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What is a volumetric concrete truck?
A volumetric concrete truck, also called a mobile or metered mixer, keeps the raw materials separate until the moment you pour. A continuous auger meters sand, stone, cement and water in the correct proportions and mixes them as the concrete leaves the truck. Because nothing is combined until you are ready, you get fresh concrete on demand, in the exact amount you need, with no waste. Compared with traditional drum mixers, it is a more flexible and cost-effective way to produce concrete, and it gives you full control over every pour.
How volumetric concrete mixing works
The truck carries each ingredient in its own compartment: aggregate bins for sand and stone, a cement bin, a water tank, and admixture tanks. When you are ready, the materials feed onto a continuous auger that blends them to the mix design you set, then discharges finished concrete. Stop the auger and production stops; start it again and fresh concrete flows. That on-demand control is the core difference from a drum truck, which carries a single pre-mixed load that is already on a roughly 90-minute clock from the plant. Volumetric batching follows ASTM C685, the standard for concrete made by volumetric batching and continuous mixing.
Fresh Concrete On-Demand.
Concrete is mixed at the point of placement, so it is always fresh and ready to use, with no risk of an old or unusable batch.
A Precise Mix Every Time.
You make the exact amount of concrete you need, to the exact mix design the job calls for.
Flexibility Between Jobs.
Switch mix designs on the fly without heading back to a plant, so one truck can handle several jobs in a day.
Less Waste.
You pour only what you need, so there is no returned-load waste and no short load fees, and volumetric trucks use less water to clean than barrel trucks.
Control Your Budget
On-demand mixing removes the costs that delivered concrete builds in. You pay for the material you place, not a full truckload against a supplier’s minimum, so short load fees and returned-concrete overages disappear. One flexible truck can replace several deliveries: by continually making concrete on site, two volumetric trucks can do the work of up to 10 ready-mix trucks. Lower waste, lower cleanup water, and reduced labor per yard all add up on the bottom line, and strong resale value protects the investment over the life of the machine.
Control your environmental impact
Producing only the concrete you use means less material sent to waste and fewer returned loads hauled back to a plant. Volumetric trucks use less wash water than barrel trucks and cut the number of vehicles on the road for a given volume of concrete, which lowers fuel use and emissions per yard. For contractors under pressure to build more sustainably, mixing on demand is a practical way to reduce the footprint of each pour without sacrificing quality.
What you can produce
With the right options, a volumetric truck runs far more than a standard slab mix. The same unit can produce high-strength, colored, fiber-reinforced, latex-modified and fast-setting mixes, plus flowable fill, and switch between them on site. That range is why volumetric mixers suit contractors, municipalities and utilities, remote job sites, and any operation with variable or small pours.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is a volumetric concrete truck?
A volumetric concrete truck is a mobile mixer that carries sand, stone, cement, water and admixtures separately and combines them through a continuous auger at the job site. It mixes concrete on demand rather than delivering a pre-mixed load, so every yard is fresh and you produce only what you pour.
How is a volumetric truck different from a regular concrete truck?
A regular drum truck delivers concrete mixed at a plant that must be placed within about 90 minutes. A volumetric truck carries raw materials and mixes them on site on demand, eliminating the setting clock, short load fees and returned-load waste, and letting you change the mix between pours.
What standard governs volumetric concrete?
Volumetric batching is governed by ASTM C685, which covers concrete made by volumetric batching and continuous mixing. It is a separate standard from the one covering plant-batched ready mix.
How much work can one volumetric truck do?
Because it makes concrete continuously on site, a volumetric truck replaces repeated plant deliveries. Two volumetric trucks can do the work of up to 10 ready-mix trucks on a continuous pour, with one operator able to run two trucks by remote.
What types of concrete can a volumetric truck produce?
With the right options, a volumetric truck can produce standard, high-strength, colored, fiber-reinforced, latex-modified, fast-setting and flowable-fill mixes, and switch between them on site without a separate delivery.
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