# Is freight Scope 3 Category 4 or Category 9? Does it depend on who pays?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/is-freight-scope-3-category-4-or-9

Yes, for outbound freight it depends on who pays. Transport you buy, inbound or outbound, is Category 4. Transport of your sold products that the customer or someone else pays for is Category 9. Inbound freight from your tier 1 suppliers is Category 4 whoever pays, and trucks you own or operate are Scope 1.

## The rule in the Scope 3 Standard

- Category 4, upstream transportation and distribution: transport of products you bought, between tier 1 suppliers and your own sites, in vehicles you do not own or operate; plus any transport and distribution services you pay for, including outbound delivery to customers and moves between your own sites.
- Category 9, downstream transportation and distribution: transport and storage of sold products after the point of sale, in vehicles you do not own or operate, that you do not pay for.
- Scope 1: fuel burnt in vehicles you own or control. Scope 2: electricity for your own warehouses.

## A quick decision rule

1. Do you own or operate the vehicle? Then Scope 1, not Scope 3.
2. Is it goods coming to you from a tier 1 supplier? Category 4.
3. Is it your sold goods going out, and you pay the freight bill? Category 4.
4. Is it your sold goods going out, and the buyer pays? Category 9.

## Why the split matters

Category 4 is built from freight invoices you hold, so it is usually measured with distance and weight. Category 9 often has no invoice in your books, so you estimate it from typical routes and modes. Keeping them apart stops the same leg being counted twice, once as a purchased service and once as downstream transport.

For exports, the Incoterm on the sales contract usually tells you where your payment ends, which decides how each leg is split.

## Edge cases

- Courier charges bundled in the supplier's price: still Category 4, because it is inbound transport of purchased goods.
- Freight paid by you and recharged to the customer at cost: you paid the carrier, so Category 4; note the recharge.
- Warehousing by a third party you pay: Category 4. Retail storage at the customer: Category 9.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps freight lines from transporter invoices in the Scope 3 supplier evidence trail, with the source document and its SHA-256 fingerprint behind each line. A line gets a figure only when its quantity and unit match an approved factor; otherwise it shows Needs Data.

- [Incoterms and Scope 3 freight](https://senseible.earth/answers/incoterms-freight-scope-3-category-4-or-9)
- [GLEC Framework for freight emissions](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/glec-framework-explained-msme-freight-emissions)
- [Logistics emissions calculator](https://senseible.earth/calculators/logistics-emissions)
- [Emissions from a freight bill](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-calculate-emissions-from-a-freight-bill)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (2011)](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013)](https://ghgprotocol.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15.