Hauling

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v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Hauling is the process of carrying an object to a new location. Objects being carried by a creature will show up in the creature's inventory as "Hauled". There are several specific hauling labors, based on the type(s) of items to be moved; these labors may be enabled or disabled on dwarves as needed. Note that hauling tasks can be modified by burrows, standing orders, and item state (in use or forbidden). Most types of hauling can be paused by disabling them on the standing orders(y: Labor -> Standing Orders tab -> Hauling).

In popular usage, the term hauler refers to a dwarf in fortress mode who has no labors enabled other than hauling. In large fortresses where there may be great distances for haulers to travel, individual hauling tasks may take a long time to complete. Using dedicated haulers allows specialist dwarves to spend more time in their workshops, instead of dragging raw materials or finished products around. Haulers are good candidates for cross-training to help improve their strength and agility attributes, which are important when moving heavy objects across a fortress quickly. (Ironically, hauling does not train attributes itself.)

To improve the efficiency of hauling items to stockpiles, containers, minecarts, and wheelbarrows can be employed. Note, however, that due to a number of outstanding bugs, there are a few cases where these tools decrease efficiency; see Bugs for more information.

Automatic hauling

Even carved horn dwarves are busy.

Some hauling tasks do not require any hauling labor:

• A dwarf working at a workshop will gather the raw materials needed to produce wanted goods. However, produced goods require the appropriate hauling labor to be moved out of the workshop in order to avoid clutter. Dwarves producing goods at a workshop tend to keep producing them and will not necessarily clear their own workshops of clutter even when they have the appropriate hauling labor enabled.
• A moody dwarf will gather the raw materials needed for a mysterious construction.
• A dwarf building something will move the needed materials to the construction site.
  • Before a dwarf will build something, he will need to have the appropriate labor as specified by the task. If the dwarf is building a chair or similar, the dwarf needs Furniture Hauling; if the dwarf is building a wooden wall, it's Building Construction, and so forth. Workshops are usually constructed by any dwarf that can work in that workshop.
  • A dwarf will clear the tiles where he/she builds from all scattered objects (stone !!!) before starting the build
• A herbalist will haul any successfully-gathered plant to a stockpile immediately, if there is space available in one. They also pick up and move stepladders around as necessary.
• Dwarves in the midst of eating will carry their meal to a table. Military dwarves, however, will eat directly off of the floor.^[Verify]
• Dwarves who have just finished drinking booze will return their barrel to the nearest food stockpile.
• If you have the "All dwarves harvest" option turned on, all dwarves will help bring in the harvest, even if they don't have Food Hauling enabled.
• Various medical tasks such as bringing injured dwarves food or water, dressing wounds, and so forth have their own labors associated with them and do not require hauling.

Stone hauling

Dwarves with the stone hauling labor enabled will haul stones and ores to the appropriate stockpiles.

Note: Boulders left behind by digging are incredibly heavy, making hauling them by hand long distances a very time-consuming job. A dwarf may spend weeks carrying just one cinnabar boulder. See the section on Stone management for tips on combating this problem.

Wood hauling

Dwarves with the wood hauling labor enabled will haul wood logs to the corresponding stockpiles. This job usually entails leaving the fortress to get the logs felled on the outside, possibly exposing dwarves to fauna, invaders and sunlight, so you may wish to bar important dwarves from performing this task.

Item hauling

Dwarves with the item hauling labor will haul miscellaneous items like blocks and collect sand for a glass furnace or clay for a kiln. Finished goods (such as crafted goods) and gems (both rough and cut) are also considered Items.

Stone blocks are also moved using the item hauling labor.

Food hauling

Dwarves with the food hauling labor will haul food and drinks to the appropriate stockpiles.

Refuse hauling

Dwarves with the refuse hauling labor will haul rotting food, and non-dwarf bodyparts to refuse stockpiles. They will also dump marked items to the appropriate garbage activity zone. This job usually entails dealing with dead bodies and leaving the fortress to get the deceased's body on the outside, possibly exposing dwarves to trauma, fauna, invaders, and sunlight, so you may wish to bar important or depression-prone dwarves from performing this task. Refuse hauling is subject to standing orders (y: Labor -> Standing Orders tab -> Refuse and Dumping).

It is possible to use standing orders to forbid all the dead's bodies and items on death, to prevent haulers from running into an active confrontation. Remember to claim they back later when it's safe using the 'designate item' tool(i), or the bodies will be left to rot.

Burial

Dwarves with the burial labor will haul dwarf and pet corpses and bodyparts to corpse stockpiles or coffins. This job usually entails dealing with dead bodies and leaving the fortress to get the deceased's body on the outside, possibly exposing dwarves to trauma, fauna, invaders, and sunlight, so you may wish to bar important or depression-prone dwarves from performing this task. Burial items are subject to standing orders (y: Labor -> Standing Orders tab -> Sieges and forbidding).

