Best of LinkedIn: Commercial Fleet Insights CW 06/ 07

00:00:00: brought to you by Thomas Allgaier and Frennus.

00:00:02: This edition highlights key LinkedIn posts on commercial fleets from Weeks Six & Seven, Frenness supports automotive enterprises customer and competitive intelligence in the commercial fleet sector, with a strong focus on digital solutions and emerging technologies.

00:00:18: It is good to be back!

00:00:19: And you know looking at The Feed from week six and seven...the whole town feels like it's shifted-it's like the industry is waking up from this pilot project dream well hitting the reality of scale.

00:00:33: I noticed that too.

00:00:35: Welcome everyone to The Deep Dyes, we're looking at the top trends in commercial fleets and if i had to summarize last two weeks let's say you are so done with this shiny object phase.

00:00:43: were not asking can't do it anymore?

00:00:46: No!

00:00:46: We ask how did they do without going broke?

00:00:49: That's the crux of it.

00:00:50: We're seeing this really hard pivot from just adoption to optimization, ribbon-cutting ceremonies are over now fleet managers looking at spreadsheets and realizing that buying an electric truck is actually pretty easy but managing energy bill grid connection data overload...that where real work.

00:01:07: starting

00:01:08: It like a difference between buying gym membership.

00:01:12: So we've organized the insights from weeks six and seven into three main buckets.

00:01:17: First, were tackling electrification in zero emission deployment but looking at why some regions are absolutely winning while others are frankly stalling.

00:01:26: Then will get to the bottleneck charging infrastructure an energy orchestration And we have some honestly terrifying stats about grid delays, but also some really smart workarounds.

00:01:37: And finally will dig into digital fleet operations.

00:01:40: We're moving way past just dots on a map telematics and into the world of AI in predictive analytics.

00:01:46: Yeah That's a lot to cover.

00:01:47: let's dive it.

00:01:48: okay Let's start with electrification.

00:01:50: I want to challenge a common assumption right away yeah user when we talk about EV leadership?

00:01:54: We look at Europe or China.

00:01:56: But some of the posts this week suggest that most interesting case study isn't in Oslo or Shenzhen.

00:02:01: It's in Santiago, Chile.

00:02:03: Lars Christian Grütem Olsen shared an analysis of the Santiago bus fleet that, you know it really exposes a flaw in how a lot of the world is doing this.

00:02:12: Okay.

00:02:12: San Diego has electrified sixty eight percent of its bus fleet by twenty-twenty six.

00:02:17: they're on track to have forty four hundred electric units on the road.

00:02:21: Wow!

00:02:21: That's massive number.

00:02:23: I mean for context thats way bigger than almost any European cities deployment but Europe as the capital and political will.

00:02:30: so How was santiago eating their lunch?

00:02:33: It comes down to a structural flaw in how we usually buy fleets.

00:02:37: Lars calls it integrated procurement,

00:02:39: which means what?

00:02:39: In practical terms while

00:02:41: think about how it usually works in say Europe or North America A city transit authority runs at tender for buses.

00:02:48: they pick a manufacturer.

00:02:49: then maybe six months later Or in a totally different department They start thinking about the infrastructure.

00:02:55: They talk to the utility company The higher construction firm.

00:02:58: right so you end up with that classic hardware rich energy poor problem.

00:03:03: The buses show up, but the depot just isn't ready.

00:03:06: Exactly it's totally disjointed.

00:03:08: Santiago Just flipped a script.

00:03:10: they mandated that the tender covered the whole system not just the vehicle The whole city operator and the fleet provider.

00:03:17: They have to bid jointly.

00:03:18: so if the busses are scheduled To arrive on Tuesday?

00:03:21: The chargers have to be live On Monday.

00:03:23: It forces the infrastructure to scale in lockstep with the fleet.

00:03:27: Not you know play catch-up.

