Two years in: Fleet reflects on operations since implementing EVs
Fleet electrification requires resources—capital, time, and manpower—that some fleets can’t yet afford to spend. Fleets that aren’t yet ready or can’t electrify look to those that can as examples. Leaders of one of those industry frontrunners, Quality Custom Distribution, a division of Golden State Foods, reflect on their electrification efforts after employing EVs in operations for the last two years.
Fleet electrification is a process that comes with challenges. Building charging infrastructure can take years, and integrating EVs into the business has its own operational challenges. FleetOwner spoke with Shane Blanchette, group VP of operations at QCD, on the company’s electrification journey.
Building an EV fleet
“Both GSF and QCD are committed to reducing carbon emissions with initiatives that reflect a long-term commitment to care for our planet and its future,” Blanchette said.
Part of that commitment is to reduce its fleet’s tailpipe emissions. While the company has a history of using alternative fuels (more on that later), its latest endeavor is fleet electrification.
QCD, which provides customers with distribution services across the U.S., currently operates 40 Class 8 Volvo VNR Electric trucks with an additional 4 VNR Electric trucks on order. The EVs are split between two QCD facilities in California, La Puente and Fontana, with 30 trucks in operation at La Puente and 10 trucks in operation at Fontana. The remaining four trucks on order will operate at the Fontana facility.
The company began its electrification journey with a single Volvo VNL in 2021. The truck was acquired through Volvo Truck North America’s Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions project, known as LIGHTS, a small batch VNR Electric lease initiative with a goal of gathering information on fleet EV deployment and seeing EV integrations become more widespread in the industry.
QCD ran the single VNR Electric on real routes for barely two weeks before ordering 14 more with aid from a grant provided by the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee’s Inland Port Program. Volvo delivered the additional trucks throughout 2021 and 2022. After a one-year experience with the one VNR Electric, along with several months of experience with multiple, QCD decided to order even more trucks. This time, the company ordered 30 VNR Electric trucks.
While all 45 EVs are not yet in operation at QCD, once all is said and done, the company and funding partners will have invested millions of dollars to support QCD's sustainable fleet initiatives. This includes investments in trucks, chargers, and a sustainable microgrid to help power them.
“The $20 million electrification project includes 16 chargers and an industry-first renewable energy microgrid to power the battery-electric fleet and distribution center in Los Angeles,” Blanchette said.
Why the Volvo VNR Electric
Multiple Class 8 electric trucks are available today, but QCD’s electric fleet is exclusively Volvo.
“As a Volvo Trucks customer for over 13 years, we knew we could expect the same level of safety, comfort, and performance from the VNR Electric as we've always had with the traditional VNR," Mike Douglas, QCD’s former senior director of strategic procurement, said at the time of QCD’s first EV delivery.
Blanchette elaborated on the decision to choose Volvo, citing a “smooth ride and quiet operation” without compromising on the quality that has “underpinned GSF’s success throughout its 77-year history.”
Charging challenges
Unlike diesel trucks that can refuel at the thousands of truck stops and fueling stations across the country, electric trucks pose an additional challenge to implementation—charging infrastructure.
Even fleets that have successfully adapted electric trucks have had their charging challenges, and these fleets—and charging depot developers and OEMs alike—have relied heavily on partnerships to build out that infrastructure. QCD is no different.
Currently, QCD’s fleet charges via temporary charging solutions, portable DCFS 50 KW chargers leased from Volvo Financial Services. Its permanent charging infrastructure development is not yet complete.
QCD is building a full-scale charging solution for its fleet of 44 Class 8 electric trucks. This solution, which QCD expects to be completed by the end of the year, includes a microgrid, a solution that is popular among Class 8 EV fleets.
It has taken QCD roughly two years to complete this infrastructure project, but Blanchette said the timeline could have been shorted, even “cut in half, if permitting and equipment lead times are more favorable,” as he said those were the project’s biggest challenges.
“The major hurdles in building out the infrastructure were equipment procurement and permitting timelines, as well as landlord alignment, as our facility is leased space,” he said.
As for charging infrastructure partnerships, QCD has relied on those, too. And to add more complexity to a complicated situation, QCD has different charging infrastructure partnerships for each of its two California-based facilities.
“Our La Puente project, we partnered with InCharge and Scale Microgrids. While the Fontana project was coordinated through Volvo and involved Shell Recharge,” Blanchette explained. These partnerships were "vital" to QCD's charging infrastructure build-out process, as InCharge and Shell Recharge helped facilitate "grant funding identification, permitting, equipment procurement, data analytics, infrastructure design, and construction."
Benefits of an electric fleet
Sustainability is “at the forefront” for QCD, Blanchette said, and it chose to implement EVs because of this. However, there has been another benefit of EVs that QCD has also experienced since the day the first Volvo VNR Electric was delivered.
The benefit, to Blanchette’s surprise, was the drivers’ response.
Electric vehicles have “made the drivers’ life easier,” Blanchette said, “which in turn, has helped with higher retention, lower turnover, and most importantly, improved safety.”
Driving an EV has also decreased drivers’ fatigue and increased time efficiency, he said.
Overall, EVs have been a good fit for QCD. Its fleet runs regional delivery routes, with an average of less than 100 miles per route. Class 8 electric trucks are well suited for this duty cycle.
“The new generation of EVs in our fleet gets up to 275 miles,” Blanchette said. “It’s been perfect for QCD because when the team comes back, they still have anywhere from a 40 to 50% charge remaining on them.”
Another benefit QCD has seen is in the cost of maintenance.
Because the company has operated EVs for roughly two years, that has given it time to adequately compare the maintenance costs of its Class 8 EVs with their diesel equivalent. Over the two years, the cost to maintain the EVs has been half of the cost required to maintain the diesel trucks, Blanchette explained.
"When comparing the repair and maintenance cost against same model year and workload diesel units, we are seeing the EVs cost significantly less," he said.
A tradition of sustainability
QCD’s electrification efforts aren’t the only ways the company has prioritized sustainability. In fact, Blanchette said the electrification efforts only “build upon a tradition of fleet innovation.”
These innovations include the use of Neste MY Renewable Diesel in Oregon and California starting in 2021. Since 2015, QCD has used solar energy to power pallet jacks and lift gates. The innovation has continued this year with routing optimization, customer portal enhancements, and delivery method updates, Blanchette said.
But the focus is all about fleet electrification.
“Our goal for now is continuing to evaluate our current electric fleet to ensure we’re operating at the most efficient level, without compromising quality and the health of our associates,” Blanchette said.
