Step 3: Track Actual Fuel Consumption

Understanding Fuel Consumption in GLEC

By default, GLEC calculates transport emissions using TOC-level WTW factors (default emission factors per vehicle type). For carriers operating their own fleet, recording actual fuel consumption (recharges) provides a more accurate picture of Scope 1 emissions and allows comparison between default and measured intensity values.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    FUEL CONSUMPTION IN GLEC                                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                              │
│  Default (TOC factors)              Actual (Fuel Recharges)                 │
│  ─────────────────────              ───────────────────────                 │
│  CO2e = tkm × WTW factor           CO2e = fuel qty × fuel EF              │
│  Uses average fleet values          Uses real consumption data             │
│  Quick, requires no fuel data       More accurate, requires fuel records   │
│                                                                              │
│  Both approaches coexist:                                                   │
│  • Transport legs always use TOC WTW for per-leg CO2e                      │
│  • Fuel recharges provide actual Scope 1 data for the company report       │
│  • The GLEC report compares both to show data quality                      │
│                                                                              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

When to track fuel consumptionFuel recharges are most relevant for carriers (logistics service providers) who:

Operate their own fleet and have access to fuel card data
Need carrier-level Scope 1 accuracy (actual vs. estimated)
Want to calculate measured intensity values per vehicle/TOC
Are reporting under GLEC’s “enhanced” reporting level

Shippers typically don’t need this step — they rely on TOC default factors for Scope 3 reporting.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

Dcycle API credentials (get them here)
Fuel consumption records: fuel type, quantity, date, and optionally vehicle plate
Transport legs already uploaded (Step 1)

Understanding Fuel Types

Each fuel type in the GLEC database has three emission factors:

Factor	Full Name	Scope	Description
TTW	Tank-to-Wheel	Scope 1	Direct combustion emissions
WTT	Well-to-Tank	Scope 3	Upstream fuel production emissions
WTW	Well-to-Wheel	Total	TTW + WTT combined

Supported Fuel Types

Fossil Fuels
Biofuels & Alternatives
Electricity

Fuel	Description	Typical Use
Diesel / Gas oil	Standard road diesel	Trucks, vans
CNG	Compressed natural gas	Urban fleets
LNG	Liquefied natural gas	Long-haul trucks, maritime
LPG	Liquefied petroleum gas	Light commercial vehicles
HFO	Heavy fuel oil	Maritime vessels
MGO / MDO	Marine gasoil / Marine diesel oil	Maritime vessels
Jet fuel (kerosene)	Aviation fuel	Air cargo

Fuel	Description	Typical Use
HVO	Hydrotreated vegetable oil	Drop-in diesel replacement
Biodiesel (B20, B100)	Fatty acid methyl ester blends	Blended or pure
Bio-CNG	Biomethane (compressed)	Urban fleets
Bio-LNG	Biomethane (liquefied)	Long-haul, maritime

Biofuels typically have lower WTW factors than fossil equivalents. Using HVO or biodiesel directly reduces your company’s emission intensity.

For electric vehicles, emissions depend on the electricity grid:CO2e = kWh consumed x Grid emission factor (kgCO2e/kWh)Grid factors vary by country and are updated annually. Dcycle selects the appropriate grid factor based on the vehicle’s origin_country.For hubs with supercharger: true, on-site charging energy is included in the hub’s Scope 2 emissions via facility invoices.

Regional Emission Factors

Fuel emission factors vary by region. Dcycle stores factors per fuel per region:

Region	Code	Countries
Europe	`EU`	EU member states, UK, Switzerland, Norway
North America	`NA`	USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia
South America	`SA`	Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, etc.
Asia	`AS`	China, India, Japan, South Korea, etc.
Africa	`AF`	All African countries
Oceania	`OC`	Pacific island nations
Global	`GLO`	Default fallback

Step 3.1: Upload Fuel Recharges via CSV

Fuel consumption data is typically uploaded in bulk via CSV through the legacy upload endpoint:

