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Truck Haul Cycle Time Calculator

Cycle time, hourly production and fleet size for an earthmoving haul, including the queueing that decides whether extra trucks help.

Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Figures are presented for United States against IRC 2024, and every formula is cited under regulatory standards below.

Last verified 2026-08-27 · v1.0.0

Market
Imperial · sales tax

Hourly production

165.52 m³/h

Check your inputs

Match factor below 1 — the loader is standing idle waiting for trucks. Adding a truck will increase production.

Cycle time per truck
14.5 min
Loaded travel
6 min
Return travel
4 min
Match factor
0.83 ×
Trips per truck per hour
4.14 trips
Loader ceiling at 100% efficiency
240 m³/h
Trucks for a balanced fleet
4.83 trucks

For the dimensions entered, expect a hourly production of 166 m³/h. Of the working steps, loader ceiling at 100% efficiency dominates at 240 m³/h. Note that one-way haul distance (km) and load time (min) sit at the edge of the range this calculator was checked against, so treat the output as indicative rather than settled. Moderate confidence — sound arithmetic, but allow for the variation any real site introduces. Set for United States against IRC 2024. The market selector changes both the units and the code cited.

Add the equipment this sizes

This result is a specification — 165.517 m³/h — not a quantity. Put the thing it sizes into your project: how many, what you call it, and your supplier’s price.

Preliminary estimate, not certified engineering. This tool produces an indicative quantity calculation for planning purposes only — it is not a certified structural analysis, a guaranteed material takeoff, or a substitute for building department approval. Always verify measurements on-site and have a licensed contractor or structural engineer review any load-bearing, code-sensitive, or safety-critical work before purchasing materials or starting construction. Spotted an arithmetic or standards error? Report it to contact@craftquantities.com with your inputs — confirmed fixes become pinned regression tests.

[Schema Verified] Computed in alignment with American Concrete Institute (ACI 318-19) formulas and International Residential Code (IRC 2024) spatial boundaries.

Regulatory standards & verification citations

  • Cycle time = load + haul + dump + return + queue. Production = payload ÷ cycle time × efficiency
  • Match factor = (number of trucks × loader cycle time) ÷ truck cycle time; a factor of 1 balances the fleet against the loader

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Frequently asked questions

Why does adding trucks eventually stop helping?
Because the loader is the real constraint. Each truck must wait its turn to be filled, and once the fleet's arrival rate exceeds the loader's rate, extra trucks simply queue. The match factor tells you where you are: below 1 the loader is idle and another truck earns its keep; above 1 you are paying for a truck to sit in a line. The calculator caps production at the loader ceiling for exactly this reason.
Why fifty working minutes rather than sixty?
Because sixty does not happen. Breaks, refuelling, a plant move, rain, a queue at the tip and the shift change all come out of the hour. Fifty minutes is a well-run site; forty-five is common. A programme built on sixty is a programme that is already twenty percent late on day one.
Should I use bank or loose volume?
Loose, because that is what the truck carries. If your quantity comes from a cut-and-fill calculation it is bank measure, and material swells when excavated — commonly 10-25% for soils and more for rock. Using bank volume as payload understates the number of trips, and the error runs through the whole programme.