Is SmartWay mandatory?

No. EPA calls it a market-driven initiative: companies choose to join, at no cost. Carriers become partners by submitting their data to EPA; shippers join to use that data.

What does a SmartWay ranking mean?

EPA divides carriers' annual efficiency and air-quality data into five ranked performance ranges for each mode and carrier category. A better range means fewer emissions per unit of freight than peers in the same category.

Does SmartWay data count for scope 3 reporting?

It can feed it. Partners receive environmental performance data for sustainability reports, and the GLEC Framework's North American road defaults are built on SmartWay categories.

Term

EPA SmartWay

SmartWay is the US Environmental Protection Agency's freight program: carriers report their fuel efficiency to EPA each year, EPA ranks them in five performance ranges by mode, and shippers use the rankings to pick cleaner carriers. Joining is free. EPA says nearly 4,000 companies and organisations take part, run in coordination with Natural Resources Canada.

Also called SmartWay, SmartWay Transport Partnership, SmartWay carrier, SmartWay partner, SmartWay rankingApplies in USUpdated 13 October 2026

Three kinds of partner

Partner	Who	What they do
Carrier	Truck, rail, barge and air carriers	Measure fuel efficiency and submit data to EPA each year; ranked against their sector
Shipper	Companies, governments, colleges and universities that ship freight	Use carriers' aggregated data to assess and improve their own freight
Logistics company	Firms that hire carriers and manage shipments for shippers	Ranked alongside carriers; choose carriers on the data

How the SmartWay Partnership Works — US EPA, August 2026

The tools are no-cost and peer-reviewed. EPA aggregates carriers' annual efficiency and air-quality data into five ranked performance ranges for each freight mode and carrier category, and publishes the rankings as spreadsheets a shipper can sort before choosing a carrier.

What EPA says it has achieved

On EPA's own figures, repeated on its site in August 2026, SmartWay partners have since 2004 saved 397 million barrels of oil and avoided 170 million metric tons of CO2, and US trucking companies working with SmartWay have saved $55.4 billion on fuel. These are EPA's own estimates.

Worked example: what the carrier category does to a footprint

2,000 t moved 800 km = 1,600,000 t-km · truckload dry van, 93 g CO2e per t-km → 148.8 t CO2e · the same freight as less-than-truckload dry van, 218 g → 348.8 t

Defaults from the GLEC Framework v3.2's North American road table, which uses SmartWay categories, well-to-wheel. A SmartWay carrier's own reported data replaces the default.

Outside the US

SmartWay offers North American businesses a single bi-national programme with Natural Resources Canada. Elsewhere, EPA points to programmes modelled on it — Clean Cargo, FRET21, Green Freight Asia, Lean and Green — and to the GLEC Framework, which draws on SmartWay tools and methods.

The mistake people make

Quoting last year's file as this year's. EPA's current reporting year uses the previous year's data, so the current spreadsheet is labelled the 2024 data year, and the 2023 data year shows a final report still pending. Check the data year before using a carrier's ranking in a tender.

FAQ

EPA SmartWay: common questions

Is SmartWay mandatory?: No. EPA calls it a market-driven initiative: companies choose to join, at no cost. Carriers become partners by submitting their data to EPA; shippers join to use that data.
What does a SmartWay ranking mean?: EPA divides carriers' annual efficiency and air-quality data into five ranked performance ranges for each mode and carrier category. A better range means fewer emissions per unit of freight than peers in the same category.
Does SmartWay data count for scope 3 reporting?: It can feed it. Partners receive environmental performance data for sustainability reports, and the GLEC Framework's North American road defaults are built on SmartWay categories.