Best of LinkedIn: Commercial Fleet Insights CW 42/ 43

00:00:00: Provided by Thomas Hall Geyer and Freeness, based on the most relevant LinkedIn post about commercial fleets in calendar weeks.

00:00:05: forty two and forty three.

00:00:07: Freenes is a B to D market research company that supports automotive suppliers with building feature-by-feature competitive intelligence That shows exactly how their product stacks up against the competition.

00:00:17: you can find more info In the description.

00:00:19: so today we're really just bypassing all that typical fluff.

00:00:22: Yeah, we're cutting straight into the top commercial fleet trends circulating across LinkedIn right now specifically for mobility professionals taking a really hard look at reality on the ground

00:00:32: and I mean That reality can be pretty harsh.

00:00:34: imagine writing a check For seven million euros this year just to pay for parking for vehicles you can't even use.

00:00:41: oh man

00:00:42: yeah That is exactly what happened in Ireland recently.

00:00:45: A massive delivery of state-of-the art electric buses arrived, but the grid simply wasn't ready to charge them.

00:00:52: It's wild!

00:00:52: So

00:00:53: we're looking at how operators are actually cracking code on EV scaling navigating this massive bottleneck of depot power and you know turning this flood of telematics data into actual measurable savings.

00:01:05: Right, and just to set expectations for you listening our focus today is strictly on what's working right now.

00:01:10: Exactly So.

00:01:11: no future hypotheticals No like concept vehicles for twenty thirty-five.

00:01:16: We're looking at how the most effective fleet managers are fundamentally changing their procurement And they're operational models.

00:01:22: two day

00:01:23: I think we really have To start with the economics of scaling these EV fleets.

00:01:26: Yeah

00:01:26: For sure

00:01:27: Because a conversation has completely shifted.

00:01:29: i mean we Are way past The era Of pilot programs Where A company buys Like Three electric bands, just to put them in a press release.

00:01:37: The token

00:01:37: EVs.

00:01:38: Right

00:01:39: Now we're seeing massive scale deployments driven entirely by hard economics

00:01:43: And the scale of the bets being placed right now is just staggering.

00:01:47: I was actually looking at some insights shared by Richard Savoy and Dominique Lucanhoff regarding FedEx.

00:01:52: Oh yeah!

00:01:52: The FedEx deal.

00:01:53: Yeah

00:01:53: They didn't just spread their risk across.

00:01:55: you know five different legacy manufacturers, they placed a massive three hundred million dollar order for two thousand electric trucks with a young company called Harbinger.

00:02:05: See I have to push back a little here

00:02:07: and there

00:02:08: because giving us startup an order that big it requires an immense amount of faith in their manufacturing pipeline.

00:02:15: I mean harbinger was only founded in twenty-twenty too right?

00:02:19: They were very new!

00:02:25: why would a legacy giant like FedEx take a highly concentrated, risky bet on the startup?

00:02:31: Why not just wait for a legacy manufacturer like Ford or Freightliner to scale up.

00:02:36: Well it really comes down how vehicles are actually engineered.

00:02:40: so Legacy OEMs often move slowly because they're trying to retrofit these heavy electric batteries into chassis that were originally designed

00:02:50: Sort of cramming it

00:02:51: in.

00:02:51: Exactly, and when you do that You sacrifice aerodynamics And honestly more importantly payload capacity

00:02:58: Because the battery is so heavy.

00:03:00: Yes!

00:03:01: You end up with a truck That can't carry as many packages because The battery just eats Up the weight limit.

00:03:06: But startups They're building EV platforms from the ground-up Optimizing every single inch for the electric drivetrain.

00:03:13: So its purpose built

00:03:14: Right...and the math Justifies FedEx's risk here.

00:03:18: They project twenty thousand dollars in annual fuel savings per truck compared to diesel.

00:03:23: Wow,

00:03:24: yeah!

00:03:24: Twenty thousand a year?

00:03:25: Per

00:03:25: truck.

