Regardless of whether you have an industrial fleet, delivery fleet, or school bus fleet, you need comprehensive telematics to track vehicles, manage fuel usage, and promote efficiency. When you electrify your fleet, you’ll need electric vehicle (EV) fleet management software that can help you find ways to cut costs, automate tasks, and provide you with accurate reporting.
Manage your EV fleet
EV fleet management software requires tools for monitoring the electricity used for charging vehicles and finding ways to decrease costs associated with charging. Integrated with the Blink Network, the Blink Fleet Management portal allows EV fleet owners to manage all aspects of their vehicle charging while also gaining valuable insights. The first step in comprehensive electric fleet management is to know all the vehicles in your fleet at all your locations. Blink Fleet Management allows you to track all your fleet EVs by:
Vehicle name
Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)
Vehicle make, model, and year
You can also group fleet EVs by location, charging depot, or any other way that is convenient to your operation.
Schedule EV fleet charging
This is where EV fleet management software can really save you money. Using your fleet management portal, you can schedule charging for off-peak hours, regardless of when a vehicle is plugged in. An EV charger that has scheduled charging will only send power to the vehicle at your programmed start and end times, even if the vehicle is plugged in before the start time and after the end time. This helps you keep your charging confined to cheaper off-peak hours. Off-peak hours are the times when electricity usage is at its lowest and there is less stress on the local electricity grid. They generally include weekday nights, weekends, and holidays, when many businesses are closed and residents are going to sleep. However, different utilities may set different on-peak and off-peak hours, so it’s always important to check with your provider about what times they deem to be on- and off-peak hours. Utilities tend increase electricity rates during peak demand hours to discourage non-essential energy usage and decrease rates during off-peak hours when demand is lowest.
Utility Programs for Peak Pricing
Some utility providers even have specific programs for off-peak EV charging. For example, in Colorado, a state where Blink Charging is a verified state EV charger supplier, Xcel Energy offers the EV Critical Peak Pricing Program. Targeted at fleet owners, the program is a way for them to save money by avoiding charging during critical peak times when the electricity rates are at their highest. By enrolling in Xcel Energy’s EV Critical Peak Pricing program, Colorado fleet owners will be alerted to these upcoming critical peak pricing events and be able to avoid this extra expense. And this is where EV fleet management software comes in. With software like Blink Fleet Management, fleet owners in Colorado can schedule their EV charging to avoid peak hours and ensure that they are always taking advantage of off-peak energy rates. Xcel Energy’s Critical Peak Pricing program is just one example of how utility providers help fleets lower costs. For more information about the various programs utility operators offer for EV charging, visit the US Department of Energy’s Demand Response and Time Variable Pricing Programs page.
Support year-end sustainability program reporting
It’s no secret that EV charging helps companies with their sustainability strategies by lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Lowering emissions is not only important for businesses themselves, but also for their partners up and down the supply chain, as EV charging also lowers scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions are emissions that a business is indirectly responsible for. As an example, if your product is shipped by a company that uses internal combustion engine (ICE) fleet vehicles, your company would be indirectly responsible for the ICE fleet's emissions when shipping your product. EV fleets eliminate these emissions. The Blink Fleet Management software provides you with sustainability reports, which give you a concrete way to compare your operational cost savings between EV and ICE fleet vehicles. You get summaries of:
CO2 reduction,
barrels of oil saved from being used,
gallons of fossil fuel saved from being used, and
millions of dollars saved per year by not using fossil fuels.
You can use this information in your year-end reports and to help you attract investors, clients and business partners who are interested in dealing with sustainable companies. More and more customers are taking sustainability into consideration when deciding which companies to engage with, so these reports can be incredibly valuable to your bottom line.
Administrative notifications
Blink Fleet Management can provide you with notifications for when drivers stop charging too early, plug in a vehicle for charging too late, or disconnect a vehicle before it has reached a minimum battery energy level that you have set. This provides you with more control over when and how long vehicles are charged, and can help you increase operational efficiency to ensure all your vehicles have sufficient power to drive their routes.
Network integration
But Blink is not just an EV fleet management software company. Blink is a leading commercial Level 2 and DC fast charging company, which means that your fleet chargers will be integrated with the Blink Network. For businesses and governments that also offer EV charging for employees or customers, this integration provides you with a comprehensive overview of all your chargers at all your locations and an intuitive dashboard to control charging times and receive usage reports. These reports can help you design a charging schedule across your entire fleet that takes advantage of off-peak charging prices for maximum cost efficiency for your entire business.
Conclusion
Integrated with the Blink Network, Blink Fleet Management software provides EV fleet managers with full control over their fleet charging so they can take full advantage of the lowest electricity rates offered by their utility provider. It can also notify administrators about abnormal charging activity and provide detailed sustainability reports that can help your business attract clients, investors, and employees. Blink has a full array of fleet charging solutions. Ready to get started? Contact Blink Charging today to talk with an EV fleet expert.