Power Trip improvements

Power Trip has upgraded its fleet analysis tool (Game Plan) and its route planning tool (Optimiser).

Benefits include using telematics data to simulate the performance of different EVs and scenarios across historic routes and helping plan routes that are optimised for EV operations, comparing different makes/models from different companies and then giving these routes and the charging itineraries that go with them to their drivers, says Power Trip founder Richard Heaps.

“We started working on this in January, what we’ve found is that companies with some heavy vehicle offerings are deploying route analysis tools that are basically like our first app (ie, put in a route and it’ll tell you battery consumption), they then give prospective customers results of this planner for individual routes the customer thinks they will do.”

Heaps says the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) co-funded new logistics improvements to give companies a way to plan their new EV logistics ecosystem, and to analyse the data from their existing one, to accelerate their ability to go electric.

The first stage – designed to help with planning an EV fleet, is being rolled out now, with the second stage – managing the fleet operations, aimed at being released early next year, he says.

New features at this stage include new profiles of trucks and buses, route planner features specific for trucking, deliveries, public transport and logistics such as changing vehicle weight at stops  – for example, modelling the impact of picking up and dropping off payloads, changing passenger loads on bus routes; use of traction battery at stops such as modelling the impact of cherry pickers raising baskets, dump trucks doing skip/bin tips and compressions, vehicle-to-load (V2L), additional use of traction battery during travel such as adding energy use from refrigeration trailers, route optimisation – add up to 200 stops and the planner can optimise the order in which they are visited so as to minimise time and energy use before charging is added to the route.

Game Plan now includes quantifying the impact of idling, in terms of fuel use, emissions and costs; determining the exact reliance on public charging a vehicle would have, even if it were fully charged overnight; creating groups of vehicles within the fleet to analyse them all at the same time to help determine energy and charging requirements for depots, teams or groups of similar vehicles with similar tasks; common stopping locations or travel patterns for planning charging; using patterns and opportunities to optimise fleets (reduce vehicles, change travel needs, etc.); and the right proportion of a set of vehicle’s jobs that could be done with EVs (many trucks do a combination of easily EV-able trips and hard to electrify trips, splitting these out and fitting the right vehicles to  can drastically reduce fuel bills and emissions).

Heaps says more features will be released shortly, including potentially a new app designed to make EV driving much simpler for the next generation of EV drivers (including people that aren’t technically savvy).

Game Plan provides electrification analysis alongside utilisation analysis, so it helps fleets reduce the cost of going EV while also helping to pay for it by making efficiency gains within the wider fleet, says Heaps.

”We’re offering this at a small monthly cost to support fleets who just want to pay a minimal amount for ongoing support, or as a larger, upfront cost for fleets that just want to get everything done all at once as part of their CAPEX budget and then pull the trigger on electrification once economic conditions improve.”

Check out Power Trip’s LinkedIn site or click here for more information.