Since they are going to add off islands mobile teleports its possible calculate distance from each terminal in km, but I think it should be still narrowed to island you are currently on.

please be patient with the wall of text.  I think I've had a good idea here

    Setting up buy orders remotely (distance determined by skill)

    Adjusting orders from a distance (only same station by default)

Could easily be tied to corp relations levels; perhaps adding a skill which allows you to contract other players to complete missions for you. Something like Contract Management.

e.g.; you accept a Combat Mission and then hire mercs to complete said mission for you.  You get a bonus to your relations for completeing the mission but suffer no negative rep that may have otherwise been associated with the mission.  A skill like this could be very usefull for those who wish to opperate on both Alpha and Beta islands as traders; allowing 100% relations status with all three major Corps. 

This kind of skill could be used as a prerequisit for the above mentioned extended trade skills.  Insofar as those extended trade skills go; just make them a matter of invested EP.  You need Basic Robotics 4 to use an Assault Bot; implement a similer scale of bonus for EP invested or perhaps allow the stations 'colour/type' and the associated level of Agent influence/standing to effect the number of stations of that kind which can be traded at using the proposed 'extended trade network' skill. 

The Agent would then have to choose some stations (up to 10) at which he can trade remotly but the 'slot cost' of each station would depent on the Agents relationship level. E.g.: you have Extended Trade: 10, you have 100% relations with ICS, 66% with TM and 33% with Asintec. So, you could choose 1 Asintec outpost(3), 2 TM Outposts(2,2) and 3 ICS Outposts(1,1,1).  Of course if you've invested in skills which allow you to build max reputation with all three you can build a real trade network, remotely trading at 10 different stations.

Now, I know player corps can own outposts and limit the availablity of said outposts to other players... these skills would make trade and diplomacy a more important aspect of player vs. player economics.  Take the above example and change it to;  you have Extended Trade: 10, you have 100% relations with ICS, 66% with TM and 33% with Asintec.  You are neutral with CIR(no denoted coulour), friendly with TOG(blue) and wary of FOOM(yellow). So, you could choose 1 Asintec outpost or FOOM outpost(3), 2 TM Outposts or CIR Outposts(2,2) and 3 ICS Outposts or TOG Outposts(1,1,1).  Of course if you've invested in skills and in game relationships which allow you to build max reputation with all(and sundry) three you can build a real trade network, remotely trading at 10 different stations.

This would also allow corps to trade at outposts they could not dock at(when the new intrusion method is implemented) provided someone could get their goods there.  Might also be worth introducing an Advanced Economics(tax evasion) skill to supplement this. 

feedback?

A good secondary to this would be the more trade you do at a high relationship terminal the less tax you pay compared to the regular agent, hence the more your influance degrades.  Meaning you have to keep working to keep your level of influence high.  It would also be nice to see the actions of an Agent in game impact on their relationships status... they sell all of their plasma to TM... ICS and Asintec give them a nudge by dropping their relationship status a bit.

EDIT: edited to highlight the OP concepts I was expanding on