Truck Haul Cycle Time Calculator

Measure the actual route, not the straight line. A haul road that climbs is slower loaded than empty, which the separate speeds below capture.

Average over the whole haul including acceleration and any restriction, not the truck's top speed. On a rough or rising haul road this is often half what people assume.

An average over the WHOLE return leg — including the gate, any junction and the slow section near the loader — not a speed the truck reaches somewhere along it. Running empty is faster than loaded but by less than people expect: the return is downhill only if the haul was uphill, and site speed limits apply in both directions regardless of what is in the body.

Loader bucket passes times cycle time. This is what the whole fleet is ultimately limited by — no number of trucks beats the loader's rate.

A FIXED cost per cycle, which is why it dominates a short haul and almost disappears on a long one — and why the layout of the tipping area repays attention most on exactly the jobs where the haul distance is shortest. Include any queueing at the dump: a single spotter working one truck at a time turns waiting into part of this figure whether it is measured there or not.

Loose measure, as hauled. Bank volume from a cut is smaller by the swell factor, so a bank-measure job needs more trips than its volume suggests.

The number that can actually be SERVED, not the number parked on site. If the loader cannot fill trucks faster than they come back, the extra ones queue instead of moving material, and the cycle time stops describing the job — it describes the loader. Matching the fleet to the loader is the whole point of the calculation, so putting an aspirational number here defeats it.

Fifty is a good day. Breaks, refuelling, waiting on the dump, weather and plant moves all come out of the hour, and assuming sixty is the fastest way to a programme nobody can hit.