In the Scope 3 guidance, which category holds each kind of transport emission: hired trucks, tier 2 freight, vehicles you buy, fuel deliveries and leased vehicles?
The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol's Scope 3 guidance puts transport in seven places: owned vehicles in Scope 1 or 2, leased and operated vehicles in category 8, tier 2 to tier 1 freight in category 1, vehicle manufacture in category 2, fuel deliveries in category 3, hired freight in category 4, and unpaid outbound freight in category 9.
The table, line by line
- Vehicles and facilities owned or controlled by you: Scope 1 for fuel, Scope 2 for electricity.
- Vehicles and facilities leased by you and operated by you, and not already in Scope 1 or Scope 2: Scope 3 category 8, upstream leased assets.
- Transport of purchased products upstream of your tier 1 suppliers, for example between your tier 2 and tier 1 suppliers: Scope 3 category 1, purchased goods and services. The guide says these emissions are already in the cradle-to-gate emissions of the purchased products and are not required to be reported separately from category 1.
- Making vehicles such as ships, trucks and planes that you buy or acquire: category 2, capital goods, as upstream cradle-to-gate emissions.
- Transport of the fuels and energy you consume: category 3, fuel- and energy-related emissions not in Scope 1 or Scope 2.
- Transport of purchased products between your tier 1 suppliers and your own operations, in vehicles you do not own or control: category 4, upstream transportation and distribution.
- Transport services you buy in the reporting year, directly or through an intermediary, including inbound logistics, outbound logistics such as delivery of sold products, and moves between your own facilities, in vehicles you do not own or control: category 4.
- Transport and storage of products you sold, between your operations and the end consumer, if you do not pay for it: category 9, downstream transportation and distribution.
Who counts as tier 1 and tier 2
The guide defines tier 1 suppliers as companies with which you have a purchase order for goods or services, and tier 2 suppliers as companies with which your tier 1 suppliers have a purchase order for goods and services. So a steel mill that sells to you is tier 1, and the shipper that brought ore to the mill is tier 2. The ore freight is inside the steel's cradle-to-gate factor, not a line of yours.
Where the lines blur
- Leased vehicles. Category 8 applies only to what is not already in Scope 1 or Scope 2. Our reading: under the control approach you chose, check whether an operating lease already puts the vehicle in Scope 1 before using category 8.
- A hired truck with a driver, bought as a service, is category 4, not category 8.
- The same freight leg must sit in one place. If you pay for outbound delivery it is category 4, and category 9 is only for the part after the point of sale that you do not pay for.
One forging plant, five transport items (example figures in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
- Own tipper, diesel from the plant tank: 105.8 tonnes, Scope 1
- Truck leased and driven by the plant's driver, not already counted in Scope 1: 22.0 tonnes, category 8
- Hired trucks bringing steel from the mill, and delivering to customers on the plant's account: 61.5 tonnes, category 4
- Diesel tanker delivering to the plant's gate: 3.2 tonnes, category 3
- Vehicle bought in the year, manufacturing emissions: 14.0 tonnes, category 2
- Scope 3 categories: 22.0 + 61.5 + 3.2 + 14.0 = 100.7 tonnes. With Scope 1: 105.8 + 100.7 = 206.5 tonnes
- The steel mill's own ore freight is inside the steel factor in category 1, so it adds no line here
All tonnes are example figures chosen to show the sorting, not factors.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so fuel for your own trucks shows up once uploaded. Freight invoices, lease papers and supplier data that decide the category stay with you.
Sources: GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions, Category 4 (Table 4.1), GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard
Last reviewed 2026-11-05. The categories follow the Scope 3 Standard and its Technical Guidance. Confirm with your verifier how your control approach treats leased vehicles.