I may be posting in wrong place, but, I've tried hiring carriages in several cities, the first time, I tried to go to a town I had not yet been to, so thought, that was why the carriage wouldn't move. So, I decided to go from Riften to Whiterun, I pay my gold, go to the back of the carriage and use activate to climb aboard. At that point, nothing happens, I can get in and out of the carriage, and all the guys says is, "Are you ready to go?". I've tried every key I could think of, only thing I accomplish is getting in and out. lol. So, do they just not work? Or, am I missing something?

Are you using any mods?

Make sure you're not over-encumbered. Carriages, unlike horses, won't work if you are.

Bingo, that was it, it happened to me to. ^ +1
I thought I'd be smart and use the carriage since I couldn't fast-travel and no, doesn't work.

Kinda makes you wonder why carriages even exist.

Ah, okay. Thank you so much. I was really getting tired of literally walking to get to a town to sell junk. It really svcks that the npcs are broke, even in Skyrim, there's a recession.

i believe there is a mod that increases npc gold in the world. By 1k, 2k??? not sure
Or you can get a mod that reduces prices worldwide as well as its worth, but the NPC base gold stays the same.

A. You must return to a merchant at least 48hrs (game time) after you last viewed his wares in order for him to be restocked with supplies & gold (GP). If you see his wares before that, then the timer is reset.

B. You know how to "fast travel", right? You just click on the map, on the white Icon you want to go to. There in seconds, real-time.

C. If you trade (look at his wares) W/a merchant, and then load a previous game, that 48hr timer is reset for that (those) merchant(s) and they will be broke if you go there sooner. The way to avoid that:

1. After looking at a merchant's wares, and suppose you want to start over from an earlier save:

2. Load a much earlier game elsewhere.

3. Exit to desktop.

4. Restart Skyrim.

5. Load your game save that was just before you looked at a merchants wares. Then he will have the same GP as before - not necessarily the same items though.

If you do not follow a similar set of steps than this, or if you exit to desktop before loading an earlier save, your merchant will be broke for another 48hrs! Apparently when you exit the game it modifies your last save with some GP info (not always accurate, sometimes it just zeros it) of the merchants you traded with recently, and the timer info. When you load a much earlier game before exiting, this prevents this from happening to your latest save. It is apparently an anti-cheat method.
GL.

The only real use I have for them is to get to major towns if I haven't been there before. Once I've visited every major town, I have no need for them because I can use fast travel at no cost.

Bethesda was originally going to make carriages move similar to the opening sequence (Look in Creation Kit), but apparently had issues/time constraints. I attempted to make this work using their existing work, but issues like path finding and havok made any practical solution difficult.