How freight emissions statements are worked out
Version 1 · 21 October 2026. This page describes the method. Each statement shows the figures, factor versions and data types for its own month.
1. What's counted
One transport operation category per carrier: road freight, own fleet, ambient, mixed journeys, over a calendar month. The fuel and electricity of every truck that ran recorded jobs that month counts, on loaded and empty trips alike, so empty running is always included.
Fuel bought by a truck that ran no recorded jobs that month isn't included, because there's no recorded freight to share it over. Each statement says so, with the number of trucks and litres. Jobs carried by a subcontractor are counted separately, as default data, not as the carrier's own fleet. Sample (demonstration) jobs are never counted.
2. Energy and its data type
- Primary: the truck's own refuels and fuel-card lines (litres), and its charge log (kWh), for the month. Each is traceable to its record.
- Modelled: a truck that ran jobs but has no fuel records that month: its job distance × its own measured litres per 100 km (or the fleet's average).
- Default: a truck with no fuel figures at all: its tonne-km × the MfE road-freight default.
Each statement shows the share of emissions from each data type.
3. Factors
| What | Factor | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Diesel, tank-to-wheel | 2.67177 kg CO2-e per litre | Ministry for the Environment, Measuring Emissions Guide 2026 (factors 2026.2) |
| Petrol, tank-to-wheel | 2.36143 kg CO2-e per litre | MfE 2026.2 |
| Diesel, well-to-tank | 0.805 kg CO2-e per litre | GLEC Framework v3.2: with no national factor, the higher of its China, European and North American values. European fossil diesel (4.19 − 3.22) kg CO2-e per kg × 0.83 kg per litre. Default data: MfE publishes no well-to-tank factor. |
| Petrol, well-to-tank | 0.755 kg CO2-e per litre | GLEC Framework v3.2, the same rule: European gasoline (4.21 − 3.19) kg CO2-e per kg × 0.74 kg per litre. Default data. |
| Other fuels, well-to-tank | none used | Biodiesel blends and others are shown as "partial" rather than estimated |
| Electricity | MfE 2026.2 grid factor for the year used, plus transmission and distribution losses | Counted as energy provision (well-to-tank); tank-to-wheel is zero |
| Road freight default | 0.135 kg CO2-e per tonne-km (tank-to-wheel) | MfE 2026; used only for a truck with no fuel figures |
Well-to-wheel = tank-to-wheel (operational) + well-to-tank (energy provision). Each is shown.
4. Sharing between customers
Transport activity is tonne-km: each consignment's mass × its loaded distance. A consignment's mass is the weight entered on the job, or else a typical kg per unit × the quantity (shown as modelled). Pallets carried as the load count as consignment mass.
The category's emissions are divided by its tonne-km to give an intensity (g CO2-e per tonne-km), and each consignment gets its tonne-km × that intensity. If any consignment in the month has no mass, the whole month is shared by distance (loaded plus empty km) instead, and the statement says so. The two are never mixed.
5. Distance
Planned road distance between the sites, from the carrier's site book: a measured distance where known, otherwise the straight-line distance × a road factor. It isn't a GPS-recorded actual distance.
6. Issued statements
When a carrier issues a statement to a customer, it's kept exactly as issued, with a reference (the start of a SHA-256 of its contents). A correction is a new issue; the earlier one stays on record.
7. What this isn't
The statements follow the ISO 14083 method and the GLEC Framework, but nobody independent has checked them: not an approval body, a verifier or ISO. ISO doesn't certify anyone. A carrier who wants verified figures can give a verifier the "supporting data" export behind each statement.