Dealers are the closest thing Schedule I has to passive income — but hand the wrong customers to them and you’re quietly losing hundreds of dollars per week. The 20% cut looks straightforward until you realize dealers don’t sell at your marked-up price; they sell at the game’s fair price. That gap matters more as your operation scales.
This guide covers every dealer in the game (all six, with rank requirements and sign-on fees), the exact steps to assign customers via the Dealers app, and a clear framework for which customers to keep for personal sales versus which to hand off. Verified on v0.4.3, which raised the customer cap from 8 to 10 per dealer. New to the game? Start with our Schedule I beginner’s guide first.
Quick Start: Dealer Setup Checklist
Before diving into theory, here’s what to do first:
- Unlock your first dealer (Benji) by befriending Chloe, Ludwig, or Beth in Northtown — no rank required, $500 sign-on fee
- Open your phone → Dealers app → select Benji → tap + Assign Customer
- Assign 6–8 of your low-spending Northtown customers ($800/week or under) to him first
- Stock Benji’s inventory from your stash — he’ll sell anything he’s carrying automatically
- Keep your highest-spending customers (anyone at $1,200+/week) in your personal contact list for now
Verified on v0.4.3. Customer cap and commission rate may change in future updates — check patch notes if values differ.
How to Unlock All 6 Dealers
There’s one dealer per region of Hyland Point, and each one unlocks when you hit a rank milestone and establish a relationship with at least one of their local contacts. The relationship step matters: you can’t just walk up to a dealer with the right rank and pay — you need a referral first. Sell a contact their preferred product, give fair prices, and wait for the introduction text.
| Dealer | Region | Location | Rank Required | Sign-On Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benji Coleman | Northtown | Motel Room 2 | None | $500 |
| Molly Presley | Westville | Brown Apartment | Hoodlum I | $1,000 |
| Brad Crosby | Downtown | Parking Garage | Hustler I | $2,000 |
| Jane Lucero | Docks | Docks RV | Enforcer I | $3,000 |
| Wei Long | Suburbia | Suburbia Shack | Block Boss I | $4,000 |
| Leo Rivers | Uptown | Near the Church | Baron I | $5,000 |
Sign-on fees are a one-time cost. The 20% commission that comes after is ongoing and applies to every sale a dealer makes — so prioritize hiring Benji early, where the fee is low and the payback period is short. Benji’s $500 fee pays itself back the moment he completes a handful of sales for you.
Your phone’s Maps feature marks “Potential Dealer” NPCs in new regions, so you can identify who to find before you even have the rank to hire them.
Assigning Customers: Step by Step
Customer assignment happens entirely through the Dealers app on your in-game phone. Here’s the exact flow:
- Open phone → navigate to the Dealers app
- Select the dealer you want to manage
- Scroll to the bottom of their customer list and tap + Assign Customer
- This button only appears when the dealer has fewer than 10 customers assigned
- Choose from your contact list — only customers not already assigned elsewhere will appear
- Repeat until the dealer has 6–10 customers depending on your strategy (see below)
You don’t need to list products as “for sale” separately. Any product sitting in a dealer’s inventory gets sold automatically. That includes bricks and jars — dealers convert them to the appropriate sale quantity on their own. Stock them once, and they handle the rest.
One thing most players miss: dealers sell at the game’s fair price, not the price you set in the Products app. Your personal markup (typically around 1.4× fair price) doesn’t apply to dealer sales. That means the real cost of using a dealer isn’t just the 20% cut — it’s the 20% cut on a lower base price than what you’d charge personally. Factor this in when deciding who to assign.
The Customer Tier System: Who to Keep, Who to Hand Off
Not all customers are equal. Schedule I has roughly 69 customers spread across six regions, and their weekly spending capacity varies from around $500 to $2,000. The tier you’re interested in for dealer assignment is the bottom two-thirds.
| Tier | Weekly Spend | Examples | Assignment Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uptown Elite | ~$2,000 | Fiona Hancock, Herbert Bleuball, Ray Hoffman, Walter Cussler | Keep for personal sales |
| Suburban Premium | ~$1,200 | Alison Knight, Carl Bundy, Geraldine Poon, Jessi Waters | Keep if possible — assign to Leo or Wei if slots are tight |
| George Greene | ~$1,400 | George Greene (Westville) | Keep personally — outlier mid-tier spender worth direct attention |
| Mid Spenders | $800–$1,000 | Most Northtown and Docks customers | Assign to dealers |
| Low Spenders | ~$500 | Kathy Henderson, Donna Martin, Peggy Myers | Priority for dealer assignment |
The logic behind keeping high spenders: when you sell personally, you charge your full marked-up price and earn full XP. A customer spending $2,000 per week at your 1.4× markup generates significantly more than what a dealer would net after their fair-price sale and 20% cut. At the $2,000/week tier, giving that customer to a dealer costs you roughly $400 in commission plus the markup gap — that’s a meaningful weekly loss at scale.
Conversely, a $500/week low spender handled personally ties up your time for minimal return. Assign them to Benji and move on.
The 20% Cut: Real Cost and When Dealers Pay Off
The math on the 20% cut is straightforward, but the pricing mechanic makes it less obvious than it looks:
- Personal sale: Fair price × 1.4 markup = 100% of revenue to you
- Dealer sale: Fair price × 1.0 (no markup) × 0.80 (after 20% cut) = 80% of fair price to you
If the fair price for a product is $100, your personal sale brings in $140. A dealer sale on the same product brings you $80. That’s a $60-per-unit gap, not just a $28 gap that a naive “20% of $140” calculation would suggest.
