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EERE Home | Programs & Offices | Consumer Information Welcome Guest! Sign up Login Print this Page FleetDASH Data Processing × FleetDASH Data Processing Methodologies Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the , or FleetDASH, tracks participating Federal agencies’ fleet fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and vehicle inventories throughout the year. Beginning in fiscal year 2021, DOE FEMP uses FleetDASH as the primary EPAct 2005 Section 701 waiver requests and compliance tool (see Section 701 in FleetDASH). FleetDASH primarily supports the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) leased portion of Federal fleets using GSA Reports Carryout datasets, although agencies can work with FEMP to incorporate their agency-owned data. FEMP continues to work to incorporate agency owned vehicle data as sources are available. Data processing sections: Data Sources Timeliness Terms Processing Steps Geocoding Data Quality Data Sources Fuel Transaction Reports FleetDASH’s primary data set is the Transactional by Vehicle report within the Fuel Use Reports section of the GSA Reports Carryout system. The Transactional by Vehicle report includes individual fuel transaction records that show each time a driver purchased fuel for a GSA leased vehicle with the fuel card associated with that vehicle. FEMP continues to work with agencies to incorporate agency owned data as well. FleetDASH uses the following from the fuel transaction records: Fuel type of the vehicle for which the fuel was purchased Type of fuel purchased Purchase date of the fuel Station name, address, city, state, and ZIP code of the purchase location Quantity of fuel purchased in the natural units of the fuel Each fuel transaction record is assigned to a fleet hierarchy based on an organization code (e.g. BOAC for GSA leased vehicles) on the transaction record. Fleet Inventory Reports Fleet inventory reports contain vehicle attribute information that is displayed in FleetDASH and can be helpful in support analyses. The inventory information primarily includes the following: Point of contact information Garage location Vehicle standard item number (SIN) Vehicle type (e.g. sedan, SUV, etc.) Year, make, and model Law enforcement and Emergency response designations Timeliness Data for a given month will be available on the FleetDASH website by the end of the following month. For example, data for January will be pulled from the Reports Carryout system on February 15 and will be available on FleetDASH by February 28. The FleetDASH team pulls data in accordance with the Reports Carryout schedule for loading bulk transaction data from Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Energy (formerly the Defense Energy Support Center, or DESC), which occurs between the 10th and 15th days of each month. Terms: Gasoline Gallon Equivalents All fuel quantities shown in FleetDASH are in units of gasoline gallon equivalents (GGEs), which is the quantity of the fuel in question that contains the same amount of energy as one gallon of gasoline. For example, because a gallon of E85 contains less energy than a gallon of gasoline, a fuel purchase of 1 gallon of E85 is represented in FleetDASH as 0.72 GGEs of E85. See the Processing Steps section for additional details. Missed Opportunities Missed opportunities are defined as instances where dual-fuel or flex-fuel vehicles capable of operating on an alternative fuel are fueled with petroleum at a location where the appropriate alternative fuel is available within 3 miles Avoidable Greenhouse Gases Avoidable greenhouse gases are defined as the emissions that could have been avoided had missed opportunities been alternative fuel purchases. Avoidable greenhouse gases are calculated by subtracting the greenhouse gas emissions that would have occurred due to the alternative fuel from the emissions due to the purchased petroleum. Available Alternative Fuel Available alternative fuel is defined as fuel provided by operational stations that are accessible to agency vehicles where the marketed price of the fuel is not more expensive than gasoline. For example, if a gallon of E85 (as opposed to a GGE) is more expensive than a gallon of gasoline in a particular month, E85 at that station is considered unreasonably more expensive and the fuel is considered unavailable for that month. Users should report inaccessible stations or unreasonably expensive fuel to NREL. Processing Steps Fuel transaction data is organized for presentation in FleetDASH according to the following primary steps. Assign transaction to organizations BOAC-to-organization mapping is determined by Federal agency fleet executive management. Organization codes are mapped to the fleet hierarchy by agency fleet executive management. Records with unassigned organization codes are excluded from the dashboard until the organization code assignment is made. Records with organization codes specifically excluded from reporting by agency fleet executive management are excluded from the dashboard views. Convert fuel quantities to GGEs The natural units of the fuel transaction are converted to GGEs. The conversion factors for each fuel type can be found in the Federal Automotive Statistical Tool (FAST) . Calculate greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are calculated in metric tons of CO2 equivalents (MT CO2e) by applying GHG emissions factors to the quantity of fuel purchased for each fuel transaction record. GHG emissions factors for each fuel type can be found in FAST . Locate fuel stations The station location for each transaction is assigned a specific latitude and longitude through a process referred to as geocoding. Please see the Geocoding section for more detail. Identify missed opportunities Fuel purchases are classified as missed opportunities when dual-fuel capable vehicles purchase petroleum fuel when the appropriate alternative fuel is available nearby. An alternative fuel is determined to be available nearby if a station known to sell the fuel is accessible to agency vehicles, accepts the appropriate fuel credit card, and is within a 3-mile straight line distance of where petroleum was purchased. Alternative fuel station locations are determined by the Alternative Fueling Station Locator database available at the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center . Geocoding Geocoding is the process of translating a physical address to a latitude and longitude. FleetDASH uses geocoding to determine the locations of fueling transactions and vehicle garages using a MapQuest geocoding service. That service provides accuracy levels that include (premise is the most accurate level): Premise Address Intersection Street Postal Code Locality Region Unknown NULL The overwhelming majority of stations (86%) are geocoded at the address or premise levels, and 97% are geocoded at the postal code level or better. Less than 1% of stations are unable to be geocoded, and therefore are not accounted for in geographic analysis. However, fuel use from these stations is accounted for in the fuel consumption summaries. Data Quality The systems that log fuel purchase transaction data are automated rather than manually entered, which means that the data quality in general is believed to be robust. However, there are issues that can affect data quality. Miscoded Fuel Transactions In some instances, transaction data shows an unexpected fuel purchased for a particular vehicle fuel type; for example, B20 purchased for an E85-capable vehicle, or diesel purchased for a gasoline vehicle. Fleets have also reported that alternative fuel purchases sometimes are not correctly recorded in transaction records; for example, E85 was purchased for a flex-fuel vehicle, but the transaction is recorded as a gasoline purchase. FleetDASH does not update the transaction fuel types, but the stations can be flagged as known to have fuel coding issues. Fleet personnel can report fuel coding issues by...