TRANSITIONING FLEETS WITH EV PLANNING TRANSITIONING FLEETS WITH EV PLANNING

Fleet operators require efficiency, learning over time to rely on their internal combustion engine ICE vehicles. Knowing where vehicles are heading, when they will arrive, and the requirements they need to meet in the process, is a standard practice for logistics firms, but potential disruption forever looms around the corner.

Manufacturers and technology firms have been integrating solutions to manage fleets and plot the journey ahead as it happens, with data the main component of this. With electrified vehicles, though, a major opportunity has presented itself, allowing organisations to integrate faster and more sustainably.

The challenge here is adoption. Despite the best efforts of vehicle manufacturers and their value chains in bringing more innovative cars, vans, and trucks into the market, fleet operators must be willing to adopt. Time pressures are clear, but the cost to businesses remains questionable as electrification’s pros and cons echo along the supply chain.

Again, the key here is data. Supply chain organisations need to be more informed about the EV adoption process to effectively weigh up the cost of switching to this particular type of zero-emission transport. Concerns around charging infrastructure, range, and other aspects of electrification are what hold them back. As Barney Goffer, UK Product Manager at Teletrac Navman, explains, this presents risks on both sides.

Risk vs risk — the fleet electrification dilemma

Stagnance is the first potential risk to fleets — standing still in an industry where movement is key could cost more in the long-term as competitors look to leverage new technologies first. This is understandable in an industry that is more traditional in its approach to operations, but it’s safe to say, open-mindedness could mean the difference between winning the electrification race and being left behind.

On the flip side, the unknown is the unknown, and with new technologies — especially those reinventing conventional approaches — there will also be uncertainty, and those that accept the risks with their eyes wide open will prosper.

greatly from data insights and earlyadoption to make the most of tax breaks, save on costs, and avoid further hindrance, including:

• Switching vehicles at the wrong times

• Costly consultations

• Investment in new ICE options that will go out of date faster

• Lack of preparation for the ICE ban in 2030

• Buying vehicles with insufficient range

• Complication with charging infrastructure

Executives from Appian, AWS, and Xebia share their collaborative efforts and excitement about their partnership in low-code, cloud, and sustainability.

Technology is instrumental to achieving next-level capabilities across industries. But organizations that want to operate sustainably must choose technology that lets them adhere to strong environmental, social, and governance principles.

While the risk is inevitable, data is the educator in this process, and solutions like Teletrac Navman’s Electric Vehicle Readiness tool, provides the necessary insight to help fleet managers better educate themselves on their operations, leveraging greater visibility.

Appian Corporation, a process automation leader, is a critical piece of the digital transformation and sustainability puzzle. The enterprise-grade Appian Low-Code Platform is built to simplify today’s complex business processes, with process mining, workflow, and automation capabilities.

Digital transformation in ESG.

As an AWS leader enabling sustainability solutions built on the cloud, Mary Wilson, Global Sustainability Lead at AWS, talks about the partnership with Appian.

exactly that – minimising carbon emitted into the atmosphere and overall environmental impact,” says Goffer.

Track and trace settles some concerns

“By quickly building apps that streamline and automate workflows, organizations are using Appian to make their processes for monitoring and reporting on ESG initiatives faster, simpler, and more effective,” says Meryl Gibbs, Emerging Industries Leader at Appian.

Aside from the operational concerns, consumers are also more and more preoccupied by the sustainability credentials of companies they buy from. This means that organisations are under pressure from both angles. They want their supply chain actions to be sustainable, and their customers want products to be provided at no cost to the planet.

“Our objective is to help our customers achieve sustainability goals across their business operations,” says Wilson. “[This means] looking at data availability, meaning access to more data, and enabling actionable insights. “Lowcode, cloud-enabled, technologies will allow organizations to build fast, learn fast, iterate, and continue to improve these insights to drive their sustainability outcomes.”

As fleet operators consider the potential impact of electrification on their fleets, it’s important to understand how track-and-trace can not only make EV adoption much simpler, but also allow companies to seamlessly integrate their vehicles into their digital ecosystems.

“Both AWS and Appcino are amazing partners of ours,” says Michael Heffner, VP Solutions and Industry Go To Market at Appian. “We have an extremely long legacy engagement with AWS as our trusted, go-to-market partner and Appcino builds “meaningful, business-focused applications on the Appian platform and is amazing in all things ESG.”

“Consumers are extremely savvy, clearly, and we want to know that they're not impacting the environment necessarily. So, people are making decisions to buy from businesses that have strong green credentials that have a forward-looking organisation focused on

Tarun Khatri, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Appcino (product part of Xebia), explains just how critical ESG is in the face of digital transformation. “The investment community now considers ESG reporting as a major factor for measuring performance,” says Khatri The collaboration will continually uncover new insights and provides customers the opportunity to accelerate their ESG goals with speed and security.

“It's important to know when a certain threshold is met for a particular vehicle so you can get it back out on the road straight away. The converse of that could be that you want to know if something is unlikely to meet its delivery slot, it's going to run the risk of actually running out of charge,” says Goffer.

Visibility of logistics operations is perhaps one of the most critical benefits of electrification. The ability to receive over-theair updates and review data in real time allows organisations to adapt quickly and optimise their EVs.

“It’s about providing those critical data points that will alert automatically. You don’t want to have to sit there as a fleet manager and be looking for this; you want the system to actually tell you by exception when there is a risk.”

The method of powering a vehicle should not determine a fleet. If managers can leverage the data provided by a particular type of vehicle or system, they are able to adapt and plan contingencies, making their supply chains more resilient to the world around them. Integration with software and access to navigation systems these days means that drivers in any context can plan ahead more effectively.

Transitioning a fleet to EVs is like preparing a home for a newborn baby: it requires planning well in advance. If the correct facilities aren’t in place or in the right place when it comes to the big moment, the process is likely to be more stressful. Learning the works and understanding how the business will interact with EVs –and even putting some of those lessons into practice initially – will ease fleet operators in a more sustainable way.