Transporting goods from Royal Cities to Caerleon is one of the most lucrative activities in Albion Online. However, if you are hauling on a massive scale using a Transport Mammoth or an Elder Ox, you quickly run into two constraints: your **Silver Budget** and your mount's **Carry Capacity**.
Understanding Profit Density
When hauling massive quantities of items, you should not evaluate items purely by their absolute profit. Instead, you must calculate their **Profit Density**:
Profit Density = Net Profit / Item Weight
For example, if an item gives 10,000 silver profit but weighs 50kg, its profit density is `200 silver / kg`. If another item gives 5,000 silver profit but weighs only 10kg, its profit density is `500 silver / kg`.
To maximize your return on a single run, you should prioritize items with higher profit density first.
Solving the Bounded Knapsack Problem
In mathematics, selecting the most valuable combination of items within a weight and budget limit is known as the **Bounded Knapsack Problem**.
ScanAlbion's Cargo Optimizer runs a greedy knapsack solver that:
- Queries all profitable Black Market flips.
- Calculates the weight of each item (weapons, armor, bags, commodities).
- Sorts them by profit density descending.
- Fills your mount's weight limit (e.g., Stag: 227kg, Ox: 3200kg, Mammoth: 22521kg) using your specified silver budget.
Hauling Tips for Traders
- Always Over-Weight Guard: Never load your mount past 100% capacity unless you are using active weight-increasing gear (like a high-tier bag, pork pies, or boot spells) and are prepared to move slowly if dismounted.
- Red Zone Routing: Plot your route through red zones during low-activity hours. Avoid choke points and always scout ahead if carrying a full mammoth cargo.
- Premium Status Check: Keep Premium active to reduce sales tax from 8% to 4%, which directly improves your profit margins by millions on large-scale runs.