Excavation Cost Per Trailer Load in Adelaide: What You're Actually Paying For

Per-load pricing has become the standard way Adelaide contractors price small excavation and site-clearing jobs, because it's the fairest way to charge for the part of the job that actually costs money: getting material off your site and disposing of it legally.

What's in a load

At AOI a trailer load is priced all-inclusive: the machine and operator's time to dig and load, cartage to a licensed facility, and the tip fees for that material. Our current published rate is on the booking page — no fuel surcharges or "tip fees extra" surprises on the invoice.

A standard heavy-duty trailer load carries roughly 2–2.5 cubic metres of material depending on what it is. Weight is usually the limit, not volume: wet clay and rubble hit legal weight limits well before the trailer looks full.

How many loads is my job?

Rough volumes for common Adelaide jobs, measured in the ground (material bulks up 20–30% once dug):

• Strip 100 m² of lawn, 100 mm deep: ~10 m³ in-ground → 5–6 loads
• Dig out a 6×3 m shed pad, 200 mm: ~3.6 m³ → 2 loads
• Old concrete path, 10 m × 1 m: ~1.2 m³ of rubble → 1 load (heavy!)
• Overgrown garden strip-out, small yard: typically 2–4 loads of green waste and soil
• Pool dig: you're off per-load pricing and into truck-and-trailer territory — get a quote

Green waste is bulky but light; clay is compact but heavy; concrete is both dense and awkward. That's why the same "one trailer" can hold a whole hedge or half a path.

Why disposal drives the price

Adelaide waste-levy and licensed-facility gate fees have risen steadily, and they differ sharply by material: clean fill is cheapest, green waste moderate, mixed general waste most expensive, and anything contaminated is a different world entirely (see our note on asbestos exclusions). Loads sorted by material at the point of digging cost less to tip — one of several reasons an experienced operator saves you money.

Booked loads and the scope rule

When you book online, the number of loads you pay for is the scope of the job — three loads means three loads. If we uncover more than expected (it happens: buried rubble, deeper fill than anyone knew), we stop, show you, and you approve any extra loads at the same published rate before they leave the site. You stay in control of the spend the whole way.

Price your job and book online — or if you're not sure how many loads you're looking at, send photos via the quote form and we'll tell you.