The first Association of Fleet Professionals conference took place recently, with a focus on the future of the industry as it faces up to the shift to EVs. John Challen was in attendance.

The AFP conference gathered together key players in the industry at the National Motor Museum

Covid and the lockdowns (not a band name) scuppered numerous events that were planned for 2020 and 2021 – many of which were rescheduled for this year. One example was the first Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) conference, but it proved worth the wait when key players in the industry gathered together at the National Motor Museum in early summer.

Chair of the AFP – and Fleet World contributor – Paul Hollick set the scene for the day, updating the audience on the current and future projects being worked through by the fleet association. He highlighted kerbside charging, Clean Air Zones, the desire for BiK tables for 2024/5 and road tolling as urgent areas that required investment, clarity or both.

Infrastructure investigations

The first session of the day was focused on the country’s EV charging infrastructure, both at home and the workplace. Alex Potts, head of sales at BP Pulse, told the audience there were three ways of de-risking when it came to installing infrastructure: breadth of service, enabling optimisation and charging as a service.

He challenged delegates to set high-level objectives when embarking on such a project and to stick to them, but also to assess programme metrics and monitor how costs, investment and output are being measured throughout.

Potts also said that future-proofing a workplace or home needed detailed planning: “Make sure all of the necessary work is done up front to prevent issues further down the line,” he stressed.

Ashley Tate, CEO and founder of Mina, explained that while the cost of installing chargers at homes might seem high, it can pay for itself after 5,000 EV miles. But, more importantly, he highlighted the convenience aspect, as the home is where the majority of drivers will want to charge their vehicles. “Think about the driver and what is best for them,” he elaborated.

Peter McDonald, mobility director at Ohme, explained to the audience that vehicle charging costs could be reduced by integrating one of the new types of dynamic tariff. He added that CO2 levels could be reduced by drivers charging overnight or when renewable energy was used for the process.

Next up in the session was John Clifford, CCO of Paythru, the mobile payment operator. He said he had witnessed a huge growth in demand from fleets to access chargers and what they needed was reliable and unblocked facilities to prevent any delays in the charging process. As such, Paythru solutions such as the grazeEV can help drivers see specifically where they can charge and how long it will take.

“It is dynamic, so routes can be altered to ensure the smoothest journey,” Clifford explained. “From a fleet management point of view, you are just supplying the app and the driver does the rest.”

For an operator perspective, James Romey, fleet engineer at Centrica (parent firm of British Gas), told the audience about the experiences of going electric on 1,200 of the company’s 9,000-strong van fleet.

He admitted that getting to that point had been a challenge. The main aim was to do the simple things first, such as home charging, but that hadn’t always proved straightforward.

“Home charging is expensive and public charging often proves difficult, so we’re pushing ahead with kerbside charging,” he outlined.

Advising the audience, he stressed that it was essential to start thinking about the switch to EV sooner rather than later. “You will need plenty of advice and guidance as you move forwards,” he claimed.

Bringing the session to a close was Duncan Webb, head of fleet and travel at ISS, who exclaimed it was a “crazy but exciting time to be a fleet manager”.

He urged companies to push car drivers to be EV advocates and revealed that ISS had started that journey nine months previously, with a very positive response.

Webb talked about the company’s van fleet, which had started the EV journey earlier and had managed to cut the fleet’s CO2 emissions by 35% since 2019. He revealed the biggest challenge within the fleet was a lack of home charging.

“We don’t have depots, so the reliance on DC chargers is going to be huge,” he admitted.

Charging on the move

The second conference session looked at charging challenges on and around the UK’s business roads, including the expansive motorway network. Four main challenges were highlighted by chair and AFP board member Ric Baird in this area: geography, availability, reliability and ease of use.

Kicking things off was Tom Rowlands, the then-VP of strategy at FleetCor and now its MD of global EV solutions, who said his company was building a proprietary network for fleet managers to use the electric fuel card from FleetCor subsidiary Allstar. He also revealed that a partnership with the app Zap-Map was designed to break down challenges and prepare people before they got to the charger. Rowlands also stated there was a need to lobby government because Europe has a different landscape and charging is far easier there than in the UK.

Alex Potts from BP Pulse returned to the stage to call for more infrastructure, reliability and a move to vehicle identification to aid seamless charging. He also said dedicated B2B charging hubs were needed, where drivers could simply pull in and charge up. He cited the example of Park Lane’s Q-Park site, which had a dedicated hub for Uber drivers and is looking to add more at other locations around the country.

One company going large in the world of kerbside charging is Appyway. The company’s head of sales, Matt Terry, said he and his colleagues wanted to make sense of kerbside charging and, specifically, what drivers can and can’t do.

Terry took the opportunity to highlight the company’s app, which tells users where they can park, how long charging will take and how much it will cost the driver. “We save fleets money by looking at the last metre, not just the last mile,” he claimed. He also revealed a partnership agreement had been signed with Liberty Charge and that the company was looking to combine Appyway’s smart parking solutions with Liberty’s charging capabilities.

Matt Dale, transport lead consultant at Mitie, was next to speak to the AFP delegates and revealed that the company had 1,100 EVs on order. Mitie has worked on infrastructure projects with Gridserve and Osprey, so had a fairly good idea of what is required when it comes to highway projects and what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t.

“We have to accept that we are still growing and developing – and that there will be a delay in getting the right infrastructure,” Dale said. “But we do need to collaborate to help the situation and we also need to recognise that the needs of electric vans and cars are very different.”

Following Dale was Chris Jackson, technical director, zero emission fleets at WSP, who acknowledged the amount of work that had gone into the charging network by the Government and those advising it. He said that while infrastructure was being improved through the Rapid Charging Fund and the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastruc-ture, it’s “not perfect”. But he added that “I think we’ll be surprised at how quickly things improve.” He also said that the current vehicle supply issues might allow the infrastructure to catch up, with more chargers being added without a huge increase in the demand for them until further down the line.

Jackson was also another speaker who urged collaboration in order to solve problems for companies and drivers.

“Fleets need a long-term plan and advice on who to work with and how to understand energy. We will start with the low-hanging fruit and nurture the early adopters on their first steps of their EV journey.”