How do I calculate emissions for a part-truck-load or shared container shipment?
Allocate the vehicle's emissions by transport activity: each shipment's tonnes times the kilometres it travelled, as a share of the trip's total tonne-km. ISO 14083 and the GLEC Framework both use this rule. If you have no trip fuel data, multiply your own tonne-km by an emission intensity for that vehicle type.
Two ways to get the number
Both give your share of a shared vehicle without counting the empty space as yours. Carriers using ISO 14083 often report an intensity per tonne-km for each transport operation category, which you can apply to your shipment.
- Trip-based, when the carrier shares fuel data: trip emissions from fuel used, then your share = your tonne-km / total tonne-km on that trip.
- Intensity-based, when you only know your own shipment: your tonnes x distance x an emission intensity in kg CO2e per tonne-km for the vehicle type and typical load.
Choosing the allocation unit
- Mass x distance (tonne-km) is the default for road and most freight.
- When light, bulky cargo fills the vehicle by volume before weight, allocation by volume, pallet places or loading metres can be fairer. State the unit and use it for every shipment on that trip.
- For sea containers, carriers often report per TEU-km or per container. Convert to your share of the container if you ship less than a container load.
Getting the distance right
- Use the distance your consignment actually travelled, not the full route of the truck.
- Milk runs drop goods at several points; a consignment unloaded first carries fewer kilometres.
- Write down whether the distance came from the lorry receipt, a route planner or the carrier.
Which scope it goes in
Freight you pay for, from a supplier to you or from you to a customer, is Scope 3: Category 4 when you buy the transport, Category 9 when the customer does. Your own trucks are Scope 1, and then the whole trip's fuel is yours, not a share.
Worked example: three consignments on one truck
- Trip fuel: 120 litres of diesel; 120 x 2.68 = 321.6 kg CO2
- A: 4 t x 300 km = 1,200 tkm; B: 6 t x 300 km = 1,800 tkm; C: 2 t x 150 km = 300 tkm; total 3,300 tkm
- A: 321.6 x 1,200 / 3,300 = 116.9 kg CO2
- B: 321.6 x 1,800 / 3,300 = 175.4 kg CO2
- C: 321.6 x 300 / 3,300 = 29.2 kg CO2; the three add back to 321.6
This is tank-to-wheel CO2 from the diesel factor. ISO 14083 also asks for well-to-wheel figures in CO2e, which add fuel production emissions.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the weight and distance from a freight record and calculates emissions on the shipment's own tonne-km. It does not have the carrier's trip fuel data, so it cannot do trip-based allocation across other customers' consignments.
Sources: ISO 14083:2023, Quantification and reporting of GHG emissions arising from transport chain operations, Smart Freight Centre, GLEC Framework v3 (2023)
Last reviewed 2026-10-15.