What’s Next? Charging an Electric Last Mile Delivery Fleet

Procurement

Who you choose to work with for your last mile fleet electrification journey will depend on the size and scale of your charging requirements.  

• If you are starting out with your first few charging points, or initially testing the water with a couple of depots, you can probably go directly to the EV charging companies. Our advice would be to think about your power and operational requirements beforehand and find a company that can help you with them. Let an expert handle your site surveys, power availability investigations and operational requirements. 
• If you are going out to tender, seek advice from specialists like Mer on how to specify the tender to ensure that you get the best outcomes. Consider incorporating the initial steps of information gathering into your tender, or splitting the tender into two parts.  

It is also important at this stage to think about price versus value. An EV charging installation that does not address issues such as power availability or future-proofing your fleet will work out more expensive in the long run. 

Installation 

There are two main you can approach the installation part of your project.  

You might instruct the EV charging company to do it as part of the overall work

All good EV charging providers will have competent teams who can carry out all the electric works required.  

Larger companies often have their own trusted third-party contractors

Using existing contractors can often be quicker, as it involves less paperwork in terms of authorising new companies as approved suppliers. Your existing contractor knows your sites – they know where the issues are, and precisely where other underground utilities are located such as broadband and gas mains.   

Look for an EV charging company which offers a supply and commission deal. This means: 

• The company helps in terms of specifying your charging infrastructure as laid out in the steps above and in our previous blog.  
• Next, your contractor lays the cabling from the building or sub-station.  
• Finally, the EV charging company simply connects the charge points to the feeder pillar and commissions them.   

Operation 

For almost all last mile logistics companies, operation is very simple. The chargers are accessed via an RFID fob which you can attach to a vehicle’s ignition key chain. 

However, you may require more sophisticated access to your chargers. For example, if you want to allow employees or visitors to use certain chargers. If this is the case, make sure your EV charging company can support you with this. 

Ongoing support 

As part of your procurement process, you should consider what after-sales support is available via your EV charging company. EV charging points are business critical infrastructure for a last mile logistics fleet, and service, maintenance and repair packages that provide 24/7 support can help you ensure charger downtime is minimised and your vehicles are always able to charge and get on the move.