00:03:29: So they aren't just buying a bus

00:03:31: no

00:03:31: They're buying a guaranteed mile of service.

00:03:33: Precisely, and the results speak for themselves.

00:03:36: Charging terminal capacity grew by ninety-three percent right alongside the fleet.

00:03:40: It's less than in contract law as much it is an engineering.

00:03:43: That is fascinating.

00:03:45: But speaking of engineering And maybe taking step back into time Chris Jackson posted at take that I have to admit i thought was joke.

00:03:52: first He argues cutting edge blueprint from modern electric fleets isn't Tesla Semi.

00:03:58: I know where you're going with this.

00:03:59: It's a British milk float from nineteen sixty seven,

00:04:01: and it sounds ridiculous right?

00:04:03: A slow open-sided truck delivering glass bottles but when you strip away the nostalgia he is dead right easy.

00:04:11: or Is that just a romantic view of logistics?

00:04:13: no look at the actual engineering constraints.

00:04:17: The Milk Float had a fixed route three hundred and sixty five days a year

00:04:27: for twelve hours every night.

00:04:29: That is the key metric right there, dwell time!

00:04:32: The milk run is a perfect EV use case because the dwell-time matches the charging speed perfectly.

00:04:39: you don't need expensive fast charging if vehicle's just sitting there for twelve hour.

00:04:42: So

00:04:43: argument that we're overcomplicating things by trying to make everything an ICE vehicle can do?

00:04:48: Yes

00:04:49: Exactly, Chris points to milk and more which is still running a massive electric fleet today.

00:04:53: And also Nissan's Sunderland plant.

00:04:56: They run electric heavy goods vehicles on these milk runs just shuttling parts between us supplier in the factory.

00:05:02: Predictable boring centric and

00:05:04: that's where the profit is

00:05:05: boring as profitable.

00:05:06: I like that but okay Let's look at the broader market.

00:05:09: for second Will Reeves and Jakub Krojewski dropped some stats.

00:05:13: That suggests.

00:05:13: The Market Is A bit of a mixed bag.

00:05:16: right now

00:05:16: it is noisy To put It mildly.

00:05:19: Will Reeves pointed out that in the UK, heavy goods vehicle registrations actually fell by ten percent in twenty-twenty five.

00:05:27: The whole logistics market is contracting because of economic pressure.

00:05:31: But within that contraction electric trucks were still up.

00:05:33: They

00:05:33: were up a hundred and seventy percent which you know.

00:05:36: That sounds incredible.

00:05:37: It's like a revolution

00:05:38: Until you look at the absolute numbers.

00:05:40: that hundred and seventeen growth brings them to a total market share Of one point four percent.

00:05:45: Ouch, so for every one hundred trucks sold maybe one and a half are electric.

00:05:50: Exactly we have to be really careful not to confuse high growth rate with actual market dominance.

00:05:56: We're still very much in the early innings And Jakub Krajewski highlighted a really concerning side effect of this specifically In Europe.

00:06:03: he calls it The West East Divide It is.

00:06:07: So as Western Europe, France Germany the UK starts to slowly electrify or update their fleets they sell off their old diesel trucks.

00:06:14: those trucks don't just vanish They flow east.

00:06:16: they end up in Poland Romania Bulgaria.

00:06:19: so western europe gets to pat itself on The back for going green while the carbon emissions Just move a few hundred miles East.

00:06:26: correct and it creates what he calls A fossil fuel lock-in In Eastern Europe that could last For another Fifteen or twenty years.

00:06:33: These trucks have really long life cycles,

00:06:36: right?

00:06:36: So Jacob's point is that we can't just focus on new EVs.

00:06:40: We might need a strategy for biofuels Or synthetic fuels to clean up that legacy fleet in the east or were Just shifting the problem around them out.

00:06:48: That's a really sobering perspective.

00:06:50: It's a global atmosphere not a regional one.

