Step 1: Transport operations and TOC mapping

What is a transport leg?

A transport leg is one segment of a shipment using one vehicle type. A delivery from Madrid to Hamburg might have three legs:

Leg	Mode	Vehicle	Route
1	Road	Articulated truck	Madrid to Barcelona port
2	Maritime	General cargo vessel	Barcelona to Hamburg
3	Road	Van	Hamburg port to warehouse

Each leg gets its own emission calculation.

What is a TOC?

A TOC (Transport Operation Category) is the combination of vehicle type + fuel that determines the emission factor. Think of it as a label that tells Dcycle how polluting that type of transport is.

Examples:

TOC	Mode	Vehicle	Fuel	Emission factor
van_diesel	Road	Van	Diesel	1.270 kgCO2e/tkm
articulated_truck_diesel	Road	Articulated truck	Diesel	0.196 kgCO2e/tkm
generic_average_rail	Rail	Freight train	Mixed	0.025 kgCO2e/tkm
general_cargo	Maritime	Cargo vessel	HFO	0.012 kgCO2e/tkm
freighter	Air	Cargo plane	Jet fuel	0.600 kgCO2e/tkm

How to map your shipments to TOCs

This is the most important step. For each transport leg, you need to decide which TOC applies.

Option A: You know the exact vehicle

If you know the vehicle type and fuel, specify the TOC directly. This gives the most accurate result.

What you provide: origin, destination, load, and TOC (e.g., rigid_truck_diesel)

Option B: You only know the transport mode

If you don’t know the exact vehicle, just provide the category (road, rail, maritime, or air). Dcycle assigns a generic average TOC for that mode and region.

What you provide: origin, destination, load, and category (e.g., road)

Option C: You already have the distance

If you know the exact distance, provide distance_km instead of origin and destination. Dcycle skips the geocoding step and uses your number directly.

Available TOCs by mode

Road

TOC	Typical use
van_diesel / van_electric	Last-mile, small parcels
rigid_truck_diesel	Urban distribution, medium loads
articulated_truck_diesel / _electric	Long-haul, full truckloads
tank_truck_diesel	Liquid or bulk cargo
generic_average_road	When you don’t know the vehicle

Supported fuels: diesel, electric, CNG, LNG, HVO, biodiesel blends, LPG.

Rail

TOC	Typical use
generic_average_rail	All rail freight

Rail has the lowest emission intensity of any land mode.

Maritime

TOC	Typical use
oil_tanker	Petroleum and liquids
general_cargo	Mixed cargo vessels
bulk_carrier	Dry bulk (grain, minerals)
ro_ro	Roll-on/roll-off (vehicles, trailers)
generic_average_maritime	When you don’t know the vessel type

Air

TOC	Typical use
freighter	Dedicated cargo planes
belly_freight	Cargo in passenger aircraft
generic_average_air	When you don’t know the aircraft type

Distance Adjustment Factors (DAF)

Real routes are longer than straight-line distances. GLEC applies correction factors:

Mode	Adjustment	Why
Road	Route distance x 0.95	Roads aren’t straight
Maritime	Route distance x 0.85	Sea lanes curve around land
Air	Great Circle - 95 km	Takeoff and landing patterns
Rail	No adjustment	Rail distances are typically accurate

Multi-modal shipments

Many real shipments use more than one mode. To track them together:

1. Create one leg per transport segment
2. Use the same movement ID across all legs (e.g., MOV-2025-MAD-HAM-001)
3. Optionally tag each leg as first_mile, main_haul, or last_mile

Dcycle aggregates the total CO2e and distance across all legs with the same movement ID.

Load units

You can express cargo weight in different units:

Unit	Conversion	When to use
kg	1 kg	Default, any cargo
ton	1,000 kg	Heavy freight
pallets	1,500 kg	Palletized goods
teu	20,000 kg	20ft containers
feu	40,000 kg	40ft containers

Load factor (shared capacity)

If your cargo only fills part of the vehicle, use load_factor to allocate emissions proportionally. A value of 0.5 means your cargo uses 50% of the vehicle’s capacity, so you get 50% of the emissions.

Subcontracted transport

If a leg is handled by a third-party carrier:

• Mark it as subcontracted
• The emissions move from Scope 1 (own fleet) to Scope 3 (purchased transport)
• This distinction matters for your GLEC company report

Best practices

1. Use the most specific TOC you can. articulated_truck_diesel is more accurate than generic_average_road
2. Include the origin country. Regional emission factors (e.g., EU vs. global) are more precise
3. Group legs with movement IDs. This enables shipment-level reporting
4. Mark subcontracted legs. Correct scope allocation depends on it