00:03:26: When you multiply that across two-thousand vehicles over a twenty years service life You are looking at eight hundred million dollars in cumulative fuel savings.

00:03:35: That is just a staggering number.

00:03:37: Eight Hundred Million Dollars Yeah.

00:03:40: But let's be real Most fleet operators out there do not have FedEx's balance sheet.

00:03:45: Oh, definitely no

00:03:46: right.

00:03:47: like they can't absorb the capex risk of buying two thousand next-generation trucks outright.

00:03:52: if you're a midsize logistics company dropping that kind of upfront capital is A non starter.

00:03:58: even at lifetime savings are obvious

00:04:00: Which is exactly why we are seeing entirely new business models merge.

00:04:04: Like what?

00:04:05: Well, Tyler Philippi highlighted a fantastic example of this.

00:04:08: with the company called Junna They're putting one hundred and ten Scania electric semis to work but they using a pay-per use model.

00:04:16: Oh interesting.

00:04:17: So it's treating the trucks less like physical assets you own more like I don't know software subscription Where your purely paying for the miles driven

00:04:26: Precisely.

00:04:27: It completely reshapes the fleet balance sheet

00:04:29: I bet.

00:04:30: Because under a traditional purchase, or even as standard capital lease the fleet operator carries all of asset depreciation risk The battery degradation risk The charging infrastructure burden.

00:04:40: It's a lot

00:04:40: to take on it

00:04:41: is.

00:04:42: But by shifting to an operating lease Or pay per use model Junna absorbs ALL OF that!

00:04:48: The Fleet Operator Is basically just buying access To freight capacity.

00:04:52: We're actually seeing this exact same shift globally too.

00:04:56: Oh, yeah?

00:04:57: Yeah.

00:04:57: Rohit Singh Chowdhury noted that in India's fast growing last mile delivery sector there is a company called Zenflow heavily utilizing an EV as-a-service operating lease.

00:05:07: EV As-A-Service like that

00:05:09: and if you're running a delivery fleet in India You desperately want to go one hundred percent electric.

00:05:14: the operational cost per kilometer of an electric two or three wheeler Is almost one sixth out of a combustion engine.

00:05:20: Wow!

00:05:21: One sixth.

00:05:22: But again The upfront cost of battery is the bottleneck.

00:05:25: Exactly

00:05:26: dropping millions of rupees up front before a single package is delivered, it's a massive psychological and financial barrier.

00:05:33: So the lease fixes that?

00:05:35: Right!

00:05:36: The operating lease model completely removes that upfront hurdle allowing these fleets to just immediately tap into the operational savings.

00:05:43: And you know when start controlling your own energy source those economics get even wilder.

00:05:47: Oh

00:05:47: tell me about it.

00:05:48: Jonas Schlund shared this brilliant total cost of ownership reality check.

00:05:53: He looked at a German SME, small to medium enterprise that essentially just ignored the memo that electric trucks are only viable for giant corporate logistics companies.

00:06:02: Love that!

00:06:03: What do they do?

00:06:04: They managed to slash their truck running costs by eighty-five percent.

00:06:08: Eighty five

00:06:09: percent?!

00:06:10: Yeah...they

00:06:11: went from spending about eighty euros per one hundred kilometers on diesel all the way down.

00:06:17: Wait, thirteen

00:06:19: euros.

00:06:20: How did they pull that off?

00:06:21: Because you cannot get THAT kind of rate plugging into a public fast charger on the

00:06:24: highway.

00:06:25: You can't!

00:06:26: Not at all.

00:06:27: They achieve that by charging their electric trucks using their own depot solar power and battery storage.

00:06:31: Ah...They are physically generating their own electrons right on their own roof.

00:06:36: Plus because zero-emission trucks currently drive toll free in Germany ...they saved another thirty five euros per hundred kilometers just by avoiding road taxes.

00:06:44: That is amazing.

00:06:45: It really proves where you charge decides whether it pays

00:06:48: Exactly.