00:06:53: Before you move on I want to hit one quick financial win that Jackson McKinney shared it smaller scale But it hits our optimization theme perfectly.

00:07:02: Ohio police fleet.

00:07:04: Right,

00:07:04: they saved four hundred thousand dollars and They didn't do it by buying cheaper cars.

00:07:08: They did it by just ignoring tradition.

00:07:10: This is such a classic case of.

00:07:12: we've always done It this way.

00:07:14: the traditions said you replace a police cruiser every three years?

00:07:16: It was Just The rule.

00:07:18: but they You know actually looked at their maintenance data And

00:07:20: the data Said that cars were fine.

00:07:22: the

00:07:22: data said the car still had plenty Of life in them.

00:07:24: so they just extended the replacement cycle to five Years.

00:07:28: the cars performed perfectly and the city kept nearly half a million dollars.

00:07:32: It's amazing how expensive tradition can be.

00:07:35: Replacement cycles should be hypotheses, not rules!

00:07:38: If you're not testing them your probably losing money?

00:07:40: So we've got vehicles whether they are Santiago buses or milk floats.

00:07:45: now need to power them.

00:07:48: This brings us our second theme charging infrastructure in energy orchestration.

00:07:53: And honestly...the hardware problem really seems to be shifting to a grid problem.

00:07:58: Yeah, Mo Ismail refers to this as the second wave.

00:08:01: The first wave was just you know getting the chargers installed...the Second Wave is all about energy control

00:08:06: because plugging in is easy.

00:08:07: it's paying the bill.

00:08:08: that's the hard part.

00:08:09: It's

00:08:09: actually worse than that!

00:08:10: It's about availability.

00:08:12: Will Reeves and Joshua Aviv flagged a stat That frankly sounds like a typo.

00:08:18: In the UK some fleet operators are applying for a grid connection And getting a quote from you.

00:08:23: now

00:08:23: Fifteen years, that's twenty forty.

00:08:26: Imagine trying to run a business in twenty-twenty five and being told you can't turn the lights on until twenty forty?

00:08:32: That's

00:08:32: not a delay!

00:08:34: It just kills the business plan ON THE SPOT.

00:08:36: So what do ya do?

00:08:37: Just pack up and go

00:08:37: home?!

00:08:38: You find a workaround...and that why Joshua Aviv from Spark Charge is seeing so much traction.

00:08:43: they offer mobile Off-grid DC fast charging.

00:08:47: They essentially bring a massive battery on wheels right to your depot.

00:08:51: It's

00:08:51: the survival tactic

00:08:52: it is if The grid Is broken you just bypassed the grid?

00:08:56: It allows fleets To launch now while they fight the utility battles for the next decade.

00:09:00: Okay, so assuming you do have power.

00:09:02: Tim Reeves brought up a really counterintuitive point.

00:09:05: He thinks we are all obsessed with charging speed and it's costing us a fortune.

00:09:09: This is the right sizing argument.

00:09:11: in The consumer world everyone wants the fastest charge possible zero to eighty percent In fifteen minutes.

00:09:17: but tim argues that for most commercial fleets That Is just financial suicide because

00:09:21: of demand charges.

00:09:22: Exactly, and we should probably explain this because it bites a lot of new fleet managers.

00:09:27: In commercial energy you don't just pay for the total electricity you use.

00:09:31: You pay a big premium based on the speed at which you pull it from

00:09:41: just for turning the valve all the way open.

00:09:43: Precisely, if you use a three hundred fifty kilowatt charger your demand charge just spikes.

00:09:48: but if your truck is doing a milk run and dwelling overnight Why use the fire hose?

00:09:54: You can just use a garden nose.

00:09:55: Right, A thirty to sixty kilowatt charger will get the truck to one hundred percent by morning.

00:10:00: Just fine it lowers your infrastructure cost.

00:10:03: It's better for the battery But most importantly it keeps you under the radar of those massive demand charges.