📋 Data Map: Fuel Recharges CSV

Column	Type	Required	Description	Example
`fuel_type`	string	Yes	Fuel name (matched via fuzzy/regex)	`"Diesel"`, `"GNC"`, `"HVO"`
`quantity`	number	Yes	Fuel quantity consumed	`150.5`
`date`	date	Yes	Date of recharge	`"2025-03-15"`
`vehicle_license_plate`	string	No	Vehicle plate for per-vehicle tracking	`"1234-ABC"`
`country`	string	No	Country code for regional factors	`"ES"`

Where to get this data:

Fuel cards: Most fleet fuel card providers export CSV with fuel type, quantity, date, and vehicle plate
ERP/TMS: Transport management systems often track fuel consumption per vehicle
Manual records: For smaller fleets, daily fuel logs

CSV Format

fuel_type,quantity,date,vehicle_license_plate,country
Diesel,150.5,2025-03-01,1234-ABC,ES
Diesel,200.0,2025-03-01,5678-XYZ,ES
GNC,80.0,2025-03-02,9012-DEF,ES
HVO,175.0,2025-03-03,1234-ABC,ES
Electricidad,45.0,2025-03-03,3456-GHI,ES

Upload Process

import requests
import os

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('DCYCLE_API_KEY')}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "x-organization-id": os.getenv("DCYCLE_ORG_ID"),
    "x-partner": os.getenv("DCYCLE_PARTNER_ID"),
}

# Step 1: Get presigned URL for recharges file
upload_body = {
    "recharges_file_name": "march_2025_fuel_recharges.csv",
}

upload_response = requests.post(
    "https://api.dcycle.io/logistics/upload",
    headers=headers,
    json=upload_body,
).json()

recharges_url = upload_response["recharges"]["upload_url"]
file_id = upload_response["recharges"]["file_id"]

# Step 2: Upload CSV to S3
with open("march_2025_fuel_recharges.csv", "rb") as f:
    requests.put(recharges_url, data=f)

print(f"Uploaded. File ID: {file_id}")

# Step 3: Check processing status
import time

while True:
    status_response = requests.get(
        "https://api.dcycle.io/logistics/status",
        headers=headers,
    ).json()
    # Check file status
    print(f"Status: {status_response}")
    time.sleep(5)
    break  # Replace with actual status check logic

Fuel name matching: Dcycle uses pattern matching to map fuel names from your CSV to standard fuel types. Common mappings include:

"Diesel", "Gasoleo", "Gas Oil" → Diesel
"GNC", "CNG" → Compressed natural gas
"GNL", "LNG" → Liquefied natural gas
"HVO" → Hydrotreated vegetable oil
"Electricidad", "Electricity" → Grid electricity

If a fuel name cannot be matched, it will appear as an error in the upload results.

Step 3.2: Check Upload Errors

After uploading, check for any rows that failed to process:

file_id = "your-file-id"

# Get recharge upload errors
errors = requests.get(
    f"https://api.dcycle.io/logistics/errors/recharges/{file_id}",
    headers=headers,
    params={"page": 1, "size": 50},
).json()

if errors["items"]:
    print(f"Errors found: {len(errors['items'])}")
    for error in errors["items"]:
        print(f"  Row {error['row']}: {error['error']}")
else:
    print("All records processed successfully")

Common Upload Errors

Error	Cause	Fix
Unrecognized fuel type	Fuel name doesn’t match any pattern	Use standard names (Diesel, GNC, HVO, etc.)
Invalid quantity	Non-numeric or negative value	Ensure quantity is a positive number
Invalid date	Date format not recognized	Use YYYY-MM-DD format
Missing required field	Empty fuel_type or quantity	Fill in all required columns

Step 3.3: Electric Vehicles

For electric vehicles, emissions are calculated using the grid emission factor and the vehicle’s energy efficiency factor (EEF): CO2e = tkm x grid_ef (kgCO2e/kWh) x EEF (kWh/tkm) Where:

grid_ef: Country-specific electricity grid emission factor, updated annually
EEF: Energy efficiency factor specific to the TOC (how many kWh per tonne-kilometer)

Electric vehicle recharges are tracked as electricity consumption (kWh) in the recharges CSV:

fuel_type,quantity,date,vehicle_license_plate,country
Electricity,45.0,2025-03-03,3456-EV,ES
Electricity,52.0,2025-03-04,3456-EV,ES

Hub superchargers: If your hub has a supercharger: true, on-site EV charging energy is captured through the hub’s linked Facility invoices (Scope 2). This avoids double-counting with recharges.

