Economic Haul Radius as Affected by Diesel Fuel Cost

摘要

The cost of diesel fuel has remained consistently high and volatile, and the equipment-intensive construction industry has experienced increasing uncertainty in transportation costs. Therefore, this study evaluates the impact of diesel cost volatility on the economic distance for hauling aggregates. The paper proposes the calculation of an economic haul radius to quantify hauling costs over a probabilistic range of diesel prices and thereby quantify the impact of these prices. The literature defines the “economic haul distance” as the point at which the cost of hauling the material equals the supplier cost of the material at the source. The Peurifoy method was used to determine operational costs for a typical aggregate haul truck, and, from that output, the economic haul radius was determined. The results showed that the economic distance that aggregate could be hauled was a direct function of the price of the diesel fuel used in the contractor’s bid. The resulting stochastic algorithm can be used to estimate economic haul distances for construction projects that use large amounts of aggregate.