Tipper Truck Hire Rates Guide 2025

A tipper truck is a type of truck with a trailer that tips, allowing the contents to be spilled at a dumping location. It is primarily used in earthmoving applications to move materials from one location to another. There are tippers that tip from the front (allowing materials to fall through the rear gate), tip from the side (called side tippers) and tippers that can expunge materials through their bellies to the ground or a holding cell underneath (called belly dumpers, and are used in mining applications or liquids transportation).

For clarity - a tipper is a road registered truck, not a dump truck. Most dump trucks - such as rigid rear dump trucks used in mining, or articulated dump trucks used in quarrying, or tracked dump trucks can only be used off-road and are not permitted to carry materials on paved roads or highways (unless with police escort, or when being moved around).

Tipper trucks are found in a number of industries and are a staple amongst construction, mining and residential projects. They’re used to move materials like construction aggregate, dirt, sand, gravel, snow, asphalt, turf and more. They come in a range of trailer configurations, allowing people to move large amounts of materials over paved roads from one location to another.

Find out more here

There are a wide range of tipper trucks available for hire on iseekplant - with capacities varying from 2 tonnes to 100 tonnes. There is a also a wide range of tipper configurations - where you can add trailers and options to enhance payload capacity.

For smaller residential works with materials less than 12 tonnes, you’ll only need a bogie drive tipper truck. The next largest option is a truck and dog tipper truck - these come in a large range of sizes and can be moved around site with ease. Beyond the truck and dog tippers are semi trailer tippers, which have multiple trailers and bigger capacity than truck and dogs. These are great for large construction, quarry and mining projects. We also have more niche types of tippers including side tippers, belly dumpers and site dumpers. If you are working off-road, then you need a dump truck, rather than a tipper.

You can also hire a tipper truck as part of an earthmoving combo - which usually includes a small bogie drive tipper (ie, smaller than 12 tonnes), a mini excavator and a small skid steer. This is the most common set up for small residential jobs.

Read more about the right Tipper Truck for your job here

Well there is no easy answer to that question. Tipper licensing varies depending on state, the carrying capacity of the tipper and rules of the hiring company (or your employer). You will be able to hire a 2 tonne tipper on a dry hire basis with a standard car license, but anything larger than that will require one of the rigid licenses below.

There are a range of truck licenses in the Australian road licensing system and here are the most common ones:

• Light Rigid (LR) = a rigid vehicle with a GVM of more than 4.5 tonnes up to 8 tonnes
• Medium Rigid (MR) = a rigid vehicle with 2 axles and a GVM of more than 8 tonnes
• Heavy Rigid (HR) = a rigid vehicle with 3 or more axles and a GVM of more than 8 tonnes
• Heavy Combination (HC) = heavy combination vehicles like a prime mover towing a semi-trailer, or rigid vehicles towing a trailer with a GVM of more than 9 tonnes
• Multi-combination (MC) = multi-combination vehicles like Road Trains and B-Double Vehicles

None of these licenses allow you to operate a tipper in a mining environment - each mine site will have it's own rules to adhere to. Moreover, if you are operating a tipper in a civil construction environment, SAFE work might require the PCBU (Person Conducting Business Undertaking - the person in charge of the site that is legally responsible for the safe operation of all machines on the site) to do additional checks on your competency and ability to operate the tipper.

Also - quite apart from a license, and the observance of the SAFE work rules, there are an additional set of rules administered by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) including Chain of Responsibility rules. We therefor recommend you brush up on these before you get into the cabin of a tipper.

Learn more about Tipper Truck license requirements here!

Let's look at some very average rates for 4 different types of tippers (rates include GST):

• Tipper Truck (3 - 6 tonne capacity) dry hire rate: $252 - $423 per day (rarely hired by the hour)
• Tipper Truck (3 - 6 tonne capacity) wet hire rate: $99 - $122 per hour (Min 3 hours)
• Tipper Truck (8 - 10 tonne capacity) dry hire rate: $462 - $792 per day (rarely hired by the hour)
• Tipper Truck (8 - 10 tonne capacity) wet hire rate: $115 - $132 per hour (Min 3 hours)
• Bogie Drive Tipper Truck (Over 10 Tonne) - Large Capacity - Dry Hire Rate: (not usually offered)
• Bogie Drive Tipper Truck (Over 10 Tonne) - Large Capacity - Wet Hire Rate: $132 - $154 Per Hour
• Semi Tipper (1 Trailer) wet hire Rate: $148 - $170 Per Hour
• Semi Tipper (2 Trailers) wet hire Rate: $198 - $231 Per Hour
• Side tipper wet hire rates: $154 - $165 per hour
• Side tipper dry hire rates: $108 per hour

More detailed hire rates can be found above on this page.

We have over 1,500 tipper trucks catalogued on iseekplant, so we can actually tell you the most popular tipper truck brands in Australia based on our unique data set. Currently, the leading tipper truck brands include Volvo, Caterpillar, Kenworth, Hitachi and Isuzu. An argument could be made that Volvo are leading the pack in Australia.

Read more about the industry-leading Tipper Truck brands here

The whole purpose of iseekplant is to organise the plant and equipment space in Australia so that construction professionals can find gear close to their jobsites. Finding proximite suppliers can reduce expenses in mobilising machines to your site, but also can improve site productivity when gear and services can be located quickly.

iseekplant has suppliers spanning 16,000 postcodes in Australia. That means, you can literally find a tipper truck on our system close to any of the suburbs in Australia. The closer the supplier, the less expensive it's likely to be.

iseekplant has the largest number of quality tipper truck hire suppliers operating in all capital cities from Brisbane to Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne to Darwin, Perth and Adelaide. There is also a really good density of suppliers with tipper truck hire solutions in all major towns and regional cities including places like Cairns to the Gold Coast down to Newcastle, Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, and then across the country to Bunbury.

To find a tipper close by - all you have to do is input your suburb location and refine your search to tippers, and we'll product a list of suppliers ranked by proximity to your job.

Tipper truck drivers usually earn between $66K and $89K plus super per year depending on where they are working, the size of the truck they are driving and whether they are working regular hours (or irregular hours). Truck drivers get paid through a variety of methods - (such as salary, as a contractor or on a labour hire basis) and many are able to access penalty rates for work outside of regular business hours, which can greatly increase their take-home pay. Those working in remote areas or in a FIFO capacity, can earn much more.

If you are hiring a qualified tipper truck driver to operate a truck you hire on dry hire from a labour hire company to drive a tipper on your site, you can expect to pay between $40 and hour to $80 an hour, over and above the cost of hiring the tipper.

The answer to this question very much depends on whether you want to hire the tipper dry hire or wet hire. Dry hire meaning you are hiring just the truck, wet hire meaning you are hiring the truck, with driver and fuel included.

A 10 tonne tipper is usually offered on a dry hire basis for about $60 - $100 per hour, with a minimum of 4 hours. On a day rate, you are looking at between $420 - $800 per hour excluding GST. Some hire companies will only hire on dry hire for a day rate. You will need to prove to the hire company that you are capable of operating the machine, and that you have a medium rigid, or heavy rigid license.

If you want to hire a tipper on a wet hire basis, which includes operator and fuel, then you are probably looking at between $120 - $160 per hour with a minimum of 4 hours.