I get a lot of questions about how to calculate the carbon footprint of trucking. The problem is quite simple to compute. However, there is one variable that presents a problem. fuel consumption. Fuel consumption is not constant. It depends on many factors like: the age of the truck, the general maintenance of the truck, the aerodynamic factor of the truck, if it was traveling uphill or downhill, if it was a windy day, etc, etc. If you’re comfortable with an estimate: 6 miles per gallon is a good estimate of what an average truck uses. Now, the rest is hard data…

Example #1: FULL TRUCK LOAD

truck with full load

Fuel consumption: 6 miles per gallon

Miles traveled: 1000

Carbon per US Gallon of Diesel: 2.77 KG

= 1000 miles/6 mpg x 2.77 kg per gallon

(Ignore the mix 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 pound truck load).

Example #2 LTL:

LTL

Full truck = 44,000 lbs.

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 of this truck is 461.68 KG from the calculation above and that a full truck carries 44,000 lbs. 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 can be different, you will need to change the formula based on how much of your product will fit in a truck. For example: If you were shipping pillows and a truckload of pillows weighed only 10,000 lbs. You would have to adjust the calculation I just did above accordingly.