Smart Depot Share

The problem

A depot's chargers sit idle while its own trucks are out working, but nobody knows how much of that time is actually spare. Trucks are charged to a standard target rather than to what tomorrow's work needs, and the chargers are held for the home fleet between shifts on caution. So the depot offers almost nothing to other operators, and SME fleets without chargers of their own go without.

What's being tested

MHTech's energy engine forecasts what each vehicle's next duty will use, accounting for vehicle, load, route and road elevation. Smart Depot Share turns that into the charging time the home fleet needs and publishes the rest a day ahead as bookable windows. It reads from systems the depot already uses and writes charge windows back out. No hardware is installed and no system is replaced.

The trial is staged. Mobilisation and a baseline of current charging practice from late October. Then twelve weeks of live operation from late November, first with forecasts and windows produced daily and reviewed while charging carries on as normal, right through the December peak. In January the operator decides, on forecast accuracy and confidence, whether to act on it. If they do, home fleet charging follows the plan and windows go out to visiting fleets. If not, the review stage carries on and still reports a result.

How we'll know

Forecast accuracy against measured consumption, with a working target of 10 per cent average error. Charger-hours per duty against the baseline. How much spare capacity is published, and how many windows are honoured on time. And the line that can't move: no home fleet truck starts a duty short of charge because capacity went to someone else.

Why it matters

Every charger-hour a depot can safely release is a charger and grid connection another operator doesn't have to fund. If this works, depot sharing stops relying on guesswork.

Results

Published at the end of the trial. Final report due March 2027.