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Haul Truck Cycle Time Calculator

Work out haul truck cycle time instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Haul Truck Cycle Time Calculator

Haul cycle time is loaded travel plus empty return plus fixed time for spotting, loading, dumping and queueing. Trips per hour follows directly, and multiplying by payload gives fleet productivity. Fixed time dominates on short hauls, while road grade and rolling resistance dominate on long ones.

Formulas

Cycle time

Cycle = distance x 60 / loaded speed + distance x 60 / empty speed + fixed time

Productivity

Trips per hour = 60 / cycle time

Worked example

With the default values below, Haul Truck Cycle Time Calculator returns Total Cycle Time of 15.604. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

One-Way Haul Distanceminimum 0 km
2.5 km
Loaded Travel Speedminimum 0.01 km/h
22 km/h
Empty Return Speedminimum 0.01 km/h
35 km/h
Load, Dump And Manoeuvre Timeminimum 0 minutes
4.5 minutes

Results

Total Cycle Time
15.604
Trips Per Hour
3.845
Loaded Travel Time
6.818
Empty Return Time
4.286

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Cycle time
  3. 3Productivity
  4. 4Total Cycle Time= 15.604
  5. 5Trips Per Hour= 3.845
  6. 6Loaded Travel Time= 6.818
  7. 7Empty Return Time= 4.286

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the biggest cycle time gains?

Road maintenance and grade. Rolling resistance on a poorly maintained haul road can halve loaded speed, and every percent of adverse grade costs several kilometres per hour.

How many trucks does a loader need?

Match factor: trucks required = cycle time / loader loading time. Under-trucking idles the loader; over-trucking creates queues that inflate fixed time.

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