According to the yard(stone/aggregate yard) I go to they measure the cubic yard by the bucket or should I say a cubic(square yard) yard as 2000 lbs or 27 cubic feet of material...even though it is not exactly a ton..in other words depending on the place you buy your materials it can and most likely be a little off of the exact measurement...they weigh their bucket loads through a scale in the cab of the front end loader so they are not likely to get out of the cab and remove any excess material from the bucket...in other words it may be over by a few hundred pounds besides I only paid 15 dollars for a ton of south carolina riverbed stone(quartz/marble) for my yard...but I also picked it up and unloaded it my self no extra charges...hth