Notes on carbon markets and industrial transition
Plenty of publications describe freight decarbonisation in broad strokes. We work the other way around: a single rail spine, a specific terminal, a named road leg, and the numbers that come out of it. That difference matters when a figure has to survive a client review or an internal audit.
Every corridor piece states its emission factor set, the tonne-kilometre basis and the telematics window it draws from. If a number cannot be traced back to those three things, we say so instead of smoothing it over.
The Johannesburg-Durban spine, Richards Bay coal and container flows, N1 and N3 leg splits, inland consolidation depots. Averages across South Africa hide the gradient, idling and load-factor effects that actually move diesel burn.
Gauteng and Western Cape hauliers rarely have a full-time analyst. Our method notes assume a spreadsheet, a telematics export and an hour on a Friday afternoon, not a dedicated sustainability team.
Electric and gas truck trials, driver coaching cycles, telematics data-quality fixes. We publish what happened in the first months, including the parts that were dropped because they did not fit a working schedule.
We run a blunt column on figures that fall apart under third-party scrutiny, and we name the assumption that broke. It is not comfortable reading, but it is the reason operators cite our notes in their own reporting packs.
Interview transcripts, spreadsheet extracts and factor references sit alongside the articles. Where a source asked to stay off the record, we mark the gap rather than filling it with an estimate.
Curious how the editorial side is run? Read more on the company page, or send a corridor tip straight to the editors via contact.
Our method notes are not written in isolation. Hauliers, terminal operators and rail planners let us pull telematics, weighbridge tickets and load sheets, then sit through the awkward part where the numbers do not match. These are the organisations that keep the reporting honest.
N3 Linehaul Group
Long-haul road operator
Shared twelve months of diesel and tonne-kilometre records from the Johannesburg–Durban run, including the escarpment descent where fuel burn drops well below the corridor average.
Richards Bay Terminal Services
Bulk and container handling
Opened their siding records for the coal and container flow comparison, and let us publish the emission factor mismatch that two operators on the same line were reporting.
Gauteng Fleet Cooperative
Small haulier collective
Nine owner-operators who run reporting without a full-time analyst. They tested our simplified baseline method and told us plainly which parts did not survive a real dispatch week.
Cape Consolidation Depot
Inland load consolidation
Provided depot-level load splits and idling logs, which is where a lot of reported savings quietly disappear once vehicles wait for a consolidated run.
Telematics Data Review Panel
Independent reviewers
Three fleet engineers who check our published figures against raw exports before anything goes out. They have rejected two drafts so far, and both rejections are documented in the method notes.
Western Cape Haulage Forum
Regional operator network
Hosts our quarterly corridor sessions and supplies the interview transcripts we publish, including the blunt column about claims that fall apart under third-party review.