Haul distance to spoil

Definition

How far the trucks carry excavated material before they can legally dump it.

Why It Matters

Digging is quick and moving the dirt is the job. The distance to a site that will accept the material sets the cycle time for every truck on every load, so two jobs with identical excavation quantities can carry very different costs, and a contractor who has been dumping close by on a handshake is one phone call from a much longer haul. Ask where the spoil goes today, what the arrangement is, and what the next-nearest option would do to the cycle, because that number is the estimating assumption underneath the whole bid book.