Transporting in High Sec

As I've mentioned before, I do my own hauling in high security space.

This is largely due to the hauling corp I used to use folding, and the value of my trade shipments being above and beyond what player corps are willing to haul. I'm often carrying 30 Billion in a single Blockade Runner, and player corps don't want that level of risk or don't keep that much ISK on hand for collateral.

Ordinarily people would tell you that transporting that value in ISK is stupid, and basically begging to be ganked, and in a T1 hauler or freighter they'd be right, but I don't use those ships to transport my stuff. As I trade mostly in implants, with a few faction/deadspace modules thrown in, the volume of my shipments is actually pretty small. I have instant undock and docking bookmarks at the main trade hubs to reduce the risk of anyone attempting to gank me.

Until a few months ago, I solely traded in implants, which are 1m3 each. So I could fit an entire trade runs worth of implants in an interceptor. I used the following fit for that:

[Ares, LorRes]
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Damage Control II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II

Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Medium Shield Extender II
Medium Shield Extender II


Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing II

This Ares aligns in 1.9 seconds, has 11k EHP and an 8.8 AU per second warp speed. In high, a sub 2 second align means that even instalocking thrashers cannot catch me warping gate to gate. The EHP means I could survive a casual smartbomb trap if someone were to attempt that in highsec, which is highly unlikely. The 96m3 cargo hold meant I could carry 96 implants, which given the price ranges I was trading in was a lot, so for a time this was my hauling ship of choice.

Since moving into modules though, I require a slightly larger transport. That's where the Crane comes in:

[Crane, Lornor's Crane]
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

EM Ward Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Cargohold Optimization II
Medium Cargohold Optimization II

This Crane aligns in 4.42 seconds, has 41.1k EHP and a 7.92 AU per second warp speed. It is slower than the Ares, no insta-warping gate to gate, but it can warp cloaked. Warping cloaked makes it pretty much immune to any gank attempts in highsec, and when I can't cloak due to traffic the 41.1k EHP is enough to tank 3, maybe 4 perfect Tornado hits. I have only ever had 1 person try to gank this, and it was a rather futile attempt with a catalyst that didn't even bring me down to 80% shield. Another advantage of a blockade runner is you cannot be cargo scanned. So you could be empty, you could be carrying 50 Bil, no-one can know without killing you. I have heard tales of people playing "blockade runner roulette", ganking BRs to gamble that they're carrying enough to make it profitable, but most gankers would rather go after T1 industrials or freighters where they can see in advance if the attempt it likely to be profitable for them.

Really my main risk with hauling myself is if I go AFK carrying a load of stuff, or if I get wardecced. Even with a wardec though I'm unlikely to be caught, and no-one has decced me yet. If they do I'd probably just dock up for a week and let them be bored, better than potentially feeding them a huge killmail and making my way on to reddit.

So the summary here I guess is that you CAN do your own hauling, but it takes time, and it is really worth investing in a properly fit T2 ship to do it.