Is It Cheaper To Haul Your Own Water? A Side-By-Side Comparison

As an Albertan, there’s a certain pride in doing things yourself. Changing tires. Cutting your own grass. Patching holes the dog chewed in the drywall.

But when you don’t have a drilled well and need to haul your own municipal water… well, let’s just say that’s a bit like Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire: sounds like a good idea until you realize you’re getting burned.

Will You Save Money With DIY Water Hauling?

Out here in Parkland County, most farms and acreages need to have an independent water system since they aren’t hooked up to a municipal water system infrastructure. However, the choices for rural country water sources are slim: a drilled well or water hauled in. If you’re looking to save some money and think hauling your own city water is cheaper than a water tanker delivery, you’ll be surprised when you actually crunch the numbers.

How to Haul Water

Let’s run the math and look at seven key points before hauling your own water.

1. Essentials: You’ll need a pickup truck and/or trailer, a portable water storage tank, tie-downs, and a bulk water account. You may also need a transfer pump to offload into your holding tank, since using a garden hose and gravity feed is painfully slow. For tanks, a 330-gal rotationally molded tank or tank with a steel pallet can run about $850-950 CAD (or more). Anything larger will get too heavy and potentially overload your vehicle. Always double-check your truck or trailer’s hauling specs. Two half-tons might look the same but can have very different limits. Safe, legal hauling depends on things like tire rating, hitch rating, and towing capacity… and the same goes for your trailer, whether it’s single or double-axle. The info is usually listed on a sticker inside the vehicle door or a steel plate on the trailer.
2. Time: Matching one West Imperial Water delivery of 330 imperial gallons would take approximately 10 DIY loads with a 330-gal tank. Fill times for each trip will probably take you an hour, maybe longer once you include off-loading it into your storage tank. Even if you pay your teenager $20 an hour (and you know they don’t work for free!), that’s 10+ hours and $200+ in labour alone.
3. Distance: Now add fuel and vehicle wear. Using the Government of Canada’s 2024 vehicle expense rate for Alberta of $0.545/km to cover gas and maintenance, a 40km round trip (20km each way) costs $21.80. Ten trips = $218.00 just in vehicle operating costs.
4. Safety: You’re not hauling unstable loads like bulk water everyday. It takes more finesse and skill than people realize. You’ve got to stay on your toes to respond safely to equipment malfunctions, black ice, or nutty drivers on the road (we’ve been cut-off dozens of times to test both our brakes and our nerves). Water is heavy, and even a small amount of head space can make it shift unpredictably. One hard brake, and you’re doing the two-step with 300 gallons of unpredictable momentum behind you.
5. Cleanliness: When was the last time you sanitized your water tank? If it’s ever been used for agricultural sprays – even once – or it sat outside with the lid loose, it isn’t as clean as you think. Some folks think they can use their tank in the summer for landscape watering or chemical use. That’s definitely not something you want to risk entering your drinking water pipes. At West Imperial Water, we only fill from certified water sources, and our tanks are sanitized monthly (at minimum) for pure water. We wouldn’t take chances with cross-contamination when it comes to the water you drink, cook, or bathe in.
6. Reliability: When you’ve run dry on a Sunday and it’s been an exhausting week, do you really want to spend your day off work doing more work? When it’s -25C outside and the truck won’t start, do you have a backup vehicle so you can get the laundry done before the next week starts? (We do!) Schedule water delivery and turn those frantic hauls into quiet mornings, enjoying the peace of knowing your water supply is steady, reliable and already taken care of.
7. Stress level: With DIY water hauling, things can go from calm to chaotic in seconds. The repetition wears you down, and that’s when fatigue creeps in and focus fades. Let our team take that pressure off your shoulders so your weekends remain a stress-free zone.

What Is The Cost of Hauling Your Own Water? The Side-by-Side Comparison

Here’s an example of how much water transport costs when you do it yourself vs. the equivalent of getting West Imperial Water Hauling to deliver one load into your fresh holding tank:

	Haul-It-Yourself	West Imperial Water Hauling Delivered To You
Volume	Typical tank would be 300-330 gal	3,300 gal
Trips needed	10	1
Driving Distance	40 km per trip (20 km each way)	Included
Vehicle Cost at $0.545/km = $21.80 per round trip.	10 trips = $218.00	One trip, included
Time (round trip + offloading)	10+ hours	20 minutes
Labour (1 hour x $20/hr)	$200+ (plus water cost at bulk station)	Included
Water Cost	~$5.13 m3 for approximately 220 gallons in Spruce Grove	Included
Total (before water cost!)	$418+ equipment	👈 Fraction of that price!
Cleanliness	Unknown	Sanitized monthly
Safety	Variable / High risk	Professional team
Stress Level	Extreme	None

The Hidden Costs of Hauling Your Own Water

Your time is valuable. Some say it’s the most valuable resource since once you spend it, you can’t get it back. And yours is worth a lot more than $20/hr. But even at that modest rate, the math doesn’t math: you’re not saving by hauling your own water. You’re spending more money, time, and energy you’ll never recoup. Keeping up with your household’s water consumption can mean long days filled with stress, risk, and expense once you see the full picture.

Your equipment is vulnerable. Running your off-grid water system dry causes excessive wear and tear on your pressure system. The submersible pump, pressure switch, and pressure tank all rely on steady water flow. When the pump runs dry, it overheats and the switch cycles nonstop, wearing components out fast. Even the accumulator tank (or expansion tank) can lose pressure or fail costing hundreds of dollars to replace. And if your vehicle is out of commission or your driver’s out of town when your cistern runs dry… well, you’re hooped.

The math doesn’t math. Smaller, more frequent trips isn’t the solution. No matter how you look at it, it still takes about 10 round trips to equal one full water tanker load. And constant small top-ups instead of one full, fresh refill can lead to stale water. 

Is Water Delivery Worth It? The Bottom Line

Hauling your own water, even when it’s for hot tub fills, might look like a weekend money-saver. But it ends up costing considerably more in fuel, time, and risk.

And for what? When the tedious job can be done faster and safer by pros who walk that line every day.

Or as Johnny Cash might’ve said if he caught you hauling your own water: “You can run on for a long time… but sooner or later that tank runs dry.” (or something like that 😄)

So before you head out for another round trip, do the math. Because when you do, professional delivery is more than worth it with the added pay back in time, safety, and peace of mind. 

The comparison chart shows that you’re saving hundreds of dollars each time West Imperial Water delivers. Just call, prep for delivery, and cross that weekend hassle off your list.