Roeth: Bringing trucking's voice to government's EV policymakers

I was recently named to be part of the Electric Vehicle Working Group formed by the federal Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. According to the Joint Office's website, the group was created "to make recommendations to the secretaries of Energy and Transportation regarding the development, adoption, and integration of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty electric vehicles into the U.S. transportation and energy systems."

The group is a mix of folks from government and business/industry. We haven't met yet, so I am not exactly sure what to expect, but I hope we can help our government officials understand the real-world issues surrounding the move to electric vehicles, especially those designed to move freight. 

I know that some people are leery of NACFE getting involved with a government-based group, but the reality is that the government will be passing rules and regulations, making policies that will impact trucking, and introducing and executing incentives for the trucks and infrastructure. I commit to all of you to bring the real voice of trucking to that process. My wish is that whatever rules, regulations, policies, and incentives are made are based on the everyday issues fleet managers face as they move to electrify their operations.

See also: Heller: Don't assume Congress understands truck parking

The timing of this could not be better. Run on Less–Electric Depot kicks off on Sept. 11. We've already completed 122 interviews—most of which I was a part of. I have learned a lot about what has worked for fleets as they move from having one or two BEVs up to having dozens and, in some cases, close to 100 at one location. I've also learned about their struggles.

We are also working on stories from the Run videos that will explore many aspects of scaling BEVs and share some lessons learned by fleets in the process. We also plan a series of written stories from the Run. Think of them as blogs to dive deeper into some of the more challenging aspects of deploying large volumes of BEVs at a fleet depot.

I am confident that I will learn even more during the Run itself, and I plan to share that with the EVWG, too. But the Run is focusing on only 10 fleets, and I know there are many more fleets out there working on adding BEVs in applications where they make sense.

If your fleet has begun its electrification journey, I would love to hear about your experience and what you want the EVWG to know about the electrification of freight movement.

Trucking has gotten a seat at the table, and that does not always happen. Help me make the best use of this opportunity by giving me the information I need to tell trucking's electrification story to government officials.

Michael Roeth has worked in the commercial vehicle industry for nearly 30 years, most recently as executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). He serves on the second National Academy of Sciences Committee on Technologies and Approaches for Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles and has held various positions in engineering, quality, sales, and plant management with Navistar and Behr/Cummins.