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Infrastructure crucial to future of hydrogen-powered panel van fleets

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The rate of growth of the hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is likely to dictate which power option many fleets choose for panel vans over the next few years, says FleetCheck.

The fleet software specialist points out that, for some fleets, the EV panel vans now on sale require considerable operational compromise, which hydrogen could potentially solve.

Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck, said: “For fleets that carry low-medium weights in urban environments over short-medium distances, an electric panel van is a good solution, and there are a wide range of options becoming available on the market.

“However, if you currently move more than a tonne payload 200-300 miles in a day, up and down motorways, they are much less practical. In winter, completing that kind of working day could require not just an overnight charge but a couple of additional charges.

“That is why hydrogen is being talked about more and more by operators, and was a major source of conversation at the recent CV Show, with the hydrogen Vivaro on the Vauxhall stand due for arrival in 2023 a particular source of speculation. Because it can be refuelled with the speed and ease of a diesel vehicle, while providing similar range, it potentially solves those specific operational problems to which EVs are arguably not well suited.”

Golding added that there were two barriers to hydrogen adoption for panel van operators – cost and the current absence of hydrogen fuelling stations across most areas of the country.

“Something like the Vivaro will have to be manufactured in quite large numbers to make its purchase price and running costs viable. That could happen but will only occur if there is a usefully large refuelling infrastructure in place and there just isn’t at present.

“Of course, we will need widespread growth of hydrogen stations within a number of years because hydrogen will almost certainly be the motive power for bus and truck decarbonisation by 2040, but shorter-term provision is much more uncertain. Even the hydrogen buses now in operation are being depot-fuelled, I understand.

“In a very real sense, whether fleets ultimately end up using hydrogen or battery electric power for medium panels vans will very much be dictated by the speed of growth of the hydrogen infrastructure. There is little question that hydrogen itself is a better operational solution but only if you can actually get hold of fuel with relative ease.”

A further question, Golding added, would be whether van manufacturers would be able to call on sufficient resources to develop electric and hydrogen drive trains side-by-side.

“The switch to electrification is already creating a demand for massive investment in new technology for manufacturers. Whether they have an appetite to do the same for hydrogen in parallel must be very much open to question, despite its potential advantages.”

Fleet management software usage ‘back to pre-COVID levels’

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Use of fleet management software is now back to pre-coronavirus crisis, with businesses having often used the lockdown period to rethink their whole approach to transport.
 
That’s according to FleetCheck, which sats the majority of users who were active before mid-March had now returned, and that the volume of work being processed was at levels that could be described as normal.

In addition, more than 100 new companies had start using the system since lockdown began.
 
FleetCheck Managing Director Peter Golding said: “We’re a little hesitant about calling this a ‘return to normal’ because the truth is that what is ‘normal’ has very much changed – but we can clearly see that our customer base appears to be back to work and at levels of activity comparable to six months ago.
 
“What is interesting is how many customers have used the time created by the coronavirus crisis to take a good look at their transport activities. While clearly no-one would’ve wished for these circumstances to develop, they did create a perhaps unprecedented space in which to think deeply about the fundamentals of moving people and goods around.”
 
Golding said that much of this activity seemed to have been based around the digitisation of operations, using technology to make new levels of efficiency possible.
 
“Really, the kind of thinking that has taken place falls into two areas. The first was strategic, tackling fundamental questions about the kinds of vehicles needed in the new normal – how many will be required, who will drive them, how they will be funded, and so on. These are issues that are deeply rooted in operational considerations.
 
“The second is where we have been more closely involved. As with most software solutions, there are always additional features available from which users can benefit but which they weren’t utilising pre-coronavirus. What we have seen is a drive to realise the further efficiencies that are available by simply adopting more of our technology to deliver present and future gains. We’re confident that our customer base will come out of the last few months with their fleets configured to deliver a noticeably greater degree of efficiency.”
 
Golding added that growth in FleetCheck’s customer base meant usage of its fleetmanagement systems were now around 20% higher than at the same time last year with the FleetCheck Driver app proving especially popular, exceeding one million checks a month.
 
“To us, this proves that systems of the kind we provide have become thought of by fleets in a similar vein to how accountants think of Sage or sales teams think of Salesforce. Fleet management software is now absolutely central to the operation of companies running vehicles and, even when things are tough, their value is very much recognised.”

5.3% of fleet vehicles are Euro 4 or older – Research

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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5.3% of company cars and vans being operated by customers of FleetCheck only meet the Euro 4 emissions standard or older.

That’s according to new analysis by FleetCheck, which says further 18.2% of vehicles from the total sample of 85,792 also fall behind the latest Euro 6 legislation by only achieving Euro 5.

Peter Golding, Managing Director at FleetCheck, said: “We compiled these figures to illustrate the disparity that currently exists across fleets when it comes to emissions. While at one extreme, some are actively working to achieve zero emissions, at the other, we can see that almost a quarter of all the vehicles our customers operate are Euro 5 or older.

