When planning long-term for your fleet, you are looking for technology solutions that will improve the operations of your fleet. You want solutions that will save money, whether that be through reduced fuel costs, reduced maintenance costs, or increased operational efficiency. If a technology can also reduce impact on the environment, it is a win-win situation. The NC Clean Energy Technology Center is partnering with Leke Services to provide free fleet assessments to fleets within North Carolina.

Evaluating whether a technology will reduce your costs over the lifespan of the equipment (the total cost of ownership), is not always straightforward. There is no “one size fits all” solution that works for every fleet. The choice of whether to consider using biofuels, propane (including renewable propane), natural gas (including renewable natural gas), electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, or idle reduction technologies depends on many factors. You need to consider duty cycle, mileage, availability of fueling/charging stations (or the cost to install them), technician training, and operator training, among other factors.

When beginning the process, you should consider who will be involved in the decision-making process. You may not involve every stakeholder immediately, but you should think about who ultimately will need to be involved. Your team should agree on what your goals are (financial, environmental and operational), and then you should begin the process of analyzing your fleet to identify the biggest opportunities for improvement. This should inform your strategy and become the basis of an action plan with identified steps and staff members responsible for carrying out the implementation of those steps.

The NC Clean Energy Technology Center (host of the Piedmont and Coastal NC Clean Communities) is partnering with LEKE Services to provide an initial, high-level fleet assessment to help fleets in North Carolina start planning for a more sustainable fleet. These no-cost fleet assessments will provide high-level information on available technologies for your fleets, as well as possible cost implications for different choices. This information can be a starting point in your planning process when considering which alternative fuel or clean transportation technology to use. In the fleet planning process for sustainability, this is an early step to help you consider the broad range of options available. However, by narrowing your range of options of solutions, you can be more focused in additional planning and implementation steps afterwards. Avoid mistakes others have made by getting advice early on in the process.

If you are interested in receiving a free fleet assessment, please fill out this form. The link will lead to a questionnaire where you will be asked how many vehicles you have of different fuel types, details about your powertrain and mileage, use cases, ownership model, and sustainability goals. A staff person will follow up with more information.