A key learning from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s Run on Less—Electric program was that the transition to electric vehicles is about much more than just the trucks themselves. It is about charging, infrastructure, grid capacity, resilience, and meeting shippers’ growing sustainability initiatives.
For its latest run, NACFE, in partnership with RMI, is launching Run on Less—Electric Depot to learn and share best practices for scaling electric trucks at depots. NACFE hopes to feature eight fleet depots with 15 or more Class 3 to 8 battery-electric vehicles operating in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico. NACFE’s goal will be to explain fleet scaling considerations such as charging infrastructure, engagement with utilities, total cost of ownership management, driver and technician training, and charge management.
“Run on Less—Electric last summer was, let’s say, 90% about the trucks and 10% about the infrastructure, if that,” NACFE executive director Mike Roeth told FleetOwner during American Trucking Associations’ 2022 Management Conference & Exhibition in San Diego. “This is going to be more like 70% on how to scale the infrastructure and like 30% about the trucks. That’s just a feel for what we are trying to do.”
See also: Lessons learned about electrification
One of the big questions NACFE asked participating fleets in Run on Less—Electric is how they planned to go from one, two, or three electric trucks to 50 or 100. The key with Run on Less overall is focusing on what’s happening now with real freight, real trucks, and real routes, Roeth said.
“One of the hypotheses we have—and I don’t think the industry gets this yet—is that sites, depots, and operations are going to love these trucks,” Roeth noted. “They’re going to want them fast.
Fleet managers have also told NACFE that shippers are increasingly asking about more sustainable goods movement. And they are getting specific, with some beginning to tell fleets that they want an electric truck running their freight 90% of the time, Roeth explained.
“The carriers say, ‘that can’t be,’ and the shippers assume the carriers just don’t want to do it,” he said. “Then they have a real conversation about how [electric vehicles] are coming, but they’re just not here yet. Then, they get into conversations about renewable natural gas and other alternative fuels. It’s just not regulations, it’s just not TCO; sustainability is here to stay.”
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This will mark NACFE’s fourth run and will focus on depots with a mix of electric yard tractors, box trucks, and heavier trucks. NACFE also hopes to highlight effective partnerships among fleets, OEMs, and utilities for this run.
“We know now that this is going to start with private charging at the site where the company owns the trucks, the facility, and the chargers,” Roeth said. “We are working more with the utilities and the property owners, the management of charging technologies, and the chargers themselves. That’s a tall hill for NACFE because we don’t have those relationships so much, but we are building them fast.”
