Technology is the answer for greener fleets

Decarbonisation is a looming deadline for the UK’s car, van and commercial vehicle fleets – but for many it still seems like an impossible, and impossibly expensive, goal. However, the truth is all fleets can move towards decarbonisation today – with no financial risk.

The key is harnessing the right technology to first identify the optimal use of every vehicle; to identify which vehicles and fleet tasks are suitable for electrification; and being able to wring every iota of value from them to ensure a rapid return on investment.

Fleet optimisation is a green endeavour at every level because it eliminates wasted mileage, wasted fuel, and wasted usage of assets. Or to put it another way, it saves fleets money on fuel, on vehicle wear and tear, and in driver time, while also cutting fossil fuel use and emissions.

The Algorithm People harnesses the power of advanced mathematics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify the right placement for electric vehicles within fleets, and to optimise every commercial vehicle so that costs and fuel usage are minimised.

Expert advice and expert tools are an essential part of this journey into what is otherwise uncharted territory. Decades of conventional fleet management experience cannot help professionals know which applications, contracts or journeys can use EVs and maximise return on investment.

The Algorithm People’s technology does exactly that. We work within all road transport sectors, including multi-stop, logistics and service fleets. We analyse journey patterns to show exactly where electric vehicles can effectively be swapped for diesel vehicles.

What fleets can do today

Decarbonisation is a journey and TAP’s service offerings make the first, and every subsequent step, easy, affordable and effective.

Step 1 Fleets can start their green journey today, with no prior consultation, fuss, lengthy implementations or financially risky tie-ins. Fleet managers can simply log into My Transport Planner, use the templates to upload vehicle details, jobs, deliveries or appointments and start saving up to 30% of fleet costs straight away. It’s a Pay as you go (PAYG) system designed to save more than fleets spend from day one, and it costs as little as 49p per vehicle.

Many of our partner companies, which include telematics, fleet management, fuel card providers and many other value-add companies, have integrated My Transport Planner into their product range, or make it available to their customers. The benefits to fleets are magnified as the savings which can come from coupling driver performance products with optimised journeys are greater than the sum of each intervention individually.

Step 2
Identify where electric vehicles would be a good fit for your fleet, offering the greatest operational versatility and the most rapid return on investment. TAP’s unique EV Toolkit can help with this. We analyse the vehicle movements, contracts or jobs undertaken over a specific period of time or from a significant sample of the fleet and see which of those profiles is best suited to electrification. This not only ensures seamless integration, and a rapid payback, but it also generally accelerates fleet’s uptake of EVs.

Our EV toolkit revealed that Yorkshire Water could electrify 88% of its vehicles that were analysed, and that 95% would not require top-up charging. This ground-breaking analysis will help the company achieve its ambitious goal of NetZero by 2030.

Step 3
As fleets start to add electric vehicles to the fleet, My Transport Planner will optimise those too, taking into account charging, range, payload and all the other relevant factors.

Our machine learning means your fleet will continue to improve efficiency as real-world data pours in.

Stop and think about that for a moment: this is not a one-off, milk-run scheduling system. It does not simply improve over human or manual planning once and then reproduce that trick. It learns and, as it learns, it continues to dynamically optimise each route, seeking ever more efficient routes and a closer relationship between the planned and the actual. My Transport Planner will take note of congestion patterns, regular glitches, times of day, charging availability and many other factors.

It is also customisable so that fleets can prioritise their scheduling parameters – for instance, to avoid congestion, or to avoid collision blackspots.

The future
Decarbonisation is only the start of our exploration of the most efficient ways to green UK road transport. Our artificial intelligence is enabling revolutionary logistics solutions, to reduce the need for back-to-base reloading, and to reduce the number of HGVs in city centres.

This is a time for thinking differently, and we are looking anew at many logistics and fleet challenges. The ability to process, analyse and create with Big Data will enable us to move beyond traditional patterns and create a more efficient, cleaner and greener fleet world.

Decarbonisation is no longer optional. The Algorithm People can help ensure your green choices are informed, cost-effective and operationally advantageous.