We keep having debates internally about putting more electric vehicles on the fleet, both cars and vans. But there is so much to consider, mainly financially. The drivers at the moment are split equally about having them – they like the fact it won’t cost much in BIK, but they have to weigh this up with some inconvenience in charging them. It’s getting easier, I know, but as a company we look at the cost of everything, and charging costs are becoming a sticking point.
Take a couple of our drivers. One has a semi-detached house with a driveway, and for around £1,000 can get a home charger. Then, if he changes tariffs, he could get 7p per kWh overnight, but his standard 21p all day tariff goes up, often by 25%. So he ends up paying more for daytime use, for cheaper electric to power his company vehicle at night. Then take another driver, who lives in a flat, has no off-street parking, and certainly can’t have home charging. He then has to rely on public charging, costing upwards of 90p per kWh, so the cost difference because of where they live is enormous. As a company it is not an easy situation having these two different scenarios, and how we pay them and reimburse ‘fuel costs’ becomes difficult. If we have the same two drivers running a petrol or diesel car, it is very easy to pay their expenses, as they are identical. It seems the cost of running an EV has become a bit of a postcode lottery.
Still tyred out
I know, I know, I keep going on about tyre problems, and I’m sure many more fleet managers can emphasise with me on this one. It seems to be getting weekly now that I have some sort of issue with a tyre, or a tyre-related phone call. Last week, another one of our drivers had a puncture on a fairly narrow, rural road on his way to see a customer. He managed to get a phone signal, once he had climbed up a small hill. First he called me, and asked if I could contact the customer as he was struggling to get a clear line. I told him to then call our breakdown assist company, and tell them where he was. But before all that, I told him to use the tyre repair kit – he did, but it was no match for the huge hole in the side of his tyre wall. The breakdown van turned up some two hours later, and as expected, the tyre couldn’t be fixed at the roadside. And unusually for our assist company, the patrolman didn’t have the right equipment to transport our vehicle to a tyre repair garage, or back to the driver’s home. Three hours later, a recovery truck arrived, and loaded the car onto the back. It was too late by this time to get a new tyre, or take it to a tyre shop, as they’d be closed. The truck took our driver and car back home. Then in the morning the local tyre repairer went and replaced the tyre. From start to finish was almost 24 hours. A few missed appointments, and all fingers pointing at me, because I’m the fleet manager and could have done a much better and quicker job sorting it out.
So what’s the answer to this ever-growing problem, as most cars don’t have a spare wheel? Well, there really isn’t one. The assist companies are coming up with all sorts of solutions to get motorists on their way quickly, but sometimes this just doesn’t work, and we are losing many hours of valuable time waiting for the arrival of the breakdown services, or waiting hours for a repair or replacement. Maybe I should buy an extra wheel and tyre for every vehicle and stick it in the boot – now there’s an idea.
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