It’s been an interesting several months for NACFE as we have spent time compiling lists of fleets in North America that have multiple electric vehicles at one of their depot locations.
Once we identified those fleets, we had to contact them to assess where they were in their EV journey. We were specifically looking at fleets that would have 15 or more EVs by this fall—by Sept. 11 to be exact. Sept. 11 is the day we selected to kick off Run on Less – Electric Depot. We also had to speak with the fleets to determine how open they were to sharing hard data as well as anecdotal information as they have added more EVs to their operation.
Ultimately, we found eight fleets that fit our criteria, and last week we announced that the following fleets would be participating in this year’s Run on Less Event.
1. Frito-Lay in Queens, New York
2. OK Produce in Fresno, California
3. Penske in Ontario, California
4. Pepsi Beverages in Sacramento, California
5. Performance Team Logistics in Commerce, California
6. Schneider in South El Monte, California
7. UPS in Compton, California
8. WattEV in Long Beach, California
See also: ABCs and 123s of charging infrastructure
When we began our search, we had high hopes that we would find fleets not only in the U.S but also in Canada and Mexico. And we tried really hard to do that. When you look at the list of participating fleets, you’ll notice that we did not reach our goal. And you probably noticed that seven of the eight fleets are in California. While this was not the ideal scenario, it is the current reality of the electric truck market. According to Calstart, 60% of all electric trucks as of March 2022 are in California, so trying to find fleets outside California with 15 or more EVs was no easy task.
NACFE is all about real-world data and the fleets in Run on Less – Electric Depot are a great representation of where the industry is at this very moment.
Still, we are delighted with the eight fleets that have agreed to be in the Run. They represent a cross section of truck sizes, duty cycles, and use cases, and we believe the industry will be able to learn a lot from these progressive fleets that have already made the commitment to a zero-emission future.
In our search for Run on Less participants we also came across a number of fleets that have started moving to electric vehicles but as yet have not deployed large numbers. We are calling these “emerging electric depots” and we plan to highlight them during and after the Run as well. Again, we think the whole industry can learn from fleets that are taking both big steps and those that are taking baby steps.
We think sharing both best practices and challenges of larger scale EV deployment with the entire industry will remove some of the mystery surrounding it and cause more fleets to begin their journey to cleaner freight movement.
For this Run, we will be monitoring two trucks from every depot but also looking at charger performance, electric loads and more. Once again, we will be sharing Stories From The Road to supplement the hard data.
In August we will be posting profiles of the eight participating fleet depots, and we encourage you to follow the Run at runonless.com.
If you are interested in learning even more about electric vehicles check out our Electric Depot Bootcamp training sessions.
Come on the journey with us!
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.
