40d:Hauling

Hauling is the process of bringing an object to its designated place, either a stockpile, or an activity zone. The "item hauling" labor is also required to collect sand for a glass furnace.

Dwarves automatically gather the raw materials needed to produce goods at a workshop. This does not require any hauling labor.

Many larger fortresses use dwarves dedicated to hauling so that their other, more specialized dwarves will spend more time working and less time dragging whatever they made to the appropriate stockpile.

Hauling is divided into the following jobs:

• stone hauling: stones, ores and stone blocks to corresponding stockpiles.
• wood hauling: wood logs to corresponding stockpiles.
• item hauling: collecting sand for glass furnace, other uses (bar/blocks, finished goods, etc)?^[Verify].
• food hauling: food and drinks to corresponding stockpiles.
• refuse hauling: rotting food to refuse stockpile, non-dwarf corpses to refuse stockpiles, and dumped items to garbage activity zone.
• furniture hauling: furniture
• animal hauling: assigned animals to cages/chains or pit/pond.

Hauling issues

Bad logistics may crumple a fortress.

• workshops: input and ouput stockpiles should be placed near corresponding workshops.
• spoils of war: dwarves may haul entire bins full of items, or items individually. However, they are not smart enough to bin items in order to carry them, so this may end in numerous needless trips from deceased enemies to your fortress, each dwarf carrying one item at a time. This can countered by placing a general purpose stockpile near the battlefield, and then undesignating it when everything has been packed in bins.
• construction: when constructing something big away from your fort (e.g. a road), the dwarf assigned to the construction will have to carry each item from your fort to the construction, which can take a long time. By putting stockpiles near your construction project, many dwarves may participate in the hauling, thus increasing dramatically construction speed.