Tomas Edwards, CMO at Daloop, a specialist in sustainable mobility management, on some of the underdiscussed challenges of a fleet transition, as well as how to solve them.

Tomas Edwards, CMO at Daloop

The decision to embrace fleet electrification can be a difficult one for companies. There are many benefits to electrifying a fleet, ranging from the brand and reputational pay-off to increased efficiency and longer-term cost savings, not to mention the sustainability benefits, but the process of transitioning can present businesses and their fleet managers with multiple challenges.  Some are outside of the organisation’s control, like potential supply issues of EVs and the national charging infrastructure. However, there are other, less apparent, challenges which only materialise once the transition away from carbon-based mobility is underway.

We tend to hear a lot about cost, range anxiety, practicality, lack of required infrastructure, and so forth, but in my experience there are other important considerations that truly make or break a fleet electrification strategy.

For example, when a workplace needs charging infrastructure, whether in depots, office carparks, or the homes of fleet vehicle drivers, ill-considered installation – whilst undoubtedly contributing to the reduction of emissions – can often be prohibitively expensive, removing the potential cost-benefit that, alongside sustainability objectives, may have led the decision.

The installation of charge points for a fleet effectively creates a private charging network, ie it’s only accessible by authorised vehicles; but many don’t consider how they’ll be used practically. It is normally essential for operational vehicles to be prioritised over staff vehicles, so businesses need some kind of reservation system to ensure vehicles can charge when they need to. Alongside this, strategies typically must also include the provision of energy into an employee benefits package, or incorporate a charging and reporting mechanism, as EV charging will inevitably be categorised as a Benefit-in-Kind. Both present businesses with an administrative challenge as they transition away from internal combustion engines.

In many cases, fleet vehicles are kept overnight at the driver’s home as opposed to in a depot, complicating overnight charging. Depending on their own circumstances, drivers might have vastly different abilities to install chargers where they live. If a charge point is installed, the question of who pays for the installation arises, and what should happen if the driver moves house, or leaves the company? What if they don’t own the property? These are some of the issues that will demand new understanding, tailored approaches and the drawing up of a clear policy.

The key consideration for any business looking to adopt electric mobility is oversight. Regardless of the planned infrastructure, businesses need an intelligent software solution that links vehicles, chargepoints, energy, and the driver if necessary, to ensure that they maintain control. A data-driven management platform can prioritise charge points in offices and depots for commercial vehicles, ensuring that these vehicles have enough charge for their journeys on any given day, and link activity “in the field”, so to speak, so charging activity away from the office is also included.  If the situation lends itself, those businesses can also gain an insight into when the charging hardware could be offered to the public for increased ROI. In this way, an electrification approach that prioritises using business analysis can dramatically increase the benefits of a transition whilst simultaneously providing essential insights to overcome the challenges.

However, the difficulties and benefits of decarbonised mobility are not limited to logistics. Opinions about the transition to fleet electrification can be divisive among drivers, with the potential to both attract and drive away talent. On an ethical level, taking this step communicates a business’s values, demonstrating a real commitment towards the future of the planet. Serving as a concrete representation of a company’s ethos, decarbonisation efforts are often a pull-factor for ambitious talent across all departments of a business, from drivers to accounts, sales to management. However, some drivers may see the fleet electrification journey as a hindrance to their day-to-day routine, perhaps extending journeys and complicating processes, particularly during the transition period. Therefore, it is important to involve drivers in this decision and to ensure that, as they implement management oversight tools, this isn’t interpreted by drivers as mistrust.

The Government’s 2030 deadline has pushed the topic of fleet electrification from a nice-to-have to a must-do, so even the most resistant drivers will come to accept electrification as a necessary change in time. The true priority for organisations is to ensure the smoothest, most efficient electrification process possible, and making the decision to invest in these changes now is a great way to do this. The sooner electrification becomes a serious consideration for fleet managers and organisations alike, the better the chance of a streamlined transition for drivers, customers and business operations in general, well in advance of 2030, reducing the risks that come with a rushed or ill-planned transition.

So, although the difficulties that can come with fleet electrification are surmountable, it is important that businesses take time to plan out their strategies, as the smallest challenges, such as oversight of an individual at-home charger, could drastically affect ROI. However, there is a growing push from consumers, employees and even regulatory bodies to prioritise decarbonising business operations, and decarbonised mobility is an essential step.

When fleets combine their electrification journey with smart analytics, sustainable mobility becomes not just a possibility, but a more efficient way to operate fleets and attract and retain employees.