Commercial Vehicle Fleet – Development of Total Cost of Operation Model

Decarbonisation of UK transport, and the related Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires companies to transition their commercial vehicle fleets to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) or alternative new emerging technologies (e.g. FCEC). As an operational utility network with responsibility for public safety WWU’s fleet undergoes a more challenging and varied range of duty cycles than most commercial fleets, includes vehicles that are required to provide on-site power, and must be capable of meeting WWU’s statutory duty to respond quickly to Public Reported Escapes.Within this challenging operational context, WWU must deliver a fleet transition at the lowest feasible cost to assure value for money for our customers. This is further complicated by the need to plan the fleet transition while the associated technological and policy landscape continues to evolve in parallel. Although the learnings generated from the project will be specific to WWU’s fleet as a case study, they will be applicable to any networks with an operational fleet.To assure a cost-effective transition and derisk future operations, WWU require a Total Cost of Operation (TCO) model. This will be specifically targeted at our particular operational context, capable of assessing the costs and capabilities of a range of ZEV options, and crucially must be easy for staff to adopt for internal use and update in the future as new data and/or technologies become available.The purpose of this project is to provide WWU with a TCO model that addresses our specific operational requirements, ensuring that plans and investment decisions will be grounded in real-world technology assessments and our operational fleet data.