Truck Trips Calculator

How many truck trips?

In earthworks the volume taken from the drawings is the bank volume of undisturbed ground. Excavated soil swells and goes on the truck at a larger volume. So first find the loose volume, then divide by what one truck carries:

loose volume = bank volume × (1 + swell)

trips = loose volume / volume carried per trip (rounded up)

Limited by volume or by weight?

Two things limit a truck: the volume of the body and the payload. Light material fills the body. Heavy material such as wet clay, rock or sand reaches the payload before the body is full. If you enter the loose density and the payload, the calculator uses the smaller of the two and tells you which one governs.

Example

200 m³ bank volume at 25 percent swell is 250 m³ loose. With a 14 m³ body that is 250 / 14 = 17.9, so 18 trips. With a 40 minute cycle and 4 trucks the job takes 18 × 40 / 4 = 180 minutes, or 3 hours.

If the loose density is 1600 kg/m³ and the payload 20 tonnes, a truck can take at most 12.5 m³ per trip and the count becomes 20.

Limits

Swell depends on the soil and body capacity on the vehicle. Both are your inputs. The duration assumes uninterrupted work. In practice loader output, traffic, waiting at the tip and breakdowns govern. Check legal weight limits separately.