Guide
Concrete pump vs conveyor: when to book the boom, and when the belt
The placement method is decided before the first truck is ordered, because it decides the mix, the rate the plant has to hit, the setup, and what a canceled morning costs. Most of the time the choice is obvious — the truck backs to the footing, or the deck is four stories up. The pours worth thinking about are the ones in between: a mat at grade, a low-headroom slab, a mix the pump outfit hesitates over. This is the sub’s side of that decision, with the numbers, and a one-page checklist for the truck.
The five ways concrete gets from the truck to the form
- Direct from the chute — when the truck can reach the form. Crew-limited: plan around 40–50 yards a day for a five-person flatwork crew, not a machine rate.
- Buggies — a short haul from the chute to where the truck can’t go. A crew problem, not an equipment one: the rate is however many trips the crew makes.
- Crane and bucket — around 20 yards an hour, every bucket a crane pick. For the pour nothing else reaches.
- Line pump — about 15 yards an hour sustained; the win is reach along the ground, not speed.
- Boom pump — 70–90 yards an hour sustained when the trucks keep up, and height. The default for anything vertical or over an obstacle.
- Conveyor (Telebelt) — a telescoping belt on a truck: rated 300 yards an hour at level and 230 on a 20-degree incline for a TB 110, up to 360 for the TB 105 and TB 130 class, placing anything flowable from sand to 4-inch rock. Reach along the ground of roughly 106 feet at level.
Belt figures from the manufacturer sheets (TB 110, TB 105); rated at the belt, not sustained on your site. The pump, crane and chute figures are this site’s own planning numbers from the crew-pour guide.
Where the pump wins: height, obstacles, and the hose
A boom goes up and over. Formwork, scaffold, a building edge, a wall between the truck and the placement — the boom clears them and puts the hose where the finisher wants it, which is why booking the boom is a geometry question, not a yardage one. Anything vertical is a pump. So is a tight site where the outriggers fit but a belt truck cannot swing.
The price of that reach is the mix. A pump pushes concrete through a line under pressure, so the largest rock has to clear the pipe with room to spare and the mix needs enough sand and paste to move — a pump-grade mix, which the plant prices as one. Too dry, too much rock, or a hot morning that stiffens the load, and the line jams. ACI 304.2R is the reference for what pumps; your pump outfit’s dispatcher is the practical one.
Where the belt wins: the mix, the headroom, the mat
A conveyor carries the concrete instead of pushing it. The slump can be stiff, the aggregate large, the mix full of fiber — the belt doesn’t care, and there is no pump mix to buy. It sets up with less headroom than a boom needs, works from outside a building into it, and reaches across mud and congestion that would stop a chute. That makes it the machine for mass placement at grade: mats, footings, warehouse slabs, backfill, bridge decks, foundations that take a big-rock mix. The same unit places stone and sand, so the base under a slab and the slab can come off one booking.
What it can’t do is go up. Reach is along the ground and drops as the belt inclines — the TB 110 loses about 15 feet of reach between level and 30 degrees — so a belt does not replace a boom on a deck. It replaces a boom on the pours where the boom was only there because the truck couldn’t back in.
The rate table
| Method | Planning rate | What sets the real rate |
|---|---|---|
| Chute | 40–50 CY a day, five-person flatwork crew | The crew and truck cycling |
| Buggies | Crew trips, no machine rate | Haul distance and crew size |
| Crane and bucket | ~20 CY/hr | Every bucket is a pick |
| Line pump | ~15 CY/hr sustained | Line length, mix |
| Boom pump | 70–90 CY/hr sustained | Truck spacing; a pump mix |
| Conveyor (TB 110) | 300 CY/hr rated at level, 230 at 20° | Truck spacing; belt incline; slump |
Read the last column. With trucks 30–45 minutes apart the plant lands 13–20 yards an hour on your site, which means a boom rated at 90 or a belt rated at 300 spends most of the day waiting for the next drum. The machine sets the ceiling; the order sets the day. Book the rotation to the method, or the method is decoration.
What it costs when it goes wrong
Both units bill like specialized equipment: a day rate, a minimum, travel, and a cancellation charge inside a cutoff you should ask about when you book. A wasted pump trip alone can run $400–$800, and a belt that rolled to a canceled mat is the same invoice with a different logo. The cutoff belongs on the pour card next to the arrival time, and the 4–6 AM go/no-go has to beat both.
The decision checklist
One page, one pour, in the order the questions actually get answered: the site, the mix, the rate, then the call.
Download the Placement Method Checklist (PDF) →
US Letter, one page per pour: the site questions, the mix questions, the rate math, and the booking
with its cancel cutoff. Free, no email.
- The site. Farthest point from where the unit can set up. What it has to reach over, and how high. Overhead lines. Ground and access at the setup spot. Headroom. Can a truck back to the form?
- The mix. Slump, largest aggregate, fiber. Has the plant said it pumps? What does the pump mix add per yard?
- The rate. Yards and hours available, the yards an hour you need, and the truck spacing that delivers it.
- The call. Boom, line, belt, crane, buggies or chute; the unit and operator or the subcontractor; arrival time; cancel cutoff; and whether all of it is on the pour card.
Put it on the pour
On the Place & Finish board every pour carries how it’s placed — Concrete pump, Conveyor, Crane & bucket, Buggies, Direct chute, pick all that apply — and a pump or a conveyor picks its unit and operator from your roster, or the subcontractor you hired it from. Book the same unit or the same operator on two jobs the same day and the board flags it before either dispatcher does. When the pour is confirmed, moved or canceled, one notice reaches the pump or belt subcontractor with the plant, the GC and the crew lead, and the analytics tab keeps a utilization band per unit so you know which machine you are actually paying to idle. Setting up the rosters takes a few minutes in the Getting Started guide.
Decide the method, then order the concrete
The pour that goes right had its method decided the week before: the right mix ordered, the right unit booked with its cutoff written down, trucks spaced to what the machine can take. Planning Ops is built for concrete subs, veteran-owned, with a 14-day free trial and your whole crew riding free as viewers. Put the Pump or the Belt on the Pour Card →