How Many Yards of Concrete Are in a Truck?

Concrete truck capacity and dimensions at a glance

The short answers, before the reasons. These are the figures people are usually after when they ask what a mixer truck holds or whether one will fit.

Every figure in that table is sourced below, and the two that surprise people most are the capacity and the empty weight. A mixer truck weighs about 30,000 pounds before any concrete goes in, which is why the rated drum capacity and the load a truck can legally carry on a given road are different numbers.

Why a truck rarely runs completely full

Two constraints bite, and the second one bites harder.

First, the drum can only be filled to 63 percent. This is not a guideline, it is how a mixer is rated. NRMCA's vehicle inspection requirements state that a truck's rating as a mixer, in volume of mixed concrete, "does not exceed 63 percent of the gross volume of the mixer." As an agitator, carrying concrete already mixed at a central plant, the limit rises to 80 percent. Compliance is shown by the rating plate from the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau on the drum. So a truck rated at 10 yards has a drum with room for roughly 16 yards of space, and the empty part is what lets the blades actually mix.

Second, weight. Concrete weighs 140 to 150 pounds per cubic foot, which works out at roughly 3,780 to 4,050 pounds a cubic yard, or about two tons. Ten yards is therefore around 40,000 pounds of concrete before you count the truck. The federal limits are 80,000 pounds gross, 20,000 pounds on a single axle and 34,000 on a tandem, with the bridge formula governing axle groups.

NRMCA's own worked example shows how tight that is. A three-axle ready-mix truck is limited to 48,000 pounds under federal weight limits, and "only 18,000 lbs. (out of a potential 40,000 lbs.) is productive payload; 30,000 lbs. is the tare weight of the truck." Eighteen thousand pounds of payload at roughly 4,000 pounds a yard is about four and a half cubic yards, against a drum rated for nine to twelve. That is the gap that explains everything: mixer trucks are heavy before they are loaded, which is why operators add extra lift and pusher axles, and why a fully loaded truck is often kept off the Interstate and routed onto local roads.

Add it up for a 10-yard load: about 40,000 pounds of concrete on a 30,000 pound truck is roughly 70,000 pounds gross, inside the 80,000 pound federal cap but only if the load is spread across enough axles to satisfy the per-axle limits. State rules vary too. Texas, for example, legislates specifically for ready-mix trucks, allowing 46,000 pounds on a tandem axle and 23,000 on a single, with a permit ceiling of 69,000 pounds gross. Those numbers match the axle ratings on the mixer trucks built to serve that market.

Truck types and capacity

Manufacturer figures back up the middle of that table. One front-discharge model publishes an 11 cubic yard drum with a 46 inch opening on four axles, rated at 23,000 pounds on the front axle and 46,000 on the tandem. Another maker offers 9 to 12 cubic yard rated mixers and sells a dedicated bridge-formula product line with pusher axles, which is manufacturer evidence that weight law shapes the truck.

Volumetric trucks are worth knowing about if your pour is small or awkward. They carry cement, aggregate and water separately and batch on site under computer control, so mixing starts on arrival rather than at the plant. The main US manufacturer's mid-range unit produces up to 60 cubic yards an hour and carries 8 to 10 yards of materials, so the capacity is comparable to a drum mixer. The difference is commercial: you pay for what is actually discharged, which is why one volumetric operator advertises no minimum order at all.

A dump truck is not a concrete truck, and the two get confused because both are measured in yards. A dump truck hauls loose material, dirt, gravel or aggregate, and its capacity is a volume of loose stone rather than a drum rating. If you are sizing a base course rather than a pour, the gravel calculator is the one you want.

Be skeptical of capacity claims above 12 yards. The rated ceiling in manufacturer literature is 12 cubic yards, and the higher figures that circulate online are not supported by any spec sheet we could find.

Truck size, access and chute reach

The practical question is not how big the truck is but whether it can get to your forms.

Mixer manufacturers do not publish overall length or turning radius in their spec sheets, which is why most writing on this works from the legal envelope instead. Ready-mix suppliers do publish them, because their drivers are the ones who have to get down your driveway. Cemstone publishes a truck dimensions sheet covering both body styles:

Two width figures appear on this page and both are useful. The federal cap on commercial vehicle width is 102 inches, which is 8 feet 6 inches, and there is no federal height limit, with state limits generally running from 13 feet 6 inches to 14 feet. The supplier's own planning sheet says to allow 9 feet 6 inches. Plan your access on the larger number. Whatever the regulation measures, the figure a supplier gives its own dispatchers is the one that reflects what the truck actually occupies on the way in.

That 37 foot turn radius is the one most people never think about and the one that most often decides the answer. A truck that fits down a driveway in a straight line still has to turn around at the end of it, or back the full length out.

So: measure the narrowest point of the approach, look up at branches and wires for 14 feet of clear height, check there is somewhere to turn, and confirm all three with your supplier before the day rather than on it.

Reach is set by the chute. Chute sections are 4 feet each, a figure confirmed by mixer manufacturers' own equipment lists, and a standard rear-discharge truck carries three. That gives roughly 18 feet of reach from the back bumper with the chutes straight out. Swing the chute to one side and reach falls to about 12 feet. Pouring down into a basement costs roughly a third of it. A custom 16 foot extension can take the total to about 34 feet. Those working figures come from a contractor source rather than a manufacturer specification, so treat them as practical planning numbers.

If the truck cannot reach, the options are a pump, at $150 to $250 an hour for a line pump or $200 to $300 for a boom, usually with a minimum covering the first 2 to 4 hours, or wheelbarrows inside your free unloading time. Our ready-mix delivery guide covers access, pumping and washout in full.

What a mixer truck costs, if you are wondering: a valuation guide puts new standard mixers at $100,000 to $150,000, new volumetric trucks from $120,000, new pump trucks at $200,000 to $300,000, and used units at $30,000 to $150,000 depending on age and condition. That is a single source which contradicts itself slightly on the new-truck range, and no manufacturer publishes list prices, so treat it as an order of magnitude rather than a quote.

Short-load fees and partial trucks

You do not have to buy a full 10 yards, and most homeowners do not. The industry's own average delivery is 8.5 yards, so partial loads are normal rather than exceptional.

The catch is the short-load fee, and its structure matters more than its headline size. Cost sites put it at $40 to $60 per yard under the minimum, which sounds punishing on a 3-yard pour. The suppliers who publish an actual policy tend to charge a flat fee instead: $100 or the value of the shortfall, whichever is less, in one case, and $50 to $150 on orders of 1 to 5 yards in another. Some plants have no minimum at all. Ask how yours calculates it before you assume a small pour is uneconomic.

The lesson is not to avoid partial loads. It is to avoid ordering an awkward amount. Combining two small pours into one delivery, or nudging a project up to a rounder number, often saves the fee outright.

How many trucks will your job need?

With about 10 yards per truck as a full load, divide your total yards by 10 to get the truck count. A typical driveway or patio fits in one truck with room to spare. You only get into multiple trucks on large slabs, foundations and commercial work.

One thing to plan for on a multi-truck pour: each load carries its own discharge clock and its own unloading allowance of 5 to 7 minutes per yard, so trucks are scheduled to arrive in sequence rather than all at once. Tell the plant how fast you can take concrete based on how you are placing it.

To know exactly how many yards you are ordering, measure the pour and run it through the concrete yardage calculator first, then add the 4 to 10 percent overage the industry recommends. A firm number tells the supplier whether you are one truck or several, and tells you whether a short-load fee is in play. For what the concrete itself costs, see concrete price per yard.