Taking Stock

Publisher | Delon Rashid (416) 459-0063 delon@turnkey.media

Editor | Emily Atkins (416) 262-4106 emily@turnkey.media

Contributing Writers | Norm Kramer, Christian Sivière, Matthew Wittemeier, David Branson

Creative Director | Samantha Jackson

Video / Audio Engineer | Ashley Mikalauskas, Nicholas Paddison

Sales | Delon Rashid, (416) 459-0063 delon@turnkey.media Peter Bulmer, (585) 653-6768 peter@turnkey.media

Production and Ad-ops | Tracy Stone tracy@turnkey.media

Inside Logistics magazine is published by Turnkey Media Solutions Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, either in part or full, including photocopying and recording, without the written consent of the copyright owner. Nor may any part of this publication be stored in a retrieval system of any nature without prior consent.

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President & Managing Partner | Delon Rashid Head of Sales & Managing Partner | Peter Bulmer

Corporate Office

48 Lumsden Crescent, Whitby, ON, L1R 1G5

Are EVs the future?

WE HAVE A COUPLE of stories in our news section this issue about electric vehicles. In one, Amazon is rolling out its custom-designed Rivian delivery vans for last-mile deliveries across many US cities. In the other, the Canadian government is offering significant incentives to businesses buying electric work trucks.

On the face of it these are positive developments. Done right, EVs can be run more cheaply than ICE vehicles, and have numerous environmental advantages. But that is based on a couple giant assumptions.

The first is that companies wanting to adopt EVs will be able to obtain the charging infrastructure they need at a cost that doesn’t make running the EVs prohibitive. What’s seldom mentioned in the push for EV adoption is the cost and complexity of establishing a charging infrastructure for a sizeable fleet. Buying chargers and installing them is one of the last steps. Before that is finding out if the electrical utility can even supply the amount of power needed. When new transformers have to be installed and new conduit run, the bills get hefty. And that’s not even looking deeper into the utility’s larger capacity to handle dozens or hundreds of companies seeking electrification of their fleets.

Nonetheless, the progress being made towards commercial fleet electrification is impressive. Manufacturers are turning out excellent, purpose-built vehicles like the Rivian vans for Amazon, or our own home-grown Lion Electric trucks.

The use-case for urban last mile delivery is strong. Shorter routes, defined hours of service, and the ability to return to a depot every night provide good conditions for EVs. Likewise the middle mile is an equally good place to deploy EVs. Fixed, repeatable routes make sense, allowing the planning of charging times and locations.

But Canada poses some challenges to electric vehicles. Cold weather deteriorates EV performance, and our vast geography and thinly spread population mean that the urban delivery model is not applicable to significant portions of the population.

It’s not that EVs won’t be the future – progress is being made every day to improve range and performance. However, I believe that – with the exception of Amazon – they aren’t quite ready for prime time.

To end on a personal note, I want to say how delighted I am to be reunited with Delon Rashid on Inside Logistics. I’m looking forward to continuing to build this magazine with a great new team!