# Are delivery riders' own two-wheelers part of my Scope 3, and in which category?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/gig-delivery-riders-emissions-which-scope

Yes. Riders' own two-wheelers are not your Scope 1 because you neither own nor control them. Deliveries you pay riders for are a purchased transport service, so they go in Scope 3 Category 4. Deliveries a customer pays for separately belong in Category 9. Estimate from trips, distance and a per-km factor.

## Why not Scope 1

Scope 1 covers vehicles you own or control. A rider who owns the scooter, buys the petrol and is paid per delivery is a supplier of transport services, even if your app assigns the orders. Company-owned or leased bikes that you fuel would be Scope 1.

## Category 4 or Category 9

- You pay the rider or the delivery partner for outbound delivery of your sold goods: Category 4, upstream transportation and distribution, which includes outbound transport the company pays for.
- The customer pays a delivery platform directly and you do not buy the service: Category 9 for you as the seller, which is downstream transport.
- A delivery platform buying rides from riders to fulfil its own service: Category 4 for the platform.
- Riders delivering to you, such as inbound parcels paid by you: also Category 4.

## How to estimate it

1. Take the number of deliveries and the average distance per delivery, including the pickup leg, from app or GPS logs.
2. Total km x a per-km factor for the vehicle type. For a petrol two-wheeler, the factor is 2.31 kg CO2 per litre divided by km per litre.
3. For electric two-wheelers, use kWh per km x 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh.
4. Count only trips made for you. A rider working for several platforms is shared.

## Worked example: one month of outbound deliveries

- Deliveries: 30,000; average 7 km each including pickup leg (from app logs)
- Distance: 30,000 x 7 = 2,10,000 km
- Petrol at 45 km per litre (assumed fleet average): 2,10,000 / 45 = 4,666.7 litres
- CO2: 4,666.7 x 2.31 = 10,780 kg, about 10.8 t for the month in Category 4
- Per delivery: 10,780 / 30,000 = 0.36 kg CO2

Survey a sample of riders for mileage and the petrol versus electric split; record it as an assumption.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps transport invoices in the Scope 3 supplier evidence trail and, where only payout spend is known, provides a spend-based estimate labelled as spend-based with wider uncertainty. A trip-and-distance estimate like the one above is firmer and stays your own calculation.

- [Is freight Category 4 or 9?](https://senseible.earth/answers/is-freight-scope-3-category-4-or-9)
- [Are EV deliveries zero emission?](https://senseible.earth/answers/are-ev-deliveries-zero-emission-scope-3)
- [Logistics emissions calculator](https://senseible.earth/calculators/logistics-emissions)
- [Petrol emission factor](https://senseible.earth/emission-factors/petrol)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard (2011), Categories 4 and 9](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013), Category 4](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards), [2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 2 (Energy), mobile combustion defaults](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-18.