Why electric-van trials can fail before the vehicles arrive

Electric-van deployments risk underperforming when fleet and sustainability teams set the strategy without involving the people responsible for day-to-day operations.

Alphabet GB has warned that operations teams and drivers can be left out of decisions despite being responsible for uptime, customer service, and keeping vehicles productive.

For fleet managers, the lesson is that an eLCV trial should begin with the route and the people operating it; not the vehicle order.

Drivers, operations managers, maintenance teams and charging specialists should be involved before specifications are agreed. Trials should use genuine workloads and test range, payload, charging availability, downtime and maintenance support.

Fleet managers should also drive the vehicles themselves to understand how an electric van changes the working day.

A successful trial does not need to prove that every diesel van can be replaced. It should identify precisely which roles can move to electric without compromising productivity.

Getting frontline teams involved early can turn EV deployment from a corporate target into a workable operational change.

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