00:10:08: So dumb slow charging is actually smart wallet management

00:10:11: in a depot setting absolutely speed Is expensive.

00:10:13: don't buy if you don't need it.

00:10:15: but for the fleets that do need speed high utilization.

00:10:18: two hundred and forty seven operations.

00:10:20: Andre Pospi from UNY highlighted an alternative.

00:10:24: Battery swapping, this is huge for the last mile sector particularly in dense urban zones like Dubai or European city centers.

00:10:32: if you can physically swap the battery and under three minutes You just eliminate the charging weight entirely.

00:10:38: It effectively gives the vehicle infinite range.

00:10:41: as long as you have enough swapping stations nearby it

00:10:44: does.

00:10:44: it maximizes asset utilization.

00:10:47: But whether you are swapping batteries or slow-charging overnight The common thread here is orchestration.

00:10:52: Pleyman Van Koff shared a great example from S-IIG Energy in Latin America.

00:10:57: They're managing something like a thousand charge points, right?

00:10:59: Over a thousand.

00:11:00: and their success isn't about the hardware it's about the software layer on top.

00:11:04: they correlate the charging data with telematics so they know which bus is leaving at six AM and which one leaves that eight AM

00:11:11: And they prioritize the power accordingly.

00:11:13: That's

00:11:13: the second wave Mois meal was talking about.

00:11:15: It's not just charging its energy logistics.

00:11:18: orchestration beats building massive capacity every time

00:11:22: which leads us perfectly into our third and final theme.

00:11:25: We have the data, we have the power... Now how do we use to actually make money?

00:11:29: Yeah.

00:11:30: Theme three is digital fleet operations, telematics, and AI.

00:11:35: And if you were on LinkedIn during weeks six-and seven You could not escape the noise coming from GeoTap Connect.

00:11:40: It

00:11:40: was everywhere!

00:11:41: I want to be careful here because

00:11:42: A.I.,

00:11:43: is the buzzword of this century.

00:11:45: Was it just hype or there's some real utility for fleets?

00:11:48: There was plenty of hype But looking at the updates from LSO call Mike Branch and Danny Lilly, there is a real shift happening.

00:11:57: We are moving from telematics which has historically been just you know dots on a map to AI driven operational control.

00:12:04: What does that actually look like for a fleet manager on a Tuesday morning?

00:12:07: Take their new tool Geotab ACE.

00:12:10: It's a generative AI tool.

00:12:11: The point isn't that it talks to you like a chatbot, the point is that it democratizes the data

00:12:16: meaning You don't need a PhD in Data Science To figure out why your fuel bill Is so high.

00:12:21: Exactly!

00:12:22: You can literally just ask the dashboard Why did my maintenance cost spike In the northeast region last month?

00:12:29: And will query the database and give an answer in plain English.

00:12:32: That turns a fleet manager into a data analyst instantly.

00:12:39: It's the perfect counterpoint.

00:12:41: Tissara argues that most fleets treat their software like a filing cabinet, it is basically a graveyard for data.

00:12:47: you log your work order and file it.

00:12:49: You forget it

00:12:50: And he says this should be a megaphone.

00:12:51: He does!

00:12:52: He said.

00:12:53: we need to use our data to tell us stories.

00:12:55: Don't just show leadership a spreadsheet of repairs.

00:12:58: Show them a trend line.

00:12:59: We reduce downtime by twelve percent because we predicted these three specific failures.

00:13:04: That how you get budget?

00:13:07: I love that.

00:13:08: Tune your software into strategy.

00:13:09: But let's talk immediate.

00:13:10: ROI, Andrew H shared a story about Australian weight fleets that I thought was brilliant because it is so boring yet so profitable.

00:13:17: This my favorite kind of insight.

00:13:20: So in Australia the government offers fuel tax credits but you get higher credit for fuel used off road compared to on-road.

00:13:28: Okay, but a waste truck does both.

