# American Truck Simulator: Convoy Co-op on the Open Road

Haul the same freight online with up to seven friends as Convoy synchronizes your trucks, traffic, time, and weather across American roads.

[PLAYNEXT](https://playnext.party/) · Published: 9/30/2026

![A blue truck hauling a tanker follows a two-lane road past a farmhouse and distant mountains.](https://playnext.party/steam-images/689cc49c-6d2e-4bcd-9307-4689381ca575/ss-758470ddbd783e7ff0caac1a59b7fde4a74bbb67?width=1200)

American Truck Simulator turns a delivery into a shared road trip. Its online Convoy mode lets up to eight drivers take the same freight job and travel through synchronized traffic, time, and weather. You and your friends each drive a separate truck from your own computer; there is no split-screen career. The appeal is the trip itself: a long run across a changing landscape, with a destination and a load to bring there.

## The job gives you a shared destination

A Convoy session adds your friends to the familiar freight loop rather than dropping the group into a separate campaign. One driver can choose a job, and the others can take that same job from the session. The cargo and delivery point give everyone a shared reason to head in one direction. You can see the group’s trucks on the road and in the session, while AI traffic still moves around the convoy. Time and weather are synchronized, so a drive that starts in daylight can continue into evening for everyone, and rain can follow the group along its route.

That shared delivery is a useful anchor, not a sequence of co-op objectives with cutscenes or special team roles. The game does not assign a navigator, mechanic, or dispatcher to your friends. Each person is a driver in a cab, handling the same basic work: pick up cargo, keep the truck moving, and deliver it. You can hear friends through Convoy’s CB radio or use its quick replies and text chat; voice chat is tied to being in the session, rather than to a broader campaign story. If someone takes a different job, you are still in the same multiplayer world, but the group no longer has one common delivery to follow.

The arrangement suits a group that wants a low-pressure reason to share a long stretch of play. A run may include empty highway, a fuel stop, a quick exchange over the CB, then the tighter work of reaching a delivery yard. The common job is a light piece of structure compared with a mission-based co-op game. There are no combat encounters to solve together and no puzzle that needs a coordinated move. The shared rhythm comes from traveling in the same direction, watching the other trucks appear in traffic, and reaching the same destination.

## Freight work turns into a company

Your Convoy job sits inside a broader career. At the start, quick jobs let you drive a truck and cargo supplied by an employer. They are a straightforward way to take work without already owning a rig. As you complete deliveries, you earn money and experience; skill choices open more valuable or demanding cargo and longer-distance work. Later, you can buy a truck and take freight-market jobs with greater responsibility for operating costs, including fuel and repairs. Owning a rig also lets you choose its cabin, chassis, paint, engine, and accessories.

The company layer grows around that driving loop. You can buy garages, add trucks to a fleet, and hire drivers who take jobs while you are away. It gives a long-running profile small business goals beyond the next delivery, but those goals remain part of each person’s own career. Convoy does not combine your garages or give the session a shared company ledger. Friends can drive the same job together while their separate profiles track their own money, trucks, and progress. If one of you is a new driver and another already owns a customized rig, the difference in career stage does not turn into assigned co-op classes; everyone is still steering a truck.

Jobs vary through cargo, trailer, distance, and delivery location. Food, machinery, and hazardous loads ask you to move different freight, and longer trailers can make both the road and the final parking space more demanding. An industrial depot or fuel terminal feels different from a roadside stop, but the broad objective stays consistent: transport goods without damaging the truck or load. The contrast is in the handling and route, not in a new mission system. That repetition is the point for players who enjoy gradually learning the roads and improving a familiar routine; it can also make one trip blur into the next if the group wants constant new mechanics.

Progression is persistent but not a co-op campaign with a finish line. New skill options and better trucks broaden what you can haul, while the map and owned expansions provide more destinations. The game can keep offering jobs after you have bought a truck or expanded a company; there is no final chapter that closes the road. A group can treat one session as a single delivery or return to Convoy later, but a player-hosted session ends when its host leaves. A dedicated server can instead stay available between visits, so the group is not dependent on one person keeping the game open as host.