“Because there is a strong SME bias in our customer base and these businesses tend to hang on to cars and vans for longer than corporates, they are probably worse than the fleet parc as a whole. However, they remain an indication of how far the industry will have to travel to achieve the kind of low or zero emissions performance we’d all like to see.”

Golding added that most of the oldest and most polluting vehicles in the analysis appeared to be diesel vans, many of which were operated on a spare or pool vehicle basis.

“It is not uncommon for smaller businesses to continue to operate vans until they become uneconomic to repair or too unreliable for everyday use. Even some of the latter will be kept in the yard as a spare van and used occasionally. However, there is a strong argument that these vehicles shouldn’t be on the road at all, given their poor emissions.”

Over the next few years, he added, there was a strong possibility that the introduction of Clean Air Zones would start to see more of these vehicles disappear from fleets.

“While CAZs have arguably got off to a slow start, it seems likely that at least some will ultimately move to the ULEZ model and operate a Euro 6 minimum for diesel vehicles,” said Golding. “This is one of the factors that will start to see some of these older vans start to disappear.

“However, well ahead of that point, more could be done to persuade fleets to stop operating these vehicles. That might mean disincentives using measures such as Vehicle Excise Duty or it could mean incentives such as wider use of scrappage schemes.

“On a simpler level, the economics behind the ongoing operation of these older vans are often highly questionable, and getting this message across to businesses is also something that we perhaps should be communicating more widely as an industry.”

2020 is ‘make or break’ for diesel

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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2020 could turn out to be a “make or break” year for diesel – with the fuel facing further demonisation just as new emissions standards delivering real benefits become more widely available.
 
Peter Golding, managing director at fleet management software specialist FleetCheck, said: “We seem to have arrived at a point in time where, in terms of public perception, any nuance surrounding the diesel debate has disappeared almost completely.
 
“Probably the best example of this is the blanket diesel ban that is going to be applied in Bristol city centre. Older petrol cars that probably have markedly worse emissions than the latest RDE2 diesels will be allowed in. 
 
“It makes little sense and helps to create the impression that whatever technological advances are now made with diesel, its ongoing demonisation might be inevitable.”
 
Golding said that the general reaction to the introduction of RDE2 could potentially set the tone for how diesel is perceived in the future.
 
“RDE2 effectively puts diesel on a roughly equal footing with petrol from an emissions point of view. The question is whether everyone from legislators to the general public are willing or able to make that distinction.
 
“In a sense, the next 12 months could prove to be something of a make or break period for diesel. If its reputation doesn’t make something of a recovery with the new technology coming online, then it may never do so.
 
“This would be disappointing because, in many cases and especially for high mileage drivers, it remains the best option. Diesel may end up disappearing from choice lists for reasons of perception rather than actual fact.
 
“The situation is even more acute on commercial vehicle fleets where diesel is effectively the only option in many, many cases, with limited availability of petrol alternatives and almost no hybrid or electric options.”
 
Golding added that a general perception of diesel as the supposed source of all emissions ills also risked creating air quality outcomes that were ultimately unsatisfactory.
 
“One of the reasons that we are in the current position is because legislators long concentrated on CO2 emissions to the detriment of other environmental measures. Obsessing over diesel risks taking a similarly narrow view with similar results.
 
“Air quality is obviously a major concern and ensuring that sensible measures are taken that make sense and bring about real change is too important not to be taken seriously. That means taking a wider view on environmental matters.”

Company cars now less about status and more about practicality

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Changing employee priorities could see company car fleets start to become ever less hierarchical in the near future.

That’s the view of fleet software specialist says FleetCheck, which believes that a number of current and emerging trends could converge, causing less interest in the car as an indication of managerial status. 

Peter Golding, Managing Director at CheckFleet, said: “Historically, in a corporate environment, there has been quite a strong emphasis on the company car you were given as a signifier of your position within the organisation. It has been part of fleet culture. However, that situation has already been changing and hierarchies could further flatten significantly, we believe.

“Part of this is simply attitudinal. There appears to be less emphasis among younger people when it comes to seeing the car as an extension of their personality or a reflection of their personal success. It is more of a means of transport. That doesn’t mean that they don’t want a ‘nice’ car – they probably do – but the model and grade is less of a priority.

“Similarly, they may well be more concerned about the car from an environmental point of view and their priorities about the vehicle may well be different from a more traditional company car driver. Certainly, there are indications that larger numbers of younger people are more interested in zero emission vehicles than outright performance, for example.”

Golding added that developing financial pressures were also playing an important part: “The latest company car benefit in kind changes are just the latest development in an ongoing trend that is designed to encourage drivers into ever-less polluting company cars. Again, this is likely to lead, over time, to further reduced interest in the kind of faster, bigger engine vehicles that have dominated the upper echelons of choice lists.