How Fuel Data Appears in the GLEC Report

In the GLEC Company Report, fuel consumption data enriches the Scope 1 breakdown:

Scope 1 (TTW): Actual fuel combustion emissions from recharges (direct emissions from your fleet)
Scope 3 (WTT): Upstream fuel production emissions calculated from recharge quantities
Intensity Values: Measured IV per TOC (actual kgCO2e/tkm) compared to default TOC WTW factors
Emission factors used: The report lists all fuel types and their WTT/TTW/WTW factors applied

GLEC Company Report — Emission Factors Used
─────────────────────────────────────────────
Fuel: Diesel (EU)
  WTT: 0.610 kgCO2e/liter
  TTW: 2.680 kgCO2e/liter
  WTW: 3.290 kgCO2e/liter

Fuel: HVO (EU)
  WTT: 0.340 kgCO2e/liter
  TTW: 0.000 kgCO2e/liter (biogenic)
  WTW: 0.340 kgCO2e/liter

Best Practices

1. Upload Monthly

Upload fuel recharges monthly to keep your GLEC report current and to detect trends early.

2. Include Vehicle Plates

Always include vehicle_license_plate when available. This enables:

Per-vehicle emission tracking
Matching recharges to specific TOCs
Identifying the most and least efficient vehicles in your fleet

3. Match Countries Accurately

Ensure the country in your recharges CSV matches the country where fuel was purchased — this determines which regional emission factors are applied.

4. Reconcile with Transport Legs

Compare total fuel consumed (from recharges) against expected consumption (from transport leg tkm x TOC factors) to identify data quality issues.

Calculate Emissions

ISO 14064

GHG Protocol

GLEC v3.0 Framework

Use Case Tutorials

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Advanced

Automation & AI

Understanding Fuel Consumption in GLEC

Prerequisites

Understanding Fuel Types

Supported Fuel Types

Regional Emission Factors

Step 3.1: Upload Fuel Recharges via CSV

CSV Format

Upload Process

Step 3.2: Check Upload Errors

Common Upload Errors

Step 3.3: Electric Vehicles

How Fuel Data Appears in the GLEC Report

Best Practices

1. Upload Monthly

2. Include Vehicle Plates

3. Match Countries Accurately

4. Reconcile with Transport Legs

Next Steps

Step 4: GLEC Reports

Step 1: Transport Operations

Calculate Emissions

ISO 14064

GHG Protocol

GLEC v3.0 Framework

Use Case Tutorials

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Advanced

Automation & AI

​Understanding Fuel Consumption in GLEC

​Prerequisites

​Understanding Fuel Types

​Supported Fuel Types

​Regional Emission Factors

​Step 3.1: Upload Fuel Recharges via CSV

​CSV Format

​Upload Process

​Step 3.2: Check Upload Errors

​Common Upload Errors

​Step 3.3: Electric Vehicles

​How Fuel Data Appears in the GLEC Report

​Best Practices

​1. Upload Monthly

​2. Include Vehicle Plates

​3. Match Countries Accurately

​4. Reconcile with Transport Legs

​Next Steps

Step 4: GLEC Reports

Step 1: Transport Operations

Understanding Fuel Consumption in GLEC

Prerequisites

Understanding Fuel Types

Supported Fuel Types

Regional Emission Factors

Step 3.1: Upload Fuel Recharges via CSV

CSV Format

Upload Process

Step 3.2: Check Upload Errors

Common Upload Errors

Step 3.3: Electric Vehicles

How Fuel Data Appears in the GLEC Report

Best Practices

1. Upload Monthly

2. Include Vehicle Plates

3. Match Countries Accurately

4. Reconcile with Transport Legs

Next Steps