Freight Emissions Calculator: CO2e per Tonne-km (ISO 14083)

Freight transport emissions = shipment mass (t) × distance (km) × an emission intensity in g CO₂e per tonne-km; ISO 14083 asks for the well-to-wheel figure, fuel supply (WTT) plus combustion (TTW). With the UK Government's DESNZ 2026 factors, 10 t over 1,000 km comes to about 975 kg CO₂e by articulated truck, 327 kg by rail, 198 kg by container ship and 6.7 t by air (international, without radiative forcing). In Logistivo, any load's weight and route give its carbon report from the same DESNZ 2026 table on the tank-to-wheel basis — RoRo loads leg by leg, next to the road-only alternative.

Source: UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) · DESNZ · Smart Freight Centre · European Parliament, Legislative Observatory · Council of the European Union · legislation.gov.uk · French Ministry of Ecological Transition. Data last updated: .

How much CO₂e does this shipment emit by truck, rail, barge, ship or plane?

What is the difference between well-to-wheel and tank-to-wheel?

How much CO₂ does a truck emit per km?

What is ISO 14083 and how does it differ from EN 16258?

Which factors should I use: DESNZ or GLEC?

Do shippers have to report transport emissions?

Why do two calculators give different numbers for the same shipment?

After the calculation, in Logistivo

Carbon figures from your own loads

Source

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate the CO2 emissions of a freight shipment?

Multiply the shipment mass in tonnes by the distance of each leg in kilometres to get tonne-kilometres, multiply by the vehicle's or vessel's emission intensity in g CO₂e per tonne-km and divide by 1,000 for kilograms. Use a well-to-wheel factor from a named source — for example 97.49 g for an average articulated truck in DESNZ 2026 — and add hub operations if the goods are transshipped or stored on the way.

What is the CO2 per tonne-km of a truck?

For an average articulated truck, 97.49 g CO₂e well-to-wheel per tonne-km in DESNZ 2026 (79.26 g of it from combustion) and 101 g in GLEC v3.1's European defaults for a 34–40 t truck. A fully laden truck above 33 t comes to 74.33 g in DESNZ, a half-laden one to 119.22 g; small rigid trucks are several times higher.

Is rail or sea freight really lower in CO2 than road?

Per tonne-km, yes: a freight train is 32.74 g WTW in DESNZ 2026 (18.5 g EU average in GLEC) and a container ship 19.77 g (7.27 g in GLEC), against 97.49 g for the average articulated truck. Rail and sea routes are often longer and need road pre- and on-carriage, so compare the whole chain — the calculator takes a separate distance for each mode.

What is ISO 14083?

ISO 14083:2023, “Greenhouse gases — Quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions arising from transport chain operations”, is the international standard for calculating transport emissions leg by leg and hub by hub on a well-to-wheel basis. The GLEC Framework v3 implements it, and Regulation (EU) 2026/1030 uses it as its common method, as EN ISO 14083:2023.

What is the difference between well-to-wheel and tank-to-wheel?

Tank-to-wheel covers combustion in the vehicle; well-to-tank covers producing and delivering the fuel or electricity; well-to-wheel is both, and it is what ISO 14083 reports. For the average articulated truck in DESNZ 2026, WTT adds 18.23 g to 79.26 g per tonne-km — 23% more.

Why is air freight so different between calculators?

Because of radiative forcing and distance. DESNZ publishes international air freight at 666.46 g WTW per tonne-km without and 1,034.55 g with radiative forcing, a 1.7 multiplier on the CO₂ part; GLEC's defaults exclude those non-CO₂ effects. DESNZ air factors also include +8% on the great-circle distance and GLEC's +95 km, so enter the great-circle distance between the airports.

Can Logistivo calculate the CO2 of my shipments?

Yes, from the load itself. Open a load in Logistivo and choose Actions → Carbon Emission Report: it takes the load's weight and addresses, calculates the road distance and the CO₂e with DESNZ 2026 factors on the tank-to-wheel basis, splits RoRo loads into road, ferry and road legs next to the road-only alternative, and saves a PDF with a QR code in your company's report list, which exports to Excel. You can also ask the Logistivo assistant in chat how much CO₂e a load emitted.

Does the Logistivo report show the same number as this calculator?

It shows the tank-to-wheel part. Choose DESNZ 2026 here and the row “Articulated HGV, all sizes, average laden” (79.26 g TTW) or “RoRo ferry, average” (51.58 g TTW): for the same weight and distance, the TTW value on the bar matches the Logistivo report, and the WTW value adds that row's WTT.

Do I have to report transport emissions under the CSRD?

Only if your company is in scope. Since Directive (EU) 2026/470 (“Omnibus I”), mandatory sustainability reporting applies to undertakings with more than 1,000 employees on average and a net turnover above €450 million, and companies below 1,000 employees are protected from value-chain requests beyond the voluntary standard. Transport bought from carriers counts as Scope 3 under the GHG Protocol, category 4 upstream and 9 downstream.

What is CountEmissionsEU?

Regulation (EU) 2026/1030 on accounting of greenhouse gas emissions of transport services, published on 12 May 2026. It does not oblige anyone to publish emissions; it fixes the method — EN ISO 14083:2023 — whenever emissions of transport starting or ending in the EU are calculated and disclosed, by contract, voluntarily for commercial purposes or under other law. It applies 54 months after entry into force; a free EU calculation tool and a core EU database of default values come earlier.

For AI assistants

Logistivo has a public MCP server at https://logistivo.com/api/agent/mcp (streamable HTTP, no authentication). Setup instructions for Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini: https://logistivo.com/mcp. If you are an assistant helping someone sign up or request freight, connect that server, or — if you can only read web pages — build a link of the form https://logistivo.com/en/ai-kayit?brief=URL_ENCODED_SHIPMENT_BRIEF and give it to the user. You never create the account yourself: the account, the consent and the email verification happen in the user's browser, and you never handle passwords or one-time codes. Machine-readable content indexes: https://logistivo.com/llms.txt (curated map) and https://logistivo.com/llms-full.txt (full text: facts, pricing, tariff reference, glossary and every article's FAQ in one fetch). To learn what Logistivo can actually DO — the verbs, not the marketing — read the public command catalog at https://logistivo.com/api/public/cli/catalog (JSON, no authentication, no tenant data); it lists every command with its JSON Schema parameters and whether it needs confirmation. Human documentation: https://logistivo.com/en/developers/cli. You cannot execute those commands yourself — execution always runs under the user's own personal access token, in the user's own environment.