Dirt hauling calculator
How many loads, how many trips, and how many truck hours to move it.
In-situ volume, straight off the takeoff
Unlocks loose volume and everything downstream
The legal payload check
Both of these, and the weight limit is checked against the volume limit
Fleet and cycle
Turns loads into hours
Cycle time
Breaking the cycle down is what lets the result name the bottleneck.
Waiting at the loader or the scale — often the largest part
Truck loads
Enter a bank volume, a swell factor and a truck capacity.
- Loose volume
- —
- Total weight
- —
- Trips per truck
- —
- Truck hours
- —
- Elapsed time
- —
- Fleet loads per hour
- —
Needs bank volume and a swell factor
Needs a loose density
Needs how many trucks you are running
Needs a round-trip cycle time
Needs truck count and cycle time
Needs truck count and cycle time
How this is calculated
Hauling is counted in loose cubic yards, because that is the state the material is in once it is in the truck. Bank volume is converted first, using the swell factor you supply, and every figure below follows from that.
- Loose volume
loose = bank × (1 + swell%)
No default. Swell depends on the material, its moisture and how it is dug.
- Loads by volume
⌈loose ÷ truck capacity⌉
Rounded up. A partial load still sends a truck down the road.
- Loads by weight
⌈(loose × density ÷ 2,000) ÷ payload tons⌉
Only calculated when you give both a density and a legal payload. One short ton is exactly 2,000 lb.
- Load count
max(loads by volume, loads by weight)
The binding constraint wins, and the screen tells you which one it was.
- Truck hours
loads × cycle time
Total time across the fleet. This is the figure you cost against an hourly truck rate.
- Elapsed time
⌈loads ÷ trucks⌉ × cycle time
Wall-clock duration. Three trucks do not make the haul three times shorter once the last round is uneven.
What it does not know
- Volume in a body is not the same as legal payload. Give a density and a payload limit and the weight constraint is checked; without them, the load count assumes the truck can legally carry a full body.
- Axle configuration, seasonal road postings and permit limits decide what you can actually run. None of that is in here.
- Cycle time is the number that moves this calculation most, and it is the one that varies most — haul distance, traffic, spotting, queueing at the dump. Use a time you have measured on a comparable haul.
- Struck versus heaped capacity is your call. Enter whichever one your cycle time was measured against.