Allow players to finance an escort mission to deliver a specific number of cu's (perhaps capped at 200 cu) of a stations locally available commodities and ores to another station in the verse (except across enemy lines). Of course, normal stations would never allow average citizens to run weapons. Players could only put out one escort mission request at a time, but their usernames would stay anonymous in the posting. They would also need high enough reputation with the station.

Players would pay a price equal to the price of the commodities and ores being moved plus whatever reward a player would get for successfully defending an escort based on the number of cu's and the distance (plus whatever else goes into the current formula for the escort missions).

This would generate a mission on the mission board available for anyone else in the station to accept. In theory, the player could take the escort mission themselves and therefore recoup their escort fee and get the cargo they wanted moved. But if the player isn't paying attention, other players could snipe it first if they happened to be at the station and watching the boards.

If no player accepts the mission after 24 hours, it disappears and the inventory is placed back in the originating players station cargo (sorry no refunds, or maybe only the reward portion of the fee).

If a player accepts the mission, the commodities are loaded onto an appropriately sized escort (e.g., one moth/two centaurs) and the mission proceeds when the accepting player leaves the station. If the player doesn't undock within 5 minutes, they automatically fail it and the escort launches. This is to prevent players from taking someone else's escort mission and not undocking on purpose to prevent it from ever launching.

If the accepting player successfully makes it to the destination, they are paid a portion of the originating fee based on however escort missions are typically calculated. The cargo is deposited into the originating players station cargo. Obviously, no reward is given if the cargo doesn't make it or the player doesn't escort it at all.

What this would do immediately is functionally increase the number of cu's a player can move by 200 cus. Because it's limited to locally available commodities and ores, its primary use will be to help players with manufacturing, especially those who lack a capship. Hauling commodities and ores is a hugely tedious task, and trying to do it without someone with a capship to help you haul makes it daunting. This would provide some relief. It would also be a boon to commodity traders who knew of some lucrative trading routes. Players with capships would also benefit by being able to move the extra cargo, but would be limited by the fact that they have to match the speed of the escort. If players were to take a wide interest in generating these missions, there would be much more NPCs flying around space, making it look busy. And a lot more targets for pirates to choose from. And if we start to see more stations like latos N-2 with limited quantities of items, it would also create a natural limit on how much of a particular commodity could be moved at one time.

Also, it would make generating an Axia escort for that one mission trivially easier. It's not like it's that hard currently to just keep abandoning them.

How would you modify this? What are the pros and cons? What am I missing?

This has been discussed previously in several different forms. I recall the general consensus being good