Centrica has improved productivity and cut downtime across its electric van fleet under a “transformational” collaboration with Gridserve.

The smart lockers enable Centrica engineers to collect stock for jobs that day via the Thinventory smart lockers

Parent company of British Gas, Centrica runs a 3,000-strong fleet of Vauxhall Vivaro Electric vans, which service customers across the UK.

The vans are often seen charging at the Gridserve Braintree Electric Forecourt – and to streamline operations, Gridserve has worked with Thinventory, a leading logistics and technology driven company, to bring smart lockers to the Braintree site.

The novel solution limits downtime for Centrica by combining two jobs. It allows drivers to quickly charge their vans while also collecting stock for their jobs that day from Centrica’s National Distribution Centre via the Thinventory network.

By co-locating two of the biggest factors in downtime, engineers get to their customers faster and deliver a better service.

Rob Simister, director of fleet operations at Centrica, said: “A majority of our engineers cannot home charge their British Gas vans and we do not have depots in the UK. This means that the time taken to public charge our battery electric vans is a critical component of how many customers we can serve. By reducing charge time, we can get to our customers faster.

“Working with Gridserve and Thinventory provides us reliable, available high-power charging at the same location that our engineers pick up their parts for the day’s service, repair and installation jobs. It reduces the time they are not serving our customers to the minimum and is supporting our net zero fleet rollout.”

Simister added that removing the need for another stop in engineers’ daily itinerary reduces miles of driving and saves hours of time every year.

By reducing charge time through high-power chargers, Centrica’s engineers can get to customers faster

He continued: “And that’s just for one van. If you extrapolate that across the whole fleet, then the benefits are transformational.”

Centrica is also using other innovative solutions to keep its electric fleet powered up; the energy services and solutions company has secured access to the First Bus rapid EV charging infrastructure at bus depots nationwide, supporting its EV fleet rollout.

The Thinventory solution was implemented at Gridserve Braintree Electric Forecourt at the end of 2023 and a range of businesses now use the tech-enabled lockers to power up their operations.

The lockers enable brands with large numbers of field engineers, such as Centrica, to securely collect and return equipment and parts at convenient places near their points of service. There are now over 45,000 smart lockers across 1,500 UK sites, including the 21 doors installed at the Braintree Electric Forecourt.

Andy Crees, operations director at Thinventory, said: “Operating in 31 countries, Thinventory delivers 30 million items per year, with 99.7% of deliveries made on time. Customers can securely deliver to smart lockers such as those at Gridserve Braintree Electric Forecourt, reducing the distance engineers need to travel to pick up and return items, benefiting both our clients and their customers.”

Sam Clarke, commercial lead at Gridserve, added: “The Thinventory installation offers businesses charging with us extra value. For Centrica drivers, it reduces the need for another stop, giving them more time to support customers.”