Concrete Delivery Costs

There is one common denominator in the costs associated with concrete parking pads, driveways, patios, sidewalks, and other similar projects. It is the cost of concrete delivery. There are many factors that go into the bottom line where the delivery of concrete is concerned, and they include the distance the concrete must travel from the plant, the type of concrete ordered, the day of the week it is delivered, and more.

Remember, too, that a concrete delivery is unlike almost any other type of delivery because each individual batch is mixed to the buyer’s specifications, put into the truck, and then delivered. The maker has less than two hours to complete the entire process (or around 300 rotations of the enormous barrel mounted to the truck) before problems begin (i.e. the concrete begins to set).

The amount ordered and the distance it travels, then, are the two main factors influencing the price. After all, it may be that concrete delivery is just not feasible from a particular plant to your location.

Budget for Concrete Delivery: 6 cubic yards for a 600 sq.ft. driveway.

Other considerations and costs

• Short load fees may be attached to deliveries that are less than a full truck load, and the average price is $15 to $17 per cubic yard. If this is cost prohibitive, there is the option of working with short load services that mix the batches on site. This comes in at a much higher cost per cubic yard than other options and is typically sold in one-quarter cubic yard quantities.
• There are different strengths of concrete and they will have an effect on the final dollar amounts asked for delivery.
• Some firms allow buyers to request overages from larger jobs to be delivered to their site in order to offset the costs of the short load fees. This, however, does not work well for most since it does not allow for an accurate idea of which day of the week the delivery may arrive but instead locks into a potential window of time.

DIY considerations

• Oddly enough, there are haul your own concrete companies that rent a mixer trailer and increase the price per cubic yard by roughly $10 or more. This is the closest to a DIY option but is still not advisable since concrete work is incredibly serious business and should not be done unless you are experienced in handling enormous quantities of the material quickly and properly.

References

• Craftsman Estimator Costbook, complete series year 2019.
• Latest prices found on Home Depot and other vendor Web sites.
• Literature review of DIY Web sites.