Thor Johansen, spoke, ‘operational savings as much as fifteen minutes an hour for delivery in urban locations.’ Global Action Plan (GAP), Martyn Lowder talking Clean Van Commitment, UKPN, Neil Madgwick speaking Electric vehicle work for fleets and predicting less than forty per-cent of future charging will take place at home. Cenex, Chris Rimmer introduced the EFlex project and Dachser, Gabor Nagy delivered a fleet presentation and trial with Zedify that consolidated European deliveries by artic to final mile cargo bike via Hoxton. Members updates focused on infrastructure, Lombard were at table with finance, Ford, LDV and others on suppliers, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Ikea amongst carriers including TNT, Rexel, Addison Lee.
Paxster, Thor Johansen – Paxster in European cities
Thor was in from environmental capital Oslo to explain the history of the Paxster business from the Loyds Product range. A history with Norway Post who approached Loyds to help reduce their carbon footprint, this leading to the birth of the Paxster.
Thor, ‘We saw a big win for the environment in this market. Trials began in Norwegian snow using Honda scooters where a post person would have as many as fourteen hundred locations a day. From time studies of workforce time it very quickly became clear we needed a four-wheel vehicle. A platform to step down easily to the mailbox. We began with a requirement for five postal trays to be loaded, this changed to 15 trays of standard boxes by Royal Mail. Seated on a saddle seat making it really easy to get down to deliver, regulation changes on motor power, in the UK we categorise as a quadra-cycle at 6kW in L6 category. You can keep up-to-speed in traffic in a good way.’
Thor talked motivation for electrifying the delivery fleet, ‘many companies want to do something good and to reduce the CO2. Importantly, companies want to stand out and be seen to be innovative.’ ‘Strong unions in companies in many countries show reluctance to these new-style vehicles.’ ‘Costs, we are confirming suitable areas, the more frequent the stops, the more saving is made, as much as fifteen minutes an hour using the Paxster style vehicle.’ ‘Residual value is always a question, we have not approached private market, this is a single-seat post delivery vehicle, cost around sixteen thousand pounds, range is not an issue for operational cycles in urban areas. The charger is twenty amps to charge the vehicle in eight hours. Customers ask for a quick response to technical problems, we look to have spare parts in the country.
Talking compliance, Thor case-studied New Zealand Post, vehicle category and exemptions for use on footpath, road tax ect. Drivers have adapted to being dressed for outside, the vehicle takes strain out of body movements, twisting and turning in a van environment to the easy step-down of the Paxster.
Thor went on to explain geo-fencing, restricting the speed of the vehicle using GPS locations, up to 28mph or restricted in defined locations. The Paxster has a seat belt, making helmet use exempt. We have had crash testing, the vehicle is mainly polycarbonate. This is not a van step, we see most postal companies move from scooter to Paxster.
Making more use of the Paxster, working with a recycling company in Oslo, out bound post delivery and returning with clean waste for recycling.
Global Action Plan (GAP), Martyn Lowder – Clean Van Commitment
Ways to open the clean van commitment, a public commitment for fleets to switch to zero tailpipe emission vans in cities by 2028. Concentration of pollution is in cities hence the focus, about four million vans on the UK roads today, the commitment is about people coming together to show a clean van commitment. First wave of signatories last year included Tesco and Network Rail, councils from Hackney to Leeds. April, the signatories climbed, today we are at 30 signatories with a pledge for 65,000 vans to go zero emission. Closing with a mention of UK clean air day, 20 June, UK's largest campaign, two levels, what you can do to reduce your contribution and secondly to protect your health.
UKPN, Neil Madgwick – Electric vehicle work for fleets
‘trying not to put more copper in the ground.’ ‘predicting less than forty per cent of future charging will be at home.’
Neil focused on depot charging, connection for business. Today looking at power supply, I am asking for data of your need for charging and locations, I am here to talk cost of depot electrification. Neil spoke UK Power networks, today roughly 63,000 plugged-in cars in our geographic, we are forecasting up to 40 million by 2030 . We don’t want to put cables in the ground, we want to look at smart solutions. We are trying to understand clustering of resource geographics. We assume 2.2kW is the average use for a residential house with gas, predicting the infrastructure for electric vehicles is very hard, smart use outside of peak is hard, we are learning use profiles for different users, from home to work and cross sector. We want to know where van drivers are and when they are going to charge - are they charging at home?, on-street fast charger? or at a depot? We predict home charging will be less than forty per-cent in the future, individuals may only charge twice a week.
Some customers claim 24-7 need of power, we find this unlikely and smart systems can bring down cost. Neil wanted to talk storage and asked people talk about the EV vehicles they have parked-up outside of daytime grid. We want to look outside peak, four to seven, early evening is our peak, shift your demand outside of that premium time and you will get a cheaper price.
Cenex, Chris Rimmer – introduction to EFlex project
'vehicle to grid, generating revenue from vehicle batteries at your depot.’
Helping the carbon footprint, vehicle to grid, looking at the duck graph, dealing with peak supply in infrastructure, significant variation between low use of power and peak. 2020-2025 Vehicle to grid, the functionality to use vehicle batteries to import and export electricity to the grid. An extension of smart charging, we can generate revenues and savings on consumption. Question, from the floor, why would I want to discharge my batteries?’ The answer was revenue, matching storage to peak. Financial optimisation for your vehicle. Case study quoted savings as much as nine hundred pounds a year on car case studies.
The project is looking to offer free charges, we want to capture experience, to understand how this works in the real world, bring EVs to the trial.
Dachser, Gabor Nagy – fleet presentation and trial with Zedify
Talking consolidation to cargo bike and electric van.
‘Reducing morning peak traffic and morning deliveries to be on the shelves by ten am is not easy to find a balance.’ ‘Our target is to deliver zero emission in the congestion zone and reduce number of vans in morning peak. Although reducing morning peak traffic and morning deliveries to be on the shelves by ten am is not an easy balance to find. Evening deliveries should be a part of the solution. Everything we have is on Euro 6, sub-contractors have had Euro 6 for some time, single van operators were the last to transfer to Euro 6. We are trying to reduce vehicles in the congestion zone, our average is heading down. Explaining the Zedify trial, electric vans and cargo bike consolidation, the trial with Zedify is based on the Hoxton depot. Dachser goes into Hoxton depot without entering congestion zone. Package volume is important. Volume is rarely a problem on an artic but for final mile, the difference between claim for 0.1 and reality of 0.2 cubic metres can be challenging as we are limited to circa 1m3 per bike. The next step, first week of June is a further trial where we will drop off to their depot rather than the depot electric van coming to us. ‘
