The North American Council on Freight Efficiency is looking for more fleets to participate in its 2023 Run on Less demonstration. Scheduled to be conducted this fall, the fourth Run on Less program will focus on electric trucks operating at depots, as was first reported by FleetOwner last year.
“Some fleets have been tentative about getting involved with electric vehicles,” Mike Roeth, NACFE executive director, said. “Others have been pursuing them more enthusiastically. We are working on connecting with some of those fleets as we conduct Run on Less-Electric Depot this fall. We are excited to move from mostly looking at the electric trucks—as we did in Run on Less-Electric—to learning what it takes to scale from one or two electric trucks to 15 or more at a single location.”
See also: How did NACFE do in 2022? A look back at emissions resolutions.
Roeth added that NACFE wants to help fleets of all sizes understand what it takes to begin scaling electric truck adoption. Some of this year’s Run on Less will focus on truck data, but most of the demonstration will be used to gather more information about charging infrastructure and requirements. The nonprofit said its goal is to help fleets address the challenges of converting to battery-electric vehicles.
Roeth said Run on Less-Electric Depot will seek to answer the following five questions:
- How much power is really needed to charge these commercial vehicles?
- Why does it take so long to get the infrastructure in place?
- What are the footprint challenges in deciding to place the infrastructure?
- How should I approach managing the charging to save electricity costs?
- What are the challenges around different trucks and charging systems?
Seeking more fleet participants
PepsiCo, the second largest private fleet in the U.S. (according to the 2022 FleetOwner 500: Private), will be the 2023 Run’s executive sponsor; Cummins and Shell are title sponsors. Here is a complete list of RoL-E Depot sponsors. Roeth noted that the project is still seeking more funding. If interested, he can be reached at [email protected].
“While we have already identified some depot fleets that we think are candidates to participate in RoL-E Depot, we are still looking for others who are interested as we plan to feature fleets across the U.S. and in Canada and Mexico as well,” Roeth said. “Fleets interested in participating in the Run can fill out an application, or you can suggest a fleet you would like to see in the Run.”
In conjunction with this year's Run on Less, NACFE also plans to bring back its Electric Truck Bootcamp, where approximately 45 experts will discuss fleet infrastructure and scaling topics.
