IN Brief:
- PSI Software developed transport and charging-management tools through the Transportation in Charge research project.
- The project tested around 210 electric commercial vehicles with charging infrastructure for logistics tasks.
- The software uses real-time data from telematics, traffic, weather, charging points, parking, and available charging capacity.
PSI Software has developed software tools that connect electric truck transport planning with charging management, addressing the operational complexity created when freight routes, charging points, parking spaces, and grid capacity all need to be planned together.
The work formed part of the three-year Transportation in Charge research project, developed with Fraunhofer IFAM and partners from research and industry. The project tested around 210 electric commercial vehicles and associated charging infrastructure to assess practical suitability across logistics applications in industrial parks and freight hubs.
PSI’s contribution includes software for integrating transport logistics and charging management, alongside a cloud-based demonstrator built around PSItms transport management and CCTV image-data analysis. The platform exchanges real-time planning data from vehicle telematics, traffic, weather, charging points, parking spaces, and available charging capacity.
Electric truck deployment changes freight planning at a structural level. Diesel operations are built around widely available refuelling, short dwell times, and relatively simple route recovery. Battery-electric trucks require route energy calculation, charger availability, dwell management, power capacity, parking access, vehicle state-of-charge, and closer coordination between transport and site energy systems.
Industrial parks and freight hubs sharpen that challenge because multiple users may need to share the same charging infrastructure. A site with inadequate software control risks charger queues, inefficient power use, underutilised assets, and transport delays. A site that overbuilds infrastructure may tie up capital before fleet demand is mature enough to justify it.
Fleet electrification is already moving from trial fleets into infrastructure planning. In Belgium, EUTRACO’s truck charging and battery system combines ultra-fast chargers, battery storage, solar generation, and electric trucks across logistics sites. PSI’s work adds the digital control layer needed when charging becomes part of dispatch rather than a separate depot activity.
Real-time coordination is essential because freight plans rarely hold perfectly. Traffic delays, loading overruns, temperature, weather, route diversions, charger faults, and parking availability can all disrupt a charging schedule. Static planning can show whether a route should work; live planning helps decide what to do when a vehicle arrives late, a charger is occupied, or available power is constrained.
Grid planning adds a longer horizon. As vehicle fleets convert, industrial parks will need to understand future energy demand across several businesses, rather than only the current charging requirement of one fleet. Long-term grid capacity, local generation, battery storage, charger placement, and operating schedules all depend on knowing how freight demand is likely to change.
Shared charging infrastructure may become an important model where individual operators cannot justify dedicated high-power chargers at every site. The economics rely on utilisation, fair access, and predictable booking. Without digital allocation, shared infrastructure can become a source of conflict; with stronger planning tools, it can lower capital barriers while keeping transport reliable.
The project’s findings indicate that electric truck fleets can already operate despite continuing barriers around vehicle acquisition costs and charging infrastructure. That conclusion is strongest when the operational system around the vehicle is properly designed. A battery-electric truck is not a diesel asset with a different powertrain; it requires new coordination between transport management, energy management, driver planning, and infrastructure control.
Transport managers will increasingly need systems that understand both freight and electricity. Route assignment, charger booking, vehicle selection, shift planning, parking, and delivery time windows are becoming linked decisions. The next stage of fleet electrification will depend less on vehicle availability alone and more on whether logistics software can keep electric assets productive during live operations.
PSI’s research work points toward a more integrated operating model for electric freight. Charging is no longer a back-office depot issue; it is becoming part of the route plan, the asset plan, and the customer service plan. As electric truck fleets grow, transport management systems will need to calculate energy as carefully as they calculate distance, time, and capacity.
