How to measure emissions from Business travel: Road

What counts as Business travel: Road

Business travel road is car, taxi, bus and coach travel undertaken by employees for work purposes, covering vehicles owned by the organisation, rental vehicles, taxis and employees' personal vehicles used on business (sometimes called grey fleet). It excludes an employee's regular commute, which is reported under employee commuting instead. The vehicle's ownership determines its scope: organisation-owned vehicles sit in Scope 1 or Scope 2 (for electric vehicle charging), while rental, taxi and personal-car business mileage sits in Scope 3 Category 6.

Business travel road is the most scope-diverse category in this cluster, because a single business trip could involve a company car (Scope 1), a rental EV charged at a public point (Scope 2), or an employee's own car claimed on expenses (Scope 3 Category 6). The key double-counting risk is with liquid fuels: if you already report fuel purchased for company-owned vehicles under liquid fuels, don't also report the same mileage as business travel road — pick one home for owned-fleet fuel and stick to it. It also differs from employee commuting, which covers the daily home-to-work journey rather than trips for a specific work purpose. As a reporting tip, tag mileage claims by vehicle type (company car, hire car, personal car, taxi) at the point of expense submission, since this is far easier than reconstructing ownership after the fact.

What activity data you need

Collect the most specific physical unit available. Unit definitions are in Appendix I — Description of Units.

• passenger.km
• kWh
• km
• litre
• tonne
• £ Spend
• $ Spend

Which emission scope it falls under

Business travel: Road activity data typically maps to Scope 1 and Scope 2 and Scope 3 Category 6 under the GHG Protocol. Confirm organisational boundary and ownership before reporting.

Sub-types available in the platform

All 17 sub-types available in the platform.

• Black taxi
• Black taxi: Electric
• Bus: Average
• Car or vehicle: Not owned by organisation
• Car or vehicle: Owned by organisation
• Coach
• Diesel (average biofuel blend)
• Hybrid taxi
• Land travel: Average: UK
• Local bus
• London bus
• Mini bus: 9 seat: Average
• Motorbike: Not owned by organisation
• Motorbike: Owned by organisation
• Petrol (average biofuel blend)
• Regular taxi
• Road Travel: Average

Data entry options

• vehicle type

  Select vehicle type when entering business travel: road activity data in the platform.

• fuel type

  Select fuel type when entering business travel: road activity data in the platform.

Full list of data entry options

Common questions

How do I avoid double counting fuel for company cars under both liquid fuels and business travel road?

Choose one category to hold owned-fleet fuel data — either liquid fuels or business travel road — and apply that choice consistently across all reporting periods and vehicles.

What is grey fleet and how should it be reported?

Grey fleet refers to employees' personal vehicles used for business trips and reimbursed via mileage claims; report this mileage under business travel road as Scope 3 Category 6.

Does charging a company electric vehicle at a public charge point count as Scope 1 or Scope 2?

Electricity drawn from a public charge point for an organisation-owned or leased EV is typically reported as Scope 2, distinct from Scope 1 fuel combustion in petrol or diesel company vehicles.

Should taxi journeys booked centrally by an office be treated differently from personal taxi expense claims?

No, both are reported the same way under business travel road as Scope 3 Category 6, regardless of whether the booking was made centrally or claimed individually.

How do I collect mileage data for personal cars used on business without telematics?

Rely on expense system mileage claims, ideally with start and end points or total distance recorded at the point of submission, since this is the most consistent source without vehicle-level telematics.