00:06:49: If that same German fleet relied entirely on public fast chargers, the cost would be closer to what?

00:06:54: Forty-three euros

00:06:55: somewhere around there.

00:06:55: Yeah

00:06:56: We're just so cheaper than diesel but it's a totally different business case.

00:06:59: then you know The vertical integration of your energy supply

00:07:02: definitely.

00:07:03: But here is the thing.

00:07:04: solving the vehicle costs has only half the battle.

00:07:07: No Here we go

00:07:08: because even if you can magically finance two thousand trucks tomorrow and Even if the lifetime math looks incredible You're going to hit a brick wall the second you try to plug them in

00:07:18: Right, which brings us perfectly back to that staggering example from Ireland.

00:07:22: We are moving from the vehicle challenge directly into The Grid Challenge...

00:07:26: ...the real bottleneck!

00:07:27: Exactly So.

00:07:28: Raphael Nevoa shared that Ireland spent nearly seven million euros this year not buying electric buses but just storing

00:07:37: them.

00:07:37: Storing them.

00:07:38: A hundred and thirty-two brand new electric bus has arrived at the Transit Authority before the depots actually had the grid capacity to charge.

00:07:45: It just highlights this massive disconnect and project timelines.

00:07:48: Yeah, like a commercial electric bus or truck might take you know one to two years To build and deliver.

00:07:54: but upgrading the local power grid to handle A massive new electrical load that's

00:07:58: a whole different beast.

00:07:59: it involves local planning permissions trenching New lines upgrading substations utility bureaucracy.

00:08:06: That timeline can easily stretch to four five years

00:08:10: Especially when these fleet depots are competing for local grid capacity with data centers.

00:08:14: I mean, in Ireland, data centers are currently consuming over twenty percent of the country's total electricity.

00:08:19: That's a logistical nightmare!

00:08:21: It really is...

00:08:22: But this where intelligent charging strategy can actually solve the hardware-capacity problem?

00:08:27: Elmedy Chokri laid out the math on why how you charge matters just as much as raw grade capacity.

00:08:33: Okay let's hear it

00:08:34: Let's walk through it.

00:08:35: So you have thirty electric trucks And based on their routes, they need fifteen megawatt hours of energy a day.

00:08:41: Okay?

00:08:41: If you plug them all in simultaneously at fast three hundred fifty kilowatts speeds when they get back to the yard your depot is going to demand a massive ten point five megawatts Of peak power from the utility grid.

00:08:53: all it once

00:08:54: Wow and getting a ten-point-five mega watt connection approved by Utility could take years

00:08:59: years

00:09:00: and It would cause an absolute fortune.

00:09:01: in infrastructure upgrades.

00:09:03: its essentially like trying to drink a gallon of water through fire hose versus sipping it over ten hours.

00:09:08: Exactly that!

00:09:09: So if you take the exact same fifteen megawatt-hours energy, and spread charging load on a ten hour overnight rest window – basically trickle charging trucks while drivers are sleeping… your average demand drops.

00:09:23: just one point five megawatts.

00:09:24: That's huge difference.

00:09:26: You're charging the same truck with the same amount but have fundamentally lowered peak power requirement by seven.

00:09:33: That's incredible.

00:09:34: And hey, just a quick pause here.

00:09:36: if you are finding this breakdown of fleet logistics and the real world operational math valuable make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss our future deep dives.

00:09:44: we love digging into these exact kinds of realities.

00:09:47: Definitely hit subscribe.

00:09:49: So looking at that massive drop from ten point five to one point five megawatts... ...that difference completely reshapes your investment case!

00:09:57: It also avoids utility penalties.

00:09:59: Wait what kind of penalties?

00:10:01: Oh, utilities often use what are called demand ratchets.

00:10:05: Demand Ratchets?

00:10:06: Yeah

00:10:06: They don't just bill you for the total volume of energy You consume they bill you For the highest peak of power you demand at any given moment.

00:10:13: oh I see.

