Those logistics operators again, why don’t they just switch to electric trucks, still not getting it?
I hear that a lot. Usually from people who have never set foot on a depot yard and never had a real conversation with the owner of a small transport company.
A painful lesson
I have been on a few of those yards in recent weeks. And let me tell you: they hear it loud and clear. In fact, they have heard it very carefully before. A few years ago, when gas was supposed to be the answer to the diesel truck. State-subsidised CNG, LNG and BioCNG, pushed by truck manufacturers and politicians alike, marketed as cleaner than diesel. Those who invested early were celebrated as pioneers.
Then the subsidies were cut. That alone would have been manageable. But the refuelling network stayed thin. Vehicles ended up sitting in the depot, too expensive to run, infrastructure nowhere to be found. No big drama, no public outcry. Just a quiet fade-out. But it left a mark.
And now electric trucks are rolling in, with new subsidies and new promises.
The crucial difference
Gas still worked on familiar logic. Filling station, fill up, drive off. Same operating model, different fuel.
An electric truck is different from day one. The operating logic changes completely. For many logistics operators who are not running international long-haul routes, the truck charges at home, on their own yard, and the depot becomes an energy system. That is not optional, it is the foundation. Suddenly you are talking about grid connections, charging infrastructure, battery storage, energy management, billing. All of it at once, all of it before the first truck ever moves. And while all that is landing on you, politicians are out there preaching technology neutrality.
I am convinced electric trucks are the future and they will become mainstream. But that is not what this is about. It is not about technology or efficiency, not even economics. And that in an industry where the cost per kilometre is everything. It does not matter how many providers say they have a solution for everything. The worry stays. The fear and the uncertainty stay. That explains the hesitation. Because the logistics operator is expected to learn to be an energy expert before he can drive.
This is where it needs to start
Not with another technical specification or the latest battery storage system. With understanding for an industry in the middle of a transformation. And that understanding comes best from within the industry, for the industry. Competitors on the road, but not on this issue.
Anyone who ignores that has genuinely not heard the shot.