“It is arguable that what we are seeing is the final stages of the company car sector moving away from perk to job-need cars, something that has been underway for a while. Really, anyone who is interested in an expensive, powerful perk car has probably already long since shifted to take a cash option that is now channelled into a PCP or PCH.”

FleetCheck says that, ultimately, this trend was a positive one for organisations that provided company cars, because it allowed more effort to be concentrated on maximising efficiency.

Golding concluded: “Businesses want their fleet transport to be as cost effective as possible. The gradual removal of the requirement to provide a hierarchy of choice that includes, by design, models that are less efficient, is very much a move to be welcomed. It allows the company car to fulfil its primary role as the best transport solution available in many instances.”

Image by Michael Gaida from Pixabay

AI likely to be used to identify common fleet documents

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The first widespread use of artificial intelligence in fleet management is likely to be to identify common documents.

That’s according to Neil Avent, IT director at FleetCheck, who explained that AI was good at looking for patterns within clearly defined boundaries, so would work well for this kind of task.

“The important factor to understand about current AI technology is that it has no innate sense of context. It works well in situations where there are a limited number of possibilities and outcomes,” said Avent.

“For example, if you give it a thousand pictures and ask it to find all the ones that include kittens, you could teach it to do this pretty effectively by providing enough examples of pictures containing a kitten.

“This is why it is likely to first find its practical use when it comes to documentation. When different sorts of document arrive into a fleet department, it could be used to simply answer a series of questions – is it an invoice? A driver’s licence? A speeding fine notification?

“AI is good at a singular type of task such as this. It can be taught to identify some of the key features of each kind of document and then place them in the appropriate queue for action with a high degree of accuracy. This saves a lot of administrative time and effort.”

However, Avent also explained that the current boundaries of AI were revealed by the fact that the technology was not currently sophisticated enough to then manage the documents.

“A separate process would be needed to know what to do with those documents in terms of the next action. That is because a more general type of software-driven intelligence, in terms of the technology available, is a long way away.

“Going back to the pictures of kittens, AI’s intelligence about kittens would end with being able to identify images. It knows nothing more about kittens than the visual characteristics of the example images containing kittens. It does not know what a kitten is.”

Several paradigm shifts would be needed before AI could take over even some quite basic fleet management processes, Avent added.

“In a sense, it is a shame that AI as a term includes the word ‘intelligence’ because it provides a very misleading picture of its capability. It has no intelligence of its own and is, in many ways, just a further development and refinement of existing IT processes that gives the illusion of intelligence to users not aware of its constraints.

“However, it does have potential for some pretty significant gains and one of the things we’ll be looking at within FleetCheck later into 2019 is how some of those can be incorporated into our fleet management software.”

Maintaining flexibility of business transport is ‘key to future mobility strategies’

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Maintaining the flexibility of business transport will be the key challenge facing fleets as future mobility strategies start to take effect, says FleetCheck. 

Noting the publication of the Government’s Future of Mobility Urban Strategy, the fleet software specialist says it is important to keep journeys as simple and effective as possible.

Peter Golding (pictured), managing director at FleetCheck, explained: “We fully support the ultimate aims of the Government in improving air quality, reducing carbon emissions, cutting congestion and making cities more pedestrian friendly.

“However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the success of fleets in underpinning business comes from their sheer usability. You can get into a car or load a van and drive straight to your destination. This is especially true of multi-stop journeys.

“Ultimately, anything that undermines this core tenet needs to be treated with extreme caution. While fleets must play their part in the future of mobility and meeting the Government’s environmental and social aims, we must also work to ensure that businesses continue to enjoy the benefits of flexibility as much as possible.”

Golding added that this did not mean that the industry shouldn’t be positive about mobility strategies – for example, last mile zero-emissions delivery strategies were an excellent idea – but that everyday fleet journeys were not easily replaced.

“We are actually very enthusiastic about last-mile delivery and, to us, it appears to be a good solution to the air quality problems in urban areas. During the next few months, we are hoping to be working with some of our customers on this development.

“However, it needs to be recognised that many multi-stop journeys, such as a sales person in a car visiting three locations in a day, or a technician in a van servicing a dozen different sites, simply cannot be displaced by any other transport method.

“The cars and vans used for those applications will change over the next few years and we have great hopes for the ultimate level of adoption by fleets when it comes to electric vehicles, but those journeys require one vehicle and one driver.”

Golding said that there also needed to be much more detail about some of the ideas within the Government’s document, as many of them appeared to already be in operation to some degree, if not in all parts of the country.

“There is mention of using technology to cut congestion and make journeys smoother, but no real explanation of how this might be done in a way that is substantially better than existing sat nav and traffic monitoring services.

“Also, there is quite a lot of promotion of flexible transport provision but, in most cases, it is difficult how these represent substantial advances over existing Uber-style taxis, cars clubs and short term hire. Again, any benefits appear to be incremental rather than revolutionary.

“However, we look forward to seeing how the contents of the document play out in the real world and working with the Government and the fleets that use our software to reduce the impact of business transport over the coming decades.”