Quite possibly this may be my last update. In most respects, everything has returned to normal, though GHSOL has made significant changes in our culture. Some not for the best IMO. But then adaption/compromise is never easy, eh?
Over 10 years ago, GHSOL was created to be an inclusive place for independent JF haulers with few rules or constraints. That was our culture…and it definitely differentiated us from our competitors on may levels. Keep it simple with just enough rules so everyone “plays nice” with each other. I’ve always favored the “union” analogy, and yes, I’d be the guy who has to lead and interact with management. I’ll let you guess who’s “management” in this anlogy, but it’s fair to say it’s changed with time.
Over the years, customer demands did push us towards offering higher efficiencies, but not in a way that required much from the JF haulers themselves. About the only changes made were max skill (for lowest expenses so we could offer the best prices) and no Nomads since eventually we had to offer the highest m3 to distinguish ourselves. But we always kept the philosophy of you keep all the reward, you haul your way when you want to do it however much you want to.
With the introduction of lancers and the requirement of a citadel network, now a large shared expense had to be accounted for. The first undesirable change has been no more casual hauling…you now have to pitch in both in effort and covering this high shared cost. Good for a sense of building a sense of “teamwork” but also introducing alot of complexity as a flow of ISK has to be setup and managed.
The next change was stepping out our usual niche of service. No longer do we have the luxury of keeping things simple, but we’ve got to increase the flow of cargo by expanding service. So while we’ve maintained the “flat rate”, “any distance” part of our culture, finally after many years we’ve expanded into null sec and introduced a real rush service.
All this was done with alot of thought and effort on my part and key people within my organization. But invariably the “independent” part of our culture has somewhat slipped away. And of course, as I’ve said above many times, new JF haulers have a far more difficult time getting into this game style. But given how much prices increased for us AND our competitor, maybe it’s best that there’s less JF haulers ensuring the balance between overall capacity, the flow of cargo and of course higher rates charge (of which GHSOL still remains the cheapest and quickest among all the competitors).
As a final thought, I’m proud of the fact that the whole GHSOL crew anticipated future changes in circumstances. Plans and programs that were rolled out nearly six months ago required few tweaks if any. But we had the luxury of months of watching the effects of lancers last year before jumping back in the ring so not surprisingly we came up with a solid and resilient plan!
Now for the next curve ball that CCP throws everyone…like with the high sec route between Jita and Amarr gets broken by pirate insurgency regularly for more than a week at a time. The flow of cargo will have to find an alternate way. And yes, JFs will be the solution, and we’ve got a plan! Sheesh that was a cheesy reference…