Soil & Fill Truckloads Calculator

This calculator works out how many truckloads of soil, fill, topsoil, bark or mulch you need to order in New Zealand, turning the area you want to cover into cubic metres and then into loads. Ordering bulk material is cheaper than bags for anything more than a small job, but it is easy to get the quantity wrong, and suppliers deliver by the cubic metre on trucks of different sizes, from a small 3 cubic metre tipper up to 9 or 12 cubic metre trucks. Order too little and you pay a second delivery fee; order too much and you have a pile blocking the drive. There is also compaction to think about: loose soil and fill settle once they are spread and walked or driven on, so you usually need to order a bit more than the finished volume, especially for structural fill and garden beds that you want to sit at a certain level after settling. You enter the area to cover, the depth you want once finished, a compaction allowance, and your truck size, and the calculator returns the finished volume, the volume to order after compaction, and the number of truckloads. This helps you place an accurate order, compare delivery options, and budget cartage, which is often the biggest part of the cost for bulk materials. It works just as well for garden soil and mulch as it does for building fill. Treat it as an estimate, since compaction and truck capacities vary, and confirm the load size and price with your supplier before ordering.

Loose materials settle, so a compaction allowance avoids ordering short. Cartage is often charged per load. An estimate only.