open cut - truck cycle / load & haul cycle

When ready for transporting material out of an open cut mine, shovels and haul trucks work together to load and haul the material out of a pit.

The load process is done by a Rope Shovel / Front End Loader / Excavator with Front Shovel / Excavator with Backhoe. The choice is up to mine planning, budget, surface and availability.

There rear dump truck (more common) and bottom dump truck are for transporting the material out of

Truck Cycle

The Cycle starts with loading the material onto a truck.

Then the loaded truck travels back to the dump / crusher, where the material is further conveyed or processed.

At the dump point, a truck may need to queue for dumping, and when it's turn comes, it may need to do spotting, which is kind of parking manoeuvrer to be in the right space for dumping.

After dumping, a truck may returns to non-productive activities such as lunch break, maintenance, shift change, etc. Otherwise, it goes back to the shovels with an empty wagon.

Again at the shovels, the trucks may need to queue, and do spotting to be ready for loading.

For a truck cycle, data analysis / reporting normally cares about the below information

1. shift & crew

2. which truck hauls the material

3. who operates the truck, ie. truck operator

4. which shovel loads the material

5. grade of the material, e.g. the grade of coal

6. material type, e.g. coal, waste, topsoil

7. the blast, if it needs a blast before material removal, this is normally identified by the region + sequence Number, e.g. MVE_PIT_0101

8. the dump, e.g. crusher, stockpile, dump123. normally high grade material goes to crusher, low grade goes to stockpile, waste goes to dump

9. tonnage / payload 

10. inactive time (break, maintenance time?)

11. travelling time (with empty truck)

12. waiting time (in the queue)

13. spotting time (park into the load/dump space)

14. loading time

15. hauling time (with loaded truck)

16. backing time (reverse truck time)

17. tipping time (dumping material time)

18. distance empty

19. distance loaded

The total truck cycle time is calculated as traveling_time + waiting_time + spotting_time + loading_time + hauling_time + queued_time + backing_time + tipping_time as defined in FMS systems like Hexagon. The total components correspond to empty travel from dump to shovel, waiting (queuing) before shovel, spotting (get into the position for loading), loading, hauling (from load point to dump point), queued (waiting / queuing for dump), backing (reversing to a position for dumping), tipping (dumping)

Note the spotting at Dump point is called backing, assuming this is for a rear dump truck. 

The queuing at the Load point is called waiting. 

The loaded travel is called hauling.