00:10:14: so if you had a massive Power spike for Just fifteen minutes because all your trucks plugged in it once The utility might charge you A premium rate based on that Fifteen minute spike for the entire calendar year.

00:10:25: Seriously seriously just for a fifteen-minute spike yep

00:10:29: You're paying a heavy penalty for the capacity you demanded even if you only used it briefly.

00:10:34: Okay, so If your fleet manager staring at this complex grid problem Where do you actually start?

00:10:40: Because you can't just guess your power needs

00:10:43: no

00:10:43: or eyeball your utility bill.

00:10:45: Lani Russell offered some highly actionable advice here.

00:10:49: Before you even buy an expensive data logger or hire a fleet electrification consultant, go directly to your utility company and ask for a full year of demand history and interval data

00:11:00: because the bill Demand on the piece of paper they mail You isn't always the actual measured demand

00:11:05: right?

00:11:05: Correct The Paper Bill is often obscured by those demand ratchets We just talked about Or specific tariff structures time-stamped load profile.

00:11:16: So you can see the real picture?

00:11:17: Exactly, okay... You need to see exactly when your building's power peaks actually occur throughout the day in fifteen minute intervals and once you map that out you compare it with when your vehicles physically return to the yard and when they depart.

00:11:31: It fundamentally changes the nature of a fleetyard like as Tom you pointed out When you combine fleet electrification With depot charging maybe add some solar panels and stationary battery storage

00:11:43: you're turning a simple, paved parking depot into an integrated energy hub.

00:11:47: Exactly!

00:11:48: The transportation system and the electricity grid

00:11:51: are

00:11:51: physically converging right on the fleet manager's asphalt...

00:11:55: ...and managing an integrated Energy Hub filled with highly sophisticated rolling computers.

00:12:00: That requires a staggering amount of operational data For sure.

00:12:03: But here is the critical thing about data.

00:12:06: Raw data is completely useless if it doesn't actually change human behavior.

00:12:10: So true

00:12:12: We are seeing a major shift in fleet technology right now.

00:12:14: The industry is moving away from reactive reporting, like getting a dashboard alert that the truck's engine just failed... Too

00:12:20: late at this point?

00:12:21: Right!

00:12:22: Moving to proactive and predictive decision-making where the telematic system flags minor voltage drops and tells you the truck will fail next week if you don't act.

00:12:31: This shift has become critical especially when we look how data interacts with financial risk side of business

00:12:37: Like insurance

00:12:38: specifically insurance.

00:12:40: Gil Harris and Dan Olson brought some serious reality checks regarding construction in commercial fleets.

00:12:45: right now operators are facing auto-insurance renewal hikes of anywhere from five to thirty percent.

00:12:51: that's brutal.

00:12:53: why are the hike so aggressive?

00:12:54: it's not like the trucks or suddenly inherently more dangerous.

00:12:57: It's largely due to what the insurance industry calls nuclear verdicts.

00:13:01: Oh, I've heard of these?

00:13:02: Yeah massive multi-million dollar litigation settlements.

00:13:05: when a commercial truck is involved in an accident The insurers are bleeding capital.

00:13:09: Ouch.

00:13:10: So fleet managers often think okay i'll install gps and telematics To prove my drivers they're safe But simply throwing hardware at the problem doesn't fix it.

00:13:19: Because yeah installing a tracker on a tuesday isn't going lower your insurance premium On a wednesday

00:13:24: Right...to an insurance carrier.

00:13:27: Telematics data is only valuable if it's converted into documented, closed-loop driver coaching.

00:13:33: What does that mean in practice?

00:13:35: You have to prove the underwriter.

00:13:36: when a driver exhibits hard braking aggressive cornering or speeding you have system in place to flag it talk and correct behavior.

00:13:45: I have some sympathy for fleet managers here.

00:13:47: Oh absolutely.

00:13:48: These men & women are already stretched incredibly thin dealing with dispatch maintenance HR.

00:13:54: Are we essentially just handing them a mountain of data, a dozen different software dashboards and giving the more homework?

