quick Jobs and the Freight Market. The latter requires you to own your own truck, so for new drivers Quick Jobs are the way to go. As a driver-for-hire, you'll find yourself already at the pickup point, with trailer attached - which neatly sidesteps the need to carefully back-up and hitch your cargo. On the other hand, the Freight Market will yield better paying jobs, as an owner-operator takes on the risk of vehicle management: but you will first have to make your way to the consigner, and collect the trailer yourself. Attaching a trailer is relatively simple, but might take a little practice to master. You'll need to reverse your truck onto the trailer coupling, so the first step is to take up position, facing the right direction, some distance ahead of the trailer. Then, carefully making any adjustments as you go, slowly reverse towards your trailer until you're prompted to make the attachment. Once connected, you're free to get into first gear and begin hauling your load to your destination. Now, driving with a trailer attached poses a number of challenges - as a long vehicle you need to keep a keen eye on your mirrors as to avoid potential collision. Even negotiating the goods yard can be fraught with risk - take care negotiating any tight corners, and give yourself plenty of space on the inside edge to give the trailer room to manoeuvre. Hugging the apex with your cab will result in your trailer cutting the corner, potentially damaging your cargo or colliding with another road user. For most jobs, the first portion of your journey will be escaping the city traffic - a sometimes slow ordeal of non-stop red lights, heavy traffic and low speed limits. Patience is the key for the most part - cutting corners, jumping traffic lights or speeding will all just lead to incurring fines, which will cut into your ever-thinning profit margin. Take a deep breath, turn on the radio and wait out the queues, and before too long you'll be out of the city and up to speed. Talking of speed, you should be mindful of the limit at all times: should you get caught going too fast you will be stung with a hefty fine. In built-up areas you should be going 50 kilometres per hour (or 30 miles per hour) - and otherwise keep an eye on any posted limit. Your truck will have a speed limiter, so at full pelt you'll top out at 90 kilometres per hour (or 55 miles per hour) - and this is usually under most highway limits. However, some sections of road may be slightly under your cruising speed - so it's worthwhile keeping an eye out, as slowing down slightly is less of an inconvenience than a €550 fine. In an ideal world, you'll be spending most of your time on the motorway, autobahn, autoroute or snelweg. These dual-carriageway routes are fast, unobstructed, and span the entirety of Europe - so much of the distance you travel will be on roads of this ilk. Cruise control is a godsend when it comes to these unending stripes of asphalt, freeing up your means of throttle control for an altogether more relaxing drive. Set it when you hit your speed limiter, and aim to stay at your optimal cruising speed for as long as you are able - it's here that you'll be operating at maximum efficiency. Touching the throttle or brake will disengage cruise control - and this is usually a good idea when departing the motorway, or to avert a potential crash. It's a good idea to watch your lane discipline when cruising - make sure you don't drift outside your allotted lane, otherwise you run the risk of clipping other motorists, or - worse still - the central barrier. It's generally good etiquette to stick to the inner lane, to permit other, faster, drivers to overtake you safely. In some cases, however, you will need to change lanes - either to overtake someone yourself, or to negotiate a junction. In some cases, notably on the German Autobahn, the nearside lane becomes the junction exit, so if you want to remain on the carriageway you must move to the outer lane. Doing so should be done carefully, and ideally well in advance - keep an eye on your GPS and plan your position accordingly.

• published: 01 Apr 2013
• views: 187860