This study focuses on the actual exhaust emissions of regulated and unregulated pollutantsfrom earthwork machines (EM). In addition to providing a realistic assessment of gaseousand particulate emissions from key EM and filling critical data gaps in emission inventories,it emphasizes the importance of breaking down the average operating emission factors intotask-related emission factors (TEF). The latter serve many goals, namely by: categorizingEM in relation to their emission dynamics, finding emission determinants and proposingon-site emission mitigation strategies. These have also led to a more refined analysis ofboth the effectiveness of EU and US emissions standards and the accuracy ofNONROAD2008 model. Ultimately, by using task-related emission factors in conjunctionwith data available from the literature and with the methodology developed by US-EPA,a lower bound was estimated for gaseous exhaust emissions from the major constructionvehicles operable at earthwork sites.