So why use dealers at all? Three reasons: time, risk, and hours of operation.
- You have limited hours in a game day. A dealer handles 10 customers while you sleep, skip curfew, or focus on production
- Dealers cannot be arrested. Every personal sale near a cop is a risk dealers never face
- Dealers sell during curfew and near police checkpoints — times when personal sales aren’t possible or are heavily risky
The break-even point: if a customer orders infrequently enough that you could handle them personally without losing production time, keep them. If you’re already maxing your personal capacity and a customer would go unserved otherwise, assign them — 80% of fair price beats 0%. See our Schedule I money guide for the full revenue optimization breakdown beyond dealers.
How Many Dealers for Your Operation?
Hiring all six dealers immediately isn’t optimal. The sign-on fees ($500–$5,000) add up to $15,500 total, and each dealer needs inventory to sell. Scaling gradually as your operation grows keeps cash flow positive.
| Operation Stage | Customer Count | Recommended Dealers | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early (Northtown only) | 5–15 customers | 1 (Benji only) | Low volume; personal sales cover most customers efficiently |
| Growing (Westville unlocked) | 15–30 customers | 2–3 (Benji + Molly + Brad) | Geographic spread makes personal delivery inefficient |
| Mid-game (Docks + Suburbia) | 30–50 customers | 4–5 | Curfew sales and checkpoint areas need dealer coverage |
| Late-game (Uptown) | 50+ customers | All 6 | Leo Rivers covers Uptown Elite customers you can’t handle alone |
A note on Leo Rivers specifically: his $5,000 sign-on fee is the highest in the game, but Uptown customers are also the highest spenders ($2,000/week). This creates a strategic tension — Leo’s customers are exactly the ones you’d rather serve personally. The practical resolution: use Leo for Uptown customers in the $800–$1,200 range who would otherwise go unserved during curfew, and keep the $2,000/week Uptown Elite in your personal rotation.
Dealer Advantages Over Personal Sales
The economics of dealers look worse on paper than they are in practice because three dealer advantages don’t show up in a simple revenue calculation:
No arrest risk. A dealer near a police checkpoint generates zero heat for you. Every personal sale in a hot zone risks a bust — and a single arrest can cost more than weeks of dealer commissions.
Curfew operations. Curfew locks you out of personal sales entirely. Dealers keep selling. If you have customers active during curfew hours, a dealer is the only way to capture that revenue.
Passive order fulfillment. Dealers fill orders automatically without you touching your phone. This compounds when you’re doing production runs, sleeping in-game, or focusing on relationship-building with new customers. They work when you can’t. Pair dealers with automated production and packaging — our Schedule I automation guide covers how to build a near-hands-free operation.
Location doesn’t matter much. Testing shows dealer location has minimal impact on sales speed — they effectively travel to customers regardless of map distance. You don’t need to position dealers strategically; just assign the right customers and stock the inventory.
Player-Type Routing: What to Prioritize
| Player Type | Dealer Strategy | Keep Personally | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casual / Low-time | Assign all but top 5–6 customers to dealers; check in once per session to restock | Your 5 highest spenders only | Over-managing dealer inventory daily |
| Active grinder | Use dealers for low/mid tiers only; handle $1,200+ personally for XP and markup | All $1,200+/week customers | Giving high-spenders to dealers — big money loss |
| Expansion-focused | Hire dealers in every region ASAP; prioritize coverage over optimization | Uptown Elite only ($2,000+) | Waiting to hire Leo — Uptown needs coverage early |
| Risk-averse | Assign all customers in police-heavy zones (Downtown, Docks) to dealers regardless of spend tier | Northtown and Westville customers you can serve safely | Personal sales near active police checkpoints |
FAQ
Can I reassign a customer from one dealer to another?
Yes — open the Dealers app, select the dealer, tap the customer you want to remove, and unassign them. They go back to your general contact list and can be reassigned to a different dealer or returned to personal sales. There’s no cooldown or penalty for reassigning.
Do dealers sell at my set price or the fair price?
Fair price only. The price you configure in your Products app affects personal sales through your store and direct phone orders — dealers ignore it entirely. This is the single most misunderstood mechanic in the dealer system, and it’s why the real cost of dealer commission is higher than the 20% headline figure suggests.
What happens if I sell to a customer already assigned to a dealer?
Avoid this. Selling personally to a customer assigned to your dealer can cause issues with dealer fulfillment and reduce how reliably the dealer handles their orders. Keep your personal sales roster and dealer roster strictly separate.
Do I need to keep dealers stocked, or do they restock automatically?
You need to stock them manually — dealers don’t pull from your main stash automatically. Visit each dealer periodically and transfer product from your inventory to theirs. How often depends on how active their customers are; a dealer with 10 mid-spending customers might need restocking every 2–3 in-game days.
Can a dealer get arrested or lose product?
No. Dealers are arrest-immune and operate risk-free near police. This is their biggest advantage over personal sales in high-heat areas. They can operate during curfew and near checkpoints with zero consequences to your operation.
Sources
- Schedule 1 Best Dealer Setup: All 6 Dealers, Customer Assignments & Profit Optimization (2026) — TechsNGames
- Schedule 1: How to Get All Dealers — BisectHosting
- Best Schedule 1 Customers for Dealers — Dexerto
- Schedule 1 Customer Spending List — Schedule-1-Calculator
- Schedule 1: How to Get Dealers — Gameranx
- Everything You Need to Know About Schedule 1 Dealers — LagoFast