Dump truck
hire rates.
Indicative hire rates per hour for off-road dump trucks — site dumpers, Hydrema swivel dumpers and CAT articulated dump trucks, 6 to 36.3 tonne payload.
Dump truck hire rates in Australia
Dump trucks are the haulage half of bulk earthworks. Unlike tippers they are not road registered, so they work inside the site boundary — cut to fill, stockpile shuttles, haul roads a road truck would bog on. They are sold on rated payload rather than body tonnage, and they are wet hired with an operator. The benchmarks below run from a 6 tonne site dumper to a CAT 740, from the same data behind our machine hire rate calculator.
Indicative hire rates
| Size | Dry hire | Wet hire* | Wet day (8 hr)* |
|---|---|---|---|
| DW60 Site Dumper (6 t payload) | $23/hr | $105–$120/hr | $860–$980 |
| S9T Site Dumper (9 t payload) | $26/hr | $120–$135/hr | $950–$1,070 |
| Hydrema 912G (12 t payload) | $50/hr | $155–$170/hr | $1,240–$1,360 |
| Hydrema 922G (20 t payload) | $86/hr | $225–$245/hr | $1,800–$1,960 |
| CAT 725 (24 t payload) | $131/hr | $295–$315/hr | $2,370–$2,530 |
| CAT 730 (28 t payload) | $152/hr | $335–$355/hr | $2,690–$2,850 |
| CAT 735 (32 t payload) | $176/hr | $390–$410/hr | $3,110–$3,270 |
| CAT 740 (36.3 t payload) | $212/hr | $445–$465/hr | $3,560–$3,720 |
Dump trucks are wet hired with an operator; dry rates shown for completeness. Wet hire shown at $2.00/L diesel and a typical operator rate band for the machine — put your own fuel price and operator rate into the machine hire calculator for an exact figure. Indicative benchmarks, ex GST, guide only.
Choosing the truck for the haul
Site dumpers (6–9 tonne) work with a trench crew — bedding, spoil and backfill shuttled a few hundred metres, in sites too tight for anything bigger. The Hydremas (12 and 20 tonne) are the middle ground: full off-road capability with a turning circle that still fits a subdivision. The CAT 725 to 740 are bulk earthworks plant — they only pay for themselves behind a loading tool big enough to fill them in three to five passes.
What moves the price: haul length and grade, how long the truck waits at the loading tool, the state of the haul road, float costs on and off site, and minimum engagements. Fleet balance matters more than the hourly rate — one truck too few and the excavator idles, one too many and the truck queues. Material leaving site is a separate cartage line with road tippers and tip fees on top.
Frequently asked questions
How much does dump truck hire cost per hour?
Indicatively, a small site dumper runs about $105–$135/hr wet hire, the Hydrema class about $155–$245/hr, and a CAT articulated dump truck about $295–$465/hr — roughly $860 to $3,720 for an 8 hour day. All of them are wet hired with an operator.
What is a moxy?
A moxy is an articulated off-road dump truck — the CAT 725 to 740 at the bottom of our table. It hauls bulk material inside a site where road trucks can't legally or practically run: soft ground, steep haul roads, large cut-to-fill earthworks. None of these machines are road registered, so material leaving site still needs tippers.
Site dumper or articulated dump truck?
Match the truck to the loading tool and the haul road. A 6 to 9 tonne site dumper suits a trench crew working off a 13 to 20 tonne excavator in a confined site. The Hydremas suit medium earthworks and tight haul roads where a full ADT won't turn. The CAT 725 and up only earn their rate on bulk earthworks with a big loading tool behind them — an ADT waiting on a small excavator is the most expensive idle plant on site.
Why is payload quoted instead of body size?
Tippers are sold by body tonnage; off-road dump trucks are sold by rated payload, which is what you actually cart. Work your cycle on payload and material density, not on struck body volume, or a bulky low-density spoil will fill the bowl long before it reaches the rated tonnes.
More rate guides: excavators, tipper trucks, water carts, rollers, loaders, graders, dozers, scrapers, asphalt pavers, asphalt profilers, backhoes & skid steers. Or price any of 93 machines in the machine hire rate calculator.
Pricing the whole job?
Machine rates are one line in a real estimate. For water, sewer or stormwater work priced end to end, send the drawings. Acknowledged within two hours during AEST business.