Zerdly

Spoil Haulage Calculator

Work out how many truck loads it takes to cart away excavated spoil. The calculator bulks the in-situ (bank) volume up to a loose volume, divides by the truck body capacity, and — if you add a cycle time and shift length — estimates how many trucks you need and how long the haul takes.

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How to use this calculator

Enter Values

Enter your values and press Calculate to see results.

Before you rely on this: First-pass guide only. Verify safety-critical or regulated work against the relevant standards, your project requirements and a qualified professional.

How to use this calculator

  1. Enter the bank (in-situ) excavated volume in cubic metres.
  2. Set the swell/bulking factor (default 25%) — how much the soil expands once dug.
  3. Set the truck body capacity in loose cubic metres (default 10).
  4. Optionally add the round-trip cycle time (minutes) and working hours to estimate trucks required and total haul time.

How it works

Excavated soil bulks up, so the loose volume you actually transport is bank × (1 + swell/100). Dividing that by the truck's loose capacity and rounding UP gives the number of loads, because a part-load still needs a whole truck run: loads = ceil(loose / capacity). With a cycle time (load + haul + tip + return) and a shift length, one truck can complete floor(hours × 60 / cycle) loads per shift, so the fleet size is ceil(total loads / loads-per-truck). The total haul time shown is for a single truck doing every load back to back.

Worked example

Worked example. Excavating 200 m³ of bank material at 25% swell gives 200 × 1.25 = 250 m³ loose. With 10 m³ trucks that is ceil(250 / 10) = 25 loads. At a 30-minute cycle over an 8-hour shift each truck manages floor(8 × 60 / 30) = 16 loads, so you need ceil(25 / 16) = 2 trucks; one truck alone would take 25 × 30 / 60 = 12.5 hours.

Common mistakes

  • Dividing the bank (in-situ) volume by the truck capacity directly. You must bulk it up to loose volume first, or you will order too few loads.
  • Assuming trucks are volume-limited when they may be mass-limited. Heavy or wet spoil can hit the legal payload before the body is full, so check both volume and weight.
  • Ignoring the cycle time when sizing a fleet. Haul distance, tip turnaround and traffic drive the cycle, and a longer cycle means more trucks for the same volume in the same shift.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the loose volume bigger than what I excavate?

Undisturbed ground is denser than a broken-up spoil heap. When you dig it, the soil swells and picks up voids, so the loose volume that goes in the truck is larger than the in-situ (bank) volume you removed — typically 10–30% larger depending on the material.

What truck capacity should I use?

Use the truck body's loose (heaped or struck) capacity, commonly around 6–10 m³ for a tandem tipper and more for larger trucks and trailers. Confirm the figure with your haulage contractor, and remember the legal mass limit may cap the payload below the full body volume.

How is the number of trucks calculated?

The tool estimates how many loads one truck can do in a shift as floor(working hours × 60 / cycle time), then divides the total loads by that and rounds up. It assumes every truck works the same cycle continuously; real productivity is lower once you allow for breaks, queuing at the excavator and delays at the tip.

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