00:14:01: Like here's list all bad driving in your fleet today.

00:14:04: Now go find time to personally coach fifty different

00:14:06: drivers.".

00:14:07: That is exact risk for data overload.

00:14:10: if tool creates more administrative work it won't get used.

00:14:14: but this where artificial intelligence stepping into actually take burden off human manager Kelly Sotterland shared a fascinating application from company called Samsara.

00:14:25: They've developed AI voice agents that actually call drivers directly.

00:14:29: Wait, the AI literally calls truck driver on phone?

00:14:33: Yes

00:14:34: How does it even work?

00:14:35: So when a telematic system detects that a truck has arrived at an unfamiliar facility or new drop off location The AI agent calls the driver with specific site instructions.

00:14:45: Oh thats clever.

00:14:45: It tells them where the correct entrance is, provides specific parking instructions.

00:14:50: Warns them about yard speed limits... it even reminds what personal protective equipment required for that site.

00:14:56: That's wild!

00:14:58: And can this driver interact with or just a recorded message?

00:15:01: No- The Driver can actively ask AI follow up questions.

00:15:05: It completely removes massive administrative burden from fleet manager and dispatcher while ensuring safety & compliance in real time.

00:15:12: It moves the technology from being a passive tracking device to an active operational assistant.

00:15:18: And we are seeing this kind of active data integration, driving immediate hard ROI in other areas too particularly with fuel.

00:15:26: Fuel is a big one!

00:15:27: Yeah Victor Gonzalez highlighted great example of this.

00:15:30: With UK diesel hitting around two pounds a liter recently Fuel theft skimming or simple leakage Is massive hit at bottom line.

00:15:39: Oh yeah

00:15:40: Let's just do math.

00:15:41: two

00:15:41: pounds a liter, if just one hundred liters go missing a week across the fleet.

00:15:47: That is over ten thousand pounds per year bleeding out of business.

00:15:50: It adds up incredibly fast!

00:15:52: So fleets are using platforms like Fleevop to aggressively cross-check.

00:15:56: fuel card swipes against vehicles' telematics data in real time.

00:16:00: Smart...

00:16:01: When a fuel car process has a transaction saying it's bought fifty litres diesel The Telematics system instantly asked two questions.

00:16:08: First Did the fuel tank level on this specific truck actually go up by fifty liters?

00:16:14: Right.

00:16:15: And second, was our vehicle physically located at that exact gas station when it was swiped?

00:16:21: Taking a step further, Sherry Culkin's mentioned that Geotab is rolling out new fleet card to do this natively AT THE POINT OF SALE.

00:16:28: Really?!

00:16:28: Yeah!

00:16:29: It links the vehicle telematics data directly with the Fuel Card Network...to prevent authorized purchases before even-processing.

00:16:36: Oh, so it's not just generating an exception report at the end of a month saying hey you lost money three weeks ago?

00:16:41: Exactly.

00:16:42: If the truck isn't out to pump that card declines the transaction.

00:16:45: It is actively stopping fraud turning data into instant savings.

00:16:49: That is incredible.

00:16:51: But y'know At the end day all this advanced technology The AI voice agents Electric trucks still relies entirely on human operators Technicians and mechanics To make work in real world.

00:17:01: One hundred percent

00:17:02: You can have the most efficient EV fleet on paper, but if this shop floor is dysfunctional...the entire operation fails.

00:17:08: Nathan Schaeffer offered some incredibly grounding advice for new fleet leaders on this—especially those coming into a role with data or procurement background rather than mechanic

00:17:17: background!

00:17:18: What did he suggest?

00:17:19: His advice is simple…spend your first two weeks entirely on the shop floor right along with drivers and sit in on preventative maintenance sessions.

00:17:28: And I imagine key there to be authentic.

00:17:30: Like don't walk in pretending you know how to rebuild a transmission or turn a ranch because veteran technicians will see right through.

