Heard in the transport market #1
“Trucks not charged in the morning. Why is this still happening?”
I was at an RVO event recently and spoke to two transport operators about their experiences with electric trucks and charging.
Quite frankly, it left me a bit disappointed.
For one of them, communication with the charger was not working properly. The result: trucks that were not sufficiently charged in the morning.
The other had a fault and then had to wait three weeks before anyone seriously looked into it.
Three weeks.
That simply should not happen.
And as soon as several parties are involved, the next problem starts: finger-pointing.
Is it the charger? The software? The installer? The EMS?
Everyone looks at everyone else.
Een geladen truck is geen nice-to-haveA charged truck is not a nice-to-have
- For a transport operator, charging is not an extra feature. It is essential.
- That truck needs to move.
- Of course you need to look at power, charging speed and the cost of the hardware. But I think a few other questions are at least as important:
- Does everything actually work together?
Do you know straight away when something goes wrong?
Who fixes it?
And who remains responsible until it is working again?
Because a transport operator gains very little from knowing which supplier is technically right.
They simply need their truck to be ready to leave the next morning.
The technology is complex enough already
A charging site now consists of chargers, software and EMS, energy management, a grid connection and sometimes solar panels and batteries as well.
It is only getting more complex.
That’s fine. But then make the responsibility simpler.
Agree upfront who is responsible for the complete system. Not just during design and commissioning, but especially afterwards.
Because the real test of a charging solution is not the moment everyone is standing around happily at handover.
It is at six o’clock in the morning.
When the driver gets in and the truck simply needs to go.
Erik van Beusekom
Partnership Director, Hedgehog Applications