00:13:30: It drives on the highway to get to landfill then it drives off-road at the actual site.

00:13:35: Exactly and historically companies just sort of estimated this split.

00:13:38: But Andrew points out that by using high precision telematics they can just geofence the landfill.

00:13:43: The system automatically logs every single drop of fuel burned Off-road

00:13:50: so they claim the maximum possible tax refund with zero effort.

00:13:54: And Andrew mentioned that the tax savings alone often cover the entire cost of the telematic subscription.

00:13:59: The tech literally pays for itself!

00:14:01: That is the definition of optimization, it's just free money for having better data.

00:14:06: Ross Delhonte shared a similar win with the collared group in the UK.

00:14:09: Yeah they deployed samsara across their fleet and sure They got the usual efficiency gain saving about one hundred thirty thousand pounds annually.

00:14:17: But the really interesting part was he impact on their insurance

00:14:19: because they had cameras

00:14:21: Because they had proof, their insurance claims hit a five-year low.

00:14:24: When you have AI dash cams that can immediately exonerate a driver in an accident your liability just plummets.

00:14:32: Insurance companies love that!

00:14:33: But speaking of drivers, Gorvinder Butter raised a really important distinction.

00:14:38: He says we need to stop confusing driver behavior with driver performance.

00:14:43: This is so crucial.

00:14:45: Behavior is just raw data, the sensor says.

00:14:48: Hard breaking event at two point zero p.m..

00:14:51: Which usually gets the driver a warning

00:14:52: Right.

00:14:53: but performance puts that data in context.

00:14:56: Was it hard braking because the driver was texting?

00:14:59: Or was this kid ran into street and the drivers quick reaction saved a life?

00:15:03: If you look at the score sheet You end up punishing hero.

00:15:05: Exactly.

00:15:06: AI can flag the events But takes human context to understand the performance.

00:15:11: We have be so careful not manage by algorithm alone.

00:15:14: That leads perfectly to the final thought for this deep dive from Lehan Hansen.

00:15:18: He had a post about The Human Element that really resonated with me...

00:15:21: It was about difference between generative AI and genuine experience, right?

00:15:26: AI can predict failure probabilities.

00:15:28: it could write you perfect maintenance schedule but Lehan gave example of Veteran Fleet Manager who just knows that specific fifty dollar part prevents fifteen thousand-dollar engine failure down the line.

00:15:43: Don't spend the fifty dollars.

00:15:45: It's not statistically necessary yet,

00:15:47: but The human knows that fifty dollars is the best insurance policy you can buy against a catastrophe.

00:15:52: fuels

00:15:52: come and go.

00:15:53: Experience compounds

00:15:55: it does.

00:15:55: the most successful fleets aren't replacing people with AI.

00:15:59: They're giving their smartest people the best AI tools so they could make even better decisions

00:16:04: faster.

00:16:04: So bringing it all together what is the big takeaway from weeks six and seven?

00:16:08: I think its set the industry as maturing.

00:16:11: We are moving past the pilot phase.

00:16:13: We know that vehicles work, we know the chargers' work.

00:16:15: The winners now will be those who figure out boring stuff The contracts and demand charges And data integration.

00:16:22: It's not about who has the flashiest truck anymore.

00:16:25: it is.

00:16:26: Who realizes sometimes the best innovation Is just a modern version of a nineteen sixty-seven milk float.

00:16:34: I think should all aspire to be more like the Milkman That is wrapped for this deep dive into commercial fleets For weeks six or seven.

00:16:41: If you enjoy this, new episodes drop every two winks.

00:16:44: Also be sure to check out our other editions on electrification and battery technology, future mobility in market evolution...and next-gen vehicle intelligence.

00:16:52: There's always more to learn.

00:16:54: Thanks

00:16:54: for listening!

00:16:55: Don't forget to subscribe.

00:16:56: We'll see ya' next time.