Fleet World’s webinar on agile mobility brought together expert speakers from Quartix, Drax and Europcar Mobility Group. By Simon Harris. Fleet decision-makers are navigating a period of
Fleet World’s webinar on agile mobility brought together expert speakers from Quartix, Drax and Europcar Mobility Group. By Simon Harris.
Fleet decision-makers are navigating a period of exceptional uncertainty. A recent Fleet World Agile Mobility webinar brought together experts from Quartix, Drax and Europcar Mobility Group to address two of the most pressing challenges: operational resilience and total cost of ownership.
Amber Shanahan, field account manager at Quartix, opened by explaining how telematics data helps fleet managers identify which vehicles are genuinely earning their keep.
The most common revelation, she said, is the gap between what fleet managers believe their vehicles are doing and what the data actually shows. Underutilised assets sitting idle in yards, vehicles running with the engine on during working hours and mileage being accumulated outside core working hours are all patterns that only become visible with reliable telematics.
Shanahan also outlined how mileage and shift pattern data can be used to identify which vehicles in a fleet are genuinely suited to electrification, taking seasonality into account by looking back across twelve months of historical data. A forthcoming partnership will allow Quartix data to be overlaid with a live map of the UK public charging network, giving fleet managers real-time visibility of charge point proximity alongside vehicle location.
Stuart Russell, business development director at Europcar Mobility Group, made the case for flexible rental as a way of managing fleet size without long-term exposure.
With economic volatility now the default condition rather than the exception, he argued that the traditional three- to five-year lease was designed for a world that no longer exists. Europcar’s one-month-plus flexible offering allows fleets to scale up or down as business needs shift, and increasingly to trial electric vehicles before committing to permanent contracts.
Russell cited a local authority that had moved 60-70 electric vans into service during a cold December spell. Drivers reported the vehicles were unfit for purpose and needed constant charging. The data told a different story: average daily mileage of around 25 miles, with charging taking place four or five times a week – well within the vehicles’ capability. That data, Russell said, ended the resistance almost overnight.
Naomi Nye, head of sales at Drax, reframed energy as the new fuel and urged fleets to think about electrification as a whole-site strategy rather than a vehicle procurement decision.
Shifting charging to off-peak times, using load balancing technology, integrating solar or battery storage and planning infrastructure in phases are all practical steps available now.
The most common misconception, she said, is that grid capacity is simply there to be accessed. In practice, capacity is often fully allocated on paper, DNO applications can take months, and reinforcement works involving substations and transformer upgrades add further delay.
Her advice was to start early, engage experts and use the dig-once principle – installing cable infrastructure for future charge points even if only a fraction of them are needed immediately.
All three speakers closed with the same message: start now, use the data available and do not wait for perfect conditions that may never arrive.
