Ostranauts Docking Fees Guide

Every hour you remain clamped to OKLG, the station bills two different lines that captains often mash into one panic number: a facilities fee for utilities and airlock services, and dockage priced from your ship’s size footprint. Together with mortgage installments they dominate the Funds screen at shift end. After v0.15.1.16, phantom recurring fees that survived undock are fixed — but legitimate berth costs remain very real.

This guide separates intended fees from bugs, explains Port Clerk waivers, and shows how hull growth changes the bill. Cross-read Crew AI and Docking Fees Fix, How to Fly and Dock, and the mortgage shift planner.

Two meters on the berth invoice

Community reports and station UI labels split costs roughly like this:

Line	What it covers	Scales with
Facilities (/hr)	Utilities, air exchange, airlock access	Service rate
Dockage (Length-Over-All /hr)	Berth / parking charge	Ship footprint (box size), not interior clutter alone

Squaring off a hull without growing the outer box barely moves dockage; expanding floors outward does. NAV readouts that show target size (D: size x size) hint at the same footprint logic stations use for berth pricing.

Treat dockage as rent for taking a clamp. A coffin ship is cheap to park; a Ceres-ready hauler with cargo wings is not. Plan salvage runs so you undock before idle hours erase the haul profit.

When fees are a bug versus a bill

Intended: charges while berthed; stop (or should stop) after a clean undock.

Bug class fixed in v0.15.1.16:

• Recurring fees that continued after undock
• Fees applied to the wrong station when a crew pilot docked in another region while the captain stayed behind
• Selection glitches that silently swapped control to the captain and scrambled fee ownership

If charges still climb after undock on a patched build, undock again once, then file the save — but first confirm you are not still soft-berthed or paying on a second owned hull you forgot about.

Port Clerk and soft diplomacy

The Port Clerk in Azikiwe Commercial can sometimes waive docking fees and handle NASS paperwork, including certain death reports. Sweet-talking is not a reliable exploit — treat waivers as occasional social luck, not a build strategy. Death investigation gigs that funnel you to the clerk can double as fee relief and early cash.

Operational habits that cut berth burn

1. Undock as soon as fuel, atmosphere, and permits are ready — do not role-play for hours on the clamp.
2. Expand hull height/width footprint only when salvage income covers the new dockage tier.
3. Park secondary projects on a cheap coffin while the big hauler stays in the boneyard.
4. Use PASS Ferry for body moves when the ship can stay undocked and cold.
5. Tabulate facilities + dockage beside mortgage on the shift planner.

Ship flipping and bulk trade loops that force long OKLG stays must price berth time into the margin — see Ship Flipping and Bulk Trading.

Multi-ship and crew-pilot traps

Owning two hulls means two potential berth relationships. A hire flying hull B while you shop on OKLG can open fees you do not see until Funds screams. After the AI/fee patch, region mixing is safer, but you still owe honest dockage wherever a ship is clamped.

Cargo kiosks with ship selectors help when multiple ships share a dock — pick the correct hull before you blame the ledger.

Related pages

• Ship Mortgage — shift-end pay stack
• Getting Started — first docked hour
• Updates hub — fee hotfix history
• Map hub — stations that bill differently
• Tools hub — planners for berth + mortgage math