Truck load and haulage calculator.
Work out how many truck loads and round trips your haulage job needs. Enter the loose volume for each load, & this truck load calculator will find the number of loads against your truck capacity and fill factor, plus totals across every row. Add a cycle time and working day length to also get loads per day and days needed. This calculator uses loose (bulked) volume, not bank volume, so convert with our Soil Bulking & Swell Factor calculator first if you're starting from a cut or fill volume from our Cut & Fill Calculator.
Drop an Excel or CSV file or to replace the table below.
Column A: item or location. Column B: loose (bulked) volume to haul for that row. Truck capacity, fill factor, cycle time and working hours are shared — set them once below.
Parsed entirely in your browser — your file is never uploaded to our servers.
| Item | Volume to haul (loose) (m³) | Loads () | Row actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | |||
| — | |||
| — |
How we calculate this.
Work out how many truck loads and round trips your haulage job needs. Enter the loose volume for each load, & this truck load calculator will find the number of loads against your truck capacity and fill factor, plus totals across every row. Add a cycle time and working day length to also get loads per day and days needed. This calculator uses loose (bulked) volume, not bank volume, so convert with our Soil Bulking & Swell Factor calculator first if you're starting from a cut or fill volume from our Cut & Fill Calculator.
For each row: effective capacity = truck capacity × fill factor, loads = ceil(row volume ÷ effective capacity) — rounded up per row, then summed, since a part-load on one item can't combine with a part-load on another. If cycle time and working hours are entered: loads per day = (working hours × 60) ÷ cycle time, days needed = ceil(total loads ÷ loads per day).
| Assumption | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Default practical fill factor | 90 % | Typical practical load factor for heaped bulk materials, to avoid spillage or overloading — general plant & earthworks estimating practice; adjust for your material and truck. |
| Haulage volume basis | loose (bulked) measure, not bank measure | Convert a bank-measure volume first with the Soil Bulking & Swell Factor calculator. |
| Default cycle time / working day | 30 min per round trip / 8 hr day | Editable defaults — confirm against your actual haul-route distance and site working hours. |
| Multi-row rounding | each row rounded up to a whole load, then summed | Loads are computed per row (ceil), not from the summed volume across rows — a part-load on one item and a part-load on another can't physically share a truck, so combining them before rounding would understate the load count. |
This is an early-appraisal planning estimate, not a quotation or a substitute for a surveyed takeoff. Last reviewed 5 Aug 2026.
Loose (bulked) volume — the volume material actually occupies once excavated. Use the Soil Bulking & Swell Factor calculator first if you're starting from a bank-measure cut/fill volume.
Use the manufacturer's heaped capacity rating if available; otherwise estimate body length × width × heaped height using a reasonable angle of repose for the material.
Yes — enter a cycle time (time for one full round trip, including loading, travel and tipping) and your working hours per day to get an estimated loads-per-day and days-needed figure across every row.
Each row is rounded up to a whole load independently before the rows are summed, because in practice a part-load of one item and a part-load of a different item on a different day or from a different stockpile usually can't share the same truck run. If they genuinely can (same material, same day), enter them as one combined row instead.
Yes — click or drop an Excel (.xlsx/.xls) or CSV file onto the upload area. The first column should be an item name and the second the measurement for that row; extra columns this calculator uses are read too if present. The file is parsed entirely in your browser — it's never uploaded to our servers. Download the blank template first if you're not sure of the layout.
Yes — use the metric/imperial switch above the calculator. Values you've already entered convert automatically; nothing is lost switching back and forth.
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