Caravan merchant (New California)

Caravan merchants are businessmen that travel the Core Region wasteland, carrying various goods for sale in the settlements they visit. They are usually large and well protected, often using brahmins and wagons made from wrecked automobiles to transport their stock. They are very influential and for many settlements, the only source of basic necessities.

Goods
The caravans carry pretty much anything that can be sold, as something that's taken for granted in one place may be a highly sought after commodity in a settlement 10 miles away (in the words of Rutger of the Far Go Traders). This includes water, chems, tires, guns, bullets, food, brahmin, dirt, even scraps of metal. The hub of all trader activity in the Core Region was the aptly named Hub, where the biggest merchant companies (Water Merchants, Far Go Traders and Crimson Caravans) had their headquarters.

As civilization rebuilt itself on the West Coast, other goods entered the circulation, gecko pelts, uranium ore, gold nuggets and even slaves. New Reno caravans also transported Jet and other drugs manufactured within city limits, while Vault City's traded exclusively in high tech medical supplies. The NCR emerged as the biggest supplier of brahmin on the West Coast, in addition to a myriad of other goods it produced.

Fallout 1
The Vault Dweller can hire himself as a guard for one of the caravan companies operating in downtown Hub.