The Public Job Tow Depot

A lot in Public Job mode is a depot, not a yard. Any player can work there with no whitelist and no job. They take a truck out, answer breakdown calls around the map, bring the cars back, and are paid for each one. Nothing a driver brings in is ever impounded or claimable. It is the server's entry-level money job, with a reputation ladder and better trucks to work towards.

A depot needs four points in the Creator:

• Blip
• Tow-truck spawn
• Job dispatcher
• Vehicle drop-off

A Changing room, Yard bays, and a call area are optional.

Signing on

1. Talk to the dispatcher: Ask about work. He quotes the rate the depot pays.
2. If the depot has a changing room and you are not in the overalls, he sends you to Go and get changed first, with a route there and back.
3. Choose Take a truck out. Your truck appears on the tow-truck spawn, which must be clear. It is the truck from the highest rung of the ladder you have bought.

The dispatcher is also where you Hand the truck in, view My record, Upgrade your truck, and Collect pay from an earlier shift.

Working a call

The first call comes in after 25 seconds, and each next one 45 seconds after a delivery (sooner at higher levels). A call is at least 500 m from the drop-off, and inside the depot's call area if one is drawn. The car is only created once you are within 220 m.

Each call runs on two clocks, shown on the job HUD:

However late you are, a delivered car still pays at least 40% of the rate.

Hook the car with the truck's tow arm or the flatbed's winch (see Towing). Bring it back and unhook it inside the drop-off ring (3.5 m). Delivery is automatic once the car is off the truck and inside the ring.

The Objectives panel at the top right shows:

• the step you are on, with its clock;
• what the call pays now;
• the car's condition;
• what you have brought in and earned this shift.

Staying with the truck

Away from the depot, leaving the truck starts a countdown: 60 seconds, or 180 s for the flatbed, which is worked on foot. At a special call's scene, where there are people to talk to, the countdown only starts after 180 s on foot. If it runs out, or the truck is lost, the shift is cancelled:

• the truck and the call are removed;
• you lose reputation;
• anything already delivered is kept for you to collect.

Special calls

About half of all calls are a plain breakdown. The rest roll one of eight scenarios. Each has someone to talk to through the target, and what they say tells you which kind of call it is.

The fuel and mechanic calls use the base map's gas stations and its workshops: four Los Santos Customs, Benny's, Beeker's Garage, and Hayes Autos. Every figure in this table, and whether each scenario is sent at all, is set per depot on the Creator's Scenarios tab.

Getting paid

Each car pays the depot's rate, $350 by default (Pay per call completed on the Money tab, per depot), plus your level's pay bonus and your truck's pay bonus:

pay per car = rate × (100% + level bonus + truck bonus), less any late penalty

You are paid in cash when you hand the truck in at the dispatcher (park it near the spawn first). If a shift ends any other way, the work you delivered is kept against your character at that depot, and you Collect it from the dispatcher later. That covers a cancelled shift, a disconnect, or a server restart.

Public Job pay is paid out by the server. It does not come from any lot account.

Reputation and levels

Every driver has a reputation, kept per character and shared by every depot. It starts at 100 and tops out at 2,000.

Your level follows your reputation, and each level adds perks to every call:

My record at the dispatcher shows your level, reputation, cars brought in, current truck, and the level ladder.

Suspension

At 0 reputation or below, the depot stops sending you calls. The shift in progress gets no more, and you cannot start a new one for 12 hours. You then come back at 60 reputation.

The truck ladder

Everybody starts on the first truck. A better one can be bought from Upgrade your truck once your level allows, paid from your own bank (then cash). It is yours from then on, at every depot.

The flatbed is sent to supercar calls (Adder, Zentorno, T20 and similar) and gets longer clocks, because winching is done on foot. Names, prices, bonuses, and levels are edited on the Creator's Trucks tab.

Depot bays

If the depot has Yard bays, each car a driver brings back is parked in a free bay for 30 minutes (Recovered car stays parked for, per depot), so a busy depot visibly fills up. With every bay taken, or none laid, the car is removed at the drop-off. Set the time to 0 to park nothing. Parked cars are not saved, so a restart empties the bays.

Balancing the job

Everything above is a runtime setting in the Creator:

Reputation, levels, and trucks are server-wide because a driver's record is one record across every depot.