00:17:37: Authenticity is crucial, but his larger point was about building political capital with your team before he tried to hand down some grand new corporate vision statement Or implement an AI dashboard.

00:17:48: fix the technician's immediate localized problems

00:17:51: day-to-day stuff.

00:17:51: Yeah

00:17:52: if they are working with broken vehicle lifts or The parts ordering system as lagging and keeping trucks on the bay too long where?

00:18:00: fix those roadblocks first.

00:18:02: Your job as a manager is to read the macro data, to see patterns they can't see from under the truck but your primary role is to clear the obstacles so that you do their jobs

00:18:11: efficiently.".

00:18:12: That kind of granular ground-level operational focus was critical because the alternative has massive hidden waste.

00:18:18: For

00:18:19: sure!

00:18:19: Leigh

00:18:19: and Hansen brought up an amazing warning about vehicle upfitting which perfectly illustrates how basic communication breakdowns in departmental silos drain fleet budgets.

00:18:29: Oh, the upfitting process is notoriously fragmented.

00:18:32: It really is.

00:18:33: it's like building a house where the plumber and the electrician refuse to speak to each other And you're the one paying the mortgage while the house sits empty.

00:18:41: That's a great analogy.

00:18:42: Say your procurement team orders a new truck chassis and it arrives at your yard.

00:18:47: But service body The actual utility box with tool racks that goes on the back Is being manufactured in another state?

00:18:54: The final installer can't touch the truck until both pieces arrive.

00:18:58: And often, nobody actually booked the transport to move the chassis from the dealer-to-the-upfitter.

00:19:03: Exactly!

00:19:04: So this brand new chassis just sits there rusting for weeks?

00:19:07: Meanwhile your field crew is out nursing a twelve year old pickup truck with two hundred and thirty thousand miles on it... Just trying keep their routes unscheduled.

00:19:14: Just burning money…

00:19:16: Because NOBODY OWNED THE HAND OFF BETWEEN DEALER, BODY MANUFACTURER AND INSTALLER.

00:19:21: The procurement department thought that cutting purchase order & paying invoice was the finish line.

00:19:26: But a chassis arrival date is never an in-service date.

00:19:29: Nope!

00:19:30: And the fleet, it's one paying a hidden cost of all that idle time... It really emphasizes Ron Sullivan over arching point.

00:19:37: Total Cost Of Ownership, TCO, Is A Verb Not A Noun.

00:19:41: I love framing.

00:19:43: TCO isn't static number.

00:19:44: you calculate once on spreadsheet when buying truck.

00:19:47: Present to board and put into drawer for five years.

00:19:50: You have actively manage across entire life cycle of vehicle.

00:19:54: Think about variables change.

00:19:56: A truck might be originally contracted to drive thirty thousand kilometers a year, but route changes mean it's only driving eighteen thousand.

00:20:03: Utility energy costs fluctuate based on seasons and demand ratchets.

00:20:08: Preventative maintenance needs shift as the truck ages.

00:20:11: If you aren't constantly managing those parameters in adjusting your operations Your original TCO calculation is completely meaningless.

00:20:19: It really an ongoing process.

00:20:21: Managing a modern fleet requires breaking down the silos between procurement, operations energy management and human resources.

00:20:28: If you enjoy this episode new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:20:32: also check out our other editions on charging in battery technology autonomous mobility markets and software defined AI-defined vehicles.

00:20:41: And as we closeout I want to leave with one final thought to mull over based everything we've unpacked today.

00:20:46: Let's hear it.

00:20:46: As these

00:20:47: fleets physically transition into integrated microgrids powered by solar arrays and battery storage, And as AI systems start directly managing driver routing site instructions and fuel security Will the fleet manager of the future even need to be a traditional logistics expert?

00:21:02: That's

00:21:03: a good question.

00:21:03: Or will they essentially need the combined skill set Of utility grid operator and data scientist?

00:21:08: The job description is definitively being rewritten.

00:21:13: Thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive, and don't forget to subscribe So you catch the next one.

00:21:18: See you next time.