How to calculate the carbon footprint of truck shipments
I get a lot of inquiries on how to calculate the carbon footprint of trucking. The problem is quite simple to calculate. However, there is a variable that presents a problem. Fuel consumption. Fuel consumption is not constant. It depends on many factors such as: the age of the truck, the general maintenance of the truck, the aerodynamic factor of the truck, whether it was traveling uphill or downhill, whether it was a windy day, etc. etc. If you’re comfortable with an estimate: 6 miles per gallon is a good estimate of what a truck uses on average. Now the rest is hard data …
Example # 1: LOAD COMPLETE
Truck with full load
Fuel consumption: 6 miles per gallon
Miles traveled: 1000
Carbon per US Gallon of Diesel: 2.77 KG
= 1000 miles / 6mpg x 2.77KG per gallon
(Please ignore the combination of imperial and metric. The transportation industry is still in imperial while the rest of us are in metric!)
= 461.68 KG is the Carbon Footprint of this shipment.
If you are looking for a formula = 0.46 KG per mile traveled (based on a 44,000 lb truck load).
Example # 2 LTL:
LTL
Full truck load = 44,000 pounds
Fuel consumption = 6mpg
Miles = 1000
Shipping = 10,000 pounds
Carbon per US gallon of diesel = 2.77 KG
We know that the total Carbon Footprint on this truck load is 461.68 KG from the previous calculation and that a full truck carries 44,000 pounds. So, 461.68 / 44,000 = 0.0105 per pound. Multiply by 10,000 lbs = 104.93 KG of carbon for this LTL shipment.
If you are looking for a formula = 0.0105 kg per pound / 1000 miles = 0.00001 kg per pound / mile
= 0.00001x POUNDS x MILES
Note: Because LTL densities may be different, you will need to change the formula based on how much of your product will fit on a truck. For example: if you were shipping pillows and a truckload of pillows weighed only 10,000 pounds. I would have to adjust the calculation I just made above accordingly.