It is possible to use standing orders to forbid all the dead's bodies and items on death, to prevent haulers from running into an active confrontation. Remember to claim they back later when it's safe using the 'designate item' tool(i), or the bodies will be left to rot.

Furniture hauling

Dwarves with the furniture hauling labor will haul furniture to the appropriate stockpiles. They will also build simple furniture items (beds, chairs, tables, etc.).

Animal hauling

Dwarves with the animal hauling labor will haul animal traps and occupied cages to the appropriate stockpiles, and lead uncaged animals to pastures and other destinations. Animal hauling isn't required for jobs such as shearing, butchering or milking animals.

Wild or hostile animals require both animal hauling and animal training labors to move to a cage or chain.^Bug:8080

Trade good hauling

Dwarves with the Trade Good hauling labor will bring goods to the depot.

Water hauling

Dwarves with the water hauling labor will fill pits and ponds.

Tips and issues

In order to minimize hauling trips, stockpiles should be placed with care.

• Input and output stockpiles should be placed near corresponding workshops. Consider proximity of input stockpiles to be about an order of magnitude more important; a working dwarf wastes time to get his own material, but having some haulers is enough to take care of moving the product.
• Construction preparation: 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 location, which can take a long time. By putting stockpiles near your construction project, many dwarves may participate in the hauling, thus dramatically increasing construction speed. Note that materials are allocated at the time of building, so be sure the stockpile is filled before placing the construction order, otherwise the materials will still have to come from afar.
• Consider specializing your haulers if possible - food haulers that orbit around the kitchen/dining room/farm area, stone haulers that orbit around the mines and furnaces, and (if possible/needed) wood haulers that do likewise with the carpenter shop. Turn off refuse hauling if that dwarf isn't going to be near areas likely to have refuse. This keeps the mine hauler from deciding to walk aaaallll the way over to the kitchens for one load, and then out to the forest for one, and then back to the smelters, and so on.
• Furthermore, you can handpick your specialized hauler, selecting them by their attributes. A wood hauler might be chosen because of his agility, since he might have to walk a lot of tiles to reach the forest, depending on the fortress and map layout. A stone hauler, on the other hand, might be chosen because of her strength so that she can pick up and carry heavy stones (such as gold and platinum) more quickly.
• The Grower profession can have a huge impact on hauling - see farming for a discussion.
• If you create a loop of stockpiles giving to each other (i.e. creating a circle A->B->C->A), your dwarves will spend their entire time hauling.
• Wheelbarrows can significantly reduce the time needed to move heavy goods like stone and ore. Minecart tracks and systems, while time-consuming to set up, can drastically cut down hauling times for some purposes, such as moving furniture from magma forges to a central stockpile.

Backlogs

To ensure that high-priority hauling tasks (like food), to clean up after get done quickly, you should employ a large number of haulers. This is most important for food hauling, where prepared meals in the kitchen often rot while your dwarves are hauling individual seeds left behind after someone eats a plump helmet, or if your hunters bring a herd of animals in for your butchers all at once.

Bugs

• Hauling jobs block access to all the items in the destination containers until the hauling is complete. This often results in cancellation spam and work delays.^Bug:9004 One workaround is creating a "feeder stockpile" with containers disabled.

• Wheelbarrows are only used to haul stone to a stockpile and limits the number of active hauling jobs to the number of available wheelbarrows. see Wheelbarrow for details.

• If a dwarf is hauling an item when the destination becomes unreachable the dwarf will spam job cancellation messages repeatedly.^Bug:597 Forbidding the item in inventory will clear up the problem.

V · T · E Labors
Mining	Mining
Woodworking	Carpentry • Crossbow-making • Wood cutting
Stoneworking	Masonry • Stone carving • Stonecutter • Stone engraving
Hunting/Related	Animal training • Animal care • Hunting • Trapping • Small animal dissection
Healthcare	Diagnosis • Surgery • Setting bones • Suturing • Dressing wounds • Feed patients/prisoners • Recovering wounded
Farming/Related	Butchery • Tanning • Farming (fields) • Dyeing • Gelding • Soap making • Wood burning • Potash making • Lye making • Milling • Brewing • Plant gathering • Plant processing • Cheese making • Milking • Shearing • Spinning • Cooking • Pressing • Beekeeping
Fishing/Related	Fishing • Fish cleaning • Fish dissection
Metalsmithing	Furnace operating • Weaponsmithing • Armoring • Blacksmithing • Metalcrafting
Jewelry	Gem cutting • Gem setting
Crafts	Leatherworking • Woodcrafting • Stonecrafting • Bone carving • Glassmaking • Weaving • Clothesmaking • Strand extraction • Pottery • Glazing • Wax working
Engineering	Siege engineering • Siege operating • Mechanics • Pump operating
Hauling	Stone hauling • Wood hauling • Item hauling • Burial • Food hauling • Refuse hauling • Furniture hauling • Animal hauling • Trade good hauling • Water hauling • Push/Haul vehicles
Other Jobs	Cleaning • Lever operation • Road building • Wall/Floor construction • Construction removal