How Many Tons can You Shovel by Hand in 1 Hour or 1 Day
This is a quick note to say how many tons a fit healthy strong(ish) person can shovel in 1 day if properly motivated.Recently I received 16 metric tons (16,000kgs) of crushed lime stone delivered tipped out of a lorry in to a heap. I manged to load this in to wheel barrows with a normal shovel during 7 hours of shovelling.
This would give an approx rate of 2 tons per hour, with a short walk included to empty the wheelbarrow. A few notes from this example:
- The Gravel was Easy to Shovel (30mm max gravel size)
- The gravel was spread over a 30 meter long drive way.
- I am a well fed, 90kg bloke who keeps fit.
- You can shovel 16 tons in one day.
I am not sure if I could have repeated this the following day! But I dare say you would get used to the work after a couple of weeks!
I worked as hard as this for my own benefit, it was stressful and I was exhausted afterwards. I would not expect one of my employees to move the same amount.
