For those who’re a decision-maker for a business automobile fleet that’s contemplating going electrical, among the best issues you are able to do is to review the experiences of fleets which have efficiently electrified.
High quality Customized Distribution, a division of Golden State Meals, has been utilizing EVs in its operations for the final couple of years. FleetOwner’s Jade Brasher spoke with Shane Blanchette, Group VP of Operations at QCD, in regards to the firm’s electrification journey.
QCD, which provides distribution providers throughout the US, presently operates 40 Class 8 Volvo VNR Electrical vans and has 4 extra on order. The EVs are break up between two QCD amenities in California, at La Puente and Fontana.
The corporate started its electrification technique in 2021 with a single Volvo VNL, acquired by Volvo’s Low Impression Inexperienced Heavy Transport Options (LIGHTS) undertaking, a pilot program designed to collect data on fleet EV deployment. After solely two weeks of working the VNR Electrical, QCD ordered 14 extra with the assistance of a grant from the Cellular Supply Air Air pollution Discount Overview Committee’s Inland Port Program. A yr later, QCD determined to order 30 extra VNR Electrical vans.
“The $20-million electrification undertaking consists of 16 chargers and an industry-first renewable power microgrid to energy the battery-electric fleet and distribution heart in Los Angeles,” Blanchette stated.
A number of OEMs presently supply Class 8 electrical truck fashions, however QCD has caught with Volvo.
“As a Volvo Vehicles buyer for over 13 years, we knew we may anticipate the identical degree of security, consolation, and efficiency from the VNR Electrical as we’ve at all times had with the standard VNR,” Mike Douglas, QCD’s former Senior Director of Strategic Procurement, stated on the time of QCD’s first EV supply.
Getting charging infrastructure put in is often one of many greatest challenges for fleets which might be going electrical, and QCD isn’t any exception. The corporate is presently counting on a brief charging answer—moveable 50 kW DC quick chargers leased from Volvo Monetary Companies. The corporate’s everlasting charging answer, which features a microgrid, is anticipated to be up and working later this yr, after two years of labor.
Blanchette advised FleetOwner that the timeline may have been “minimize in half, if allowing and tools lead occasions [had been] extra favorable. The foremost hurdles in constructing out the infrastructure have been tools procurement and allowing timelines, in addition to landlord alignment, as our facility is leased area.”
The corporate is utilizing two completely different charging infrastructure companions for its two amenities. “On our La Puente undertaking, we partnered with InCharge and Scale Microgrids, whereas the Fontana undertaking was coordinated by Volvo and concerned Shell Recharge.”
Each InCharge and Shell Recharge helped facilitate “grant funding identification, allowing, tools procurement, knowledge analytics, infrastructure design and building.”
QCD initially determined to impress for sustainability causes, however has discovered one other profit: drivers love the brand new vans. Electrical automobiles have “made the drivers’ life simpler,” Blanchette stated, “which in flip, has helped with larger retention, decrease turnover, and most significantly, improved security.”
QCD’s fleet runs regional supply routes, with a mean of lower than 100 miles per route. Class 8 electrical vans are nicely fitted to this obligation cycle. “The brand new era of EVs in our fleet will get as much as 275 miles,” Blanchette stated. “It’s been good for QCD as a result of when the staff comes again, they nonetheless have anyplace from a 40 to 50% cost remaining on them.”
After two years, QCD has discovered that the upkeep price for its Class 8 EVs has been about half that of its legacy diesel vans. “When evaluating the restore and upkeep price in opposition to similar mannequin yr and workload diesel items, we’re seeing the EVs price considerably much less,” Blanchette stated.
Supply: FleetOwner
