By Paul Hollick, chair, Association of Fleet Professionals

In practical terms, not having home charging is probably the biggest blocker to electric vehicle (EV) adoption for fleets.

The resulting need to charge during the daytime creates downtime that financially impacts on the core business and operational arguments for electrification, as well as usually being much more expensive than using a domestic charger.

When fleets are considering which vehicles to electrify, this issue is often at the forefront of their minds. Uncertainty around the time, cost and location of charging for drivers and their cars and vans creates a lot of doubt.

However, the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) shared charging network provides a ready, drop-in alternative that reduces downtime thanks to an approach that gives fleets certainty over where and when charging will be available.

Our method is to identify charging needs for each individual fleet vehicle then, using intelligent data, match them with locally available, privately-owned facilities within our network. The owners of these shared chargers are signed up to our initiative on best practice terms, solving the problems of both convenience and cost.

Working with our partner, Evata, we launched the network and its accompanying portal and app in May, enabling vehicle operators to collaborate with peers to access charging at preferential rates, while allowing charger owners to achieve improved utilisation and margin. It’s already gaining considerable momentum.

If you’re interested in taking advantage of this initiative, we’d very much like to hear from you. Contact administration@theafp.co.uk.