## The cab is the main challenge

Most of the work happens from the driver’s seat. Steering a long vehicle through traffic is simple to understand but takes room: turns are wide, a trailer follows a different line from the cab, and a delivery yard can ask you to reverse into a marked bay. The game offers parking assistance and adjustable simulation settings, so the group can choose how much of that handling to take on. Some deliveries ask for a more careful approach than others; a heavy or awkward trailer can make a familiar turn or loading area feel less routine.

You also have everyday road details to manage. The route adviser shows your path and job information; fuel stops, speed limits, traffic lights, road signs, and weigh scales give the drive small interruptions. Fatigue simulation can add rest stops, or you can turn that option off in settings. Depending on the job, mistakes can mean damage, a fine, or less pay. These systems add stakes without turning the trip into a survival challenge. They also leave plenty of stretches where the main activity is keeping a lane, following the route, and letting the view pass by.

Input is flexible. A steering wheel can make the cab feel more tactile, but it is optional; the game supports keyboard, gamepad, and other input devices. Automatic shifting and other settings let you simplify controls, while manual transmission, air brakes, and other truck-focused options are there for players who want more detail. Each person adjusts their own controls and simulation options. Nobody in the group needs a wheel to join, and the game does not require specialized equipment beyond a computer that can run it and an internet connection for Convoy.

The road scenery provides much of the variety. Routes move between desert, mountains, forests, small towns, city streets, industrial yards, and highway interchanges, depending on the states and map expansions you have. A stretch can be quiet enough to make a radio station or conversation the focus; a turn through a city or a tight yard asks more of the driver. The base map offers a sample of the American West, while optional state expansions add more routes and destinations. The landscape is represented at a compressed scale, so this is a drive through a designed version of the country, not a one-to-one road atlas.

![Several trucks travel through Las Vegas at dusk beneath the city lights and a blimp.](https://playnext.party/steam-images/689cc49c-6d2e-4bcd-9307-4689381ca575/ss-f0c114cadf2c3c02f54608c6751d5936a534061c?width=1200)

## Setting up the group

Convoy is American Truck Simulator’s online multiplayer mode. Host a private session, add a password, or make it public; you can also browse sessions. A standard player-hosted session supports up to eight people total, including the host. Each driver joins online from their own computer and needs the current game version. Convoy uses separate trucks in one online session, not local split-screen.

A regular player-hosted Convoy session ends when its host closes the game. A dedicated server can keep a session running separately from any one player’s game, but that extra setup is optional. A private lobby works well when friends are meeting for one drive; a dedicated server can suit a group that wants to join at different times. Hosts can moderate the session and remove disruptive participants.

Map expansions and modifications can affect route planning. You can join Convoy without owning a map expansion, but you cannot see or drive through areas you do not own. If a selected job crosses one of those areas, the group’s routes can diverge. Convoy supports compatible mods when the session and each player’s setup meet the required conditions. For a first shared trip, using the unmodified base map can reduce extra coordination.

Public sessions put your group on the road with other drivers, while a private session keeps the convoy among the people you invite. Different driving pace or conduct can affect how coordinated a public trip feels. Hosts have moderation tools, and a password can keep a private lobby closed. A private session keeps the shared job and synchronized conditions among invited friends, while a public session brings other drivers into the convoy.

## A co-op fit for the long haul

American Truck Simulator works well for friends who want conversation alongside a shared driving job. Convoy sends the group along the same route, but long stretches and quieter roads leave room for different paces. The steady delivery loop, handling, scenery and gradual business growth define the experience; repeated A-to-B jobs can feel uneventful if you want constant action or scripted events. It gives you trucks, freight, roads, and a company to build rather than a constant stream of set pieces.

The practical fit is straightforward: up to eight people, each in a separate truck, online together through Convoy. Wheels are optional, and a new player can start with employer-provided work before owning a vehicle. Friends who want a shared story campaign, local split-screen, or tightly coordinated roles should look elsewhere. If the idea of taking one freight job together and letting the miles do most of the talking sounds appealing, Convoy offers a clear way to do that.

## On Steam

- **Play together:** Online co-op, Remote Play Together
- **Steam reviews:** Overwhelmingly Positive, 97% positive of 199,523 reviews
- **Playing now:** 14,013
- **Platforms:** Windows, macOS, Linux
- **Developer:** SCS Software
- **Publisher:** SCS Software

[View on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/270880/)

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Source: https://playnext.party/en/games/american-truck-simulator/

Language: en