# What emission factor per tonne-km should I use for road freight in India?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/truck-freight-emission-factor-india

Best is to build it from your own trips: fuel per km times 2.68 kg CO2 per litre of diesel, divided by the average payload, with empty running included. Without trip data, use a published default for the truck class, such as GLEC Framework values, and state the load factor it assumes.

## The formula behind any tonne-km factor

kg CO2 per tonne-km = (litres per km x 2.68) x (total km driven / loaded km) / average payload in tonnes.

Truck size, load and empty return change the answer more than the choice of database. A half-empty truck has roughly twice the per tonne-km factor of a full one.

## Which data to use, in order of preference

1. Fuel invoices for the vehicles that carried your goods, allocated by tonne-km. This is the most accurate.
2. Your carrier's own factor for that lane, if they can show the fuel and tonne-km behind it.
3. A per-km factor for the Indian truck class, such as the India GHG Program's road transport factors, converted with your real payload.
4. A GLEC Framework or ISO 14083 default per tonne-km for the vehicle type, with its default load factor.

## Tank-to-wheel or well-to-wheel

A factor from diesel burnt (2.68 kg CO2 per litre, the IPCC 2006 default) is tank-to-wheel CO2. GLEC and ISO 14083 report well-to-wheel CO2e, which adds emissions from producing and delivering the fuel, so their figures are higher. Do not mix the two in one total, and label which one you use.

## Edge cases

- Part loads: allocate the trip's emissions by your share of tonne-km, not by your share of the freight bill.
- Volume-limited cargo: if the truck is full by volume, use your share of space, and say so.
- No weight on the bill: take weight from the invoice or packing list, not from the freight amount.

## Worked example: a 1,000 km trip with a 16 tonne load

- Assumed fuel economy: 3.5 km per litre, loaded and empty
- Empty running: 25 percent extra, so 1,250 km driven for 1,000 loaded km
- Diesel: 1,250 / 3.5 = 357.1 litres; 357.1 x 2.68 = 957.1 kg CO2
- Tonne-km: 16 x 1,000 = 16,000
- Factor: 957.1 / 16,000 = 0.060 kg CO2 per tonne-km, tank-to-wheel

Fuel economy and empty running are assumptions; replace them with your carrier's figures. Senseible's logistics calculator uses a GLEC v3.0 well-to-wheel default of 0.062 kg CO2e per tonne-km for articulated trucks at 70 percent load, which is a different basis.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible's logistics emissions calculator uses GLEC Framework v3.0 defaults with load factor and empty-return adjustments, and freight invoices read in Senseible are kept as Scope 3 evidence. It does not hold the India GHG Program truck factors.

- [Logistics emissions calculator](https://senseible.earth/calculators/logistics-emissions)
- [GLEC Framework explained](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/glec-framework-explained-msme-freight-emissions)
- [Emissions from a freight bill](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-calculate-emissions-from-a-freight-bill)
- [Freight bill with no weight or distance](https://senseible.earth/answers/freight-bill-has-no-weight-or-distance)

Sources: [GLEC Framework v3, Smart Freight Centre](https://www.smartfreightcentre.org/en/our-programs/emissions-accounting/global-logistics-emissions-council/), [ISO 14083:2023, GHG emissions from transport chains](https://www.iso.org), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 (Energy)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15.