Consignment-level allocations of carbon emissions in road freight transport

•A new allocation method (Dedicated Distance Proportional Allocation, DDPA) is proposed.•DDPA allocates transport emissions to consignments in routes with single or several points of loading/unloading.•DDPA is evaluated in simulations with three existent allocation methods from literature.•The results illustrate the strengths and weaknesses with DDPA and existent methods.•DDPA achieve equal relative savings for all consignments, on average. This paper presents and evaluates a new method for how emissions from freight transport routes with single or several points of loading and unloading, can be allocated to individual consignments. The method, called Dedicated Distance Proportional Allocation (DDPA), has been developed based on a literature review, discussions with logistics providers, and analysis. DDPA is designed to have low data processing requirements and be easy to explain to actors involved. Furthermore, it supports several levels of information availability, and accounts for any set of vehicle-limiting factors, as well as prepositioning/repositioning. DDPA has been evaluated in simulations with different levels of information availability, together with three existent allocation methods: the Equal profit method (EPM), the CEN EN16258:2011 standard and the Greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol. The simulations show that the GHG protocol under-allocates the total amount of emissions, on average. EPM and DDPA achieve equal relative savings, whereas for CEN EN16258:2011 and the GHG protocol, relative savings vary, on average. When DDPA is used with low level of information availability, an error is introduced which can be reduced by applying compensation factors. Since DDPA accepts low information availability, the Intelligent Products concept can be applied for computing and storing emissions allocations, at the time of unloading. The results from this study can be used for further development and implementation of consignment allocation methods. Furthermore, by combining DDPA with other environmental load approaches for other parts of a product’s life cycle, a complete life cycle assessment of the product’s environmental impact can be obtained.