Servicing

From OpenTTD

Servicing occurs when a vehicle enters a depot or hangar. This prolongs the reliability rating (reducing breakdowns) and increases the working life of the vehicle.

[edit] Automatic servicing

Vehicles should automatically head to a depot or hangar when they reach the end of their service interval. This can be changed in the vehicle details, or in the patch options.

[edit] Scheduled servicing

You can also make vehicles go to a depot to service routinely by adding the depot to the vehicle's orders.

This way you service the vehicle more regularly, and can help prevent breakdowns. It also avoids the possibility that a vehicle may need servicing at an inconvenient point on its route (maybe the nearest depot is a long way away).

This type of servicing scheduled before a train loads its cargo to ensure the cargo isn't delayed in reaching its destination (reducing the payment).

If you do not want the vehicle to visit the depot every time the orders list is executed, you can use use the Service instruction on the goto depot order - this causes the order to be ignored if the servicing interval has not yet expired.

[edit] Forced servicing (trains only)

Trains can be forced to enter a depot by laying tracks in a way that gives them no choice but to enter a depot. Since there is a noticeable decrease in speed while a train enters and leaves a depot, the number of servicing-lanes should be appropriate to the amount of traffic.