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The Civil Fleets are one of the three components of the [[Imperial Fleet]].{{Fn|1}}
The civil fleets contain privately-owned interstellar craft operating along routes licensed by the fleet authorities.{{Fn|1}} Although the vast majority of interstellar spacecraft are part of the [[Merchant Fleet]]s, there are several thousand ships registered to individuals, families or trading cartels. All privately-owned interstellar craft operate along routes licensed to them by the fleet authorities responsible for shipping within that [[Segmentum]]. The route licences must be bought and must be renewed after a fixed time, usually a hundred years. This means a few privately owned ships like to risk the effects of time dilation on long journeys. A ; a license may run out before the ship has completed its journey.{{Fn|1}}
Civil fleets usually bid for route licences as they come up, the route going to the fleet prepared to pay the most for it. This system enables the [[Imperium]] to maintain routes which, for whatever reason, it finds inconvenient to service from its own craft. As well as route voyages, the fleet administation also issues one-off licences for single trips. Many of the smaller fleets manage to survive entirely in a hand-to-mouth fashion reliant on one-off licences.{{Fn|2}}
