The nation is rapidly transitioning diesel truck fleets to electric. According to fleet electrification experts, Gladstein Neandross & Associates (GNA), “Deployment of medium- and heavy-duty (MD/HD) battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for commercial fleets is accelerating. Commercial offerings of MD/HD battery-electric vehicles have increased, and medium to large scale vehicle purchases are beginning to occur in leading fleets. At the same time, local, state, and federal policy and goal setting for zero-emission vehicle adoption is expanding.”

What is drayage?

The term drayage came from the days of horse-drawn wagons and carts. Dray carts were heavy-duty, two- or four-wheeled carts, typically without sides. Some included stakes on the sides, so the stakes could be removed to easily load freight.

Drayage is a crucial link in the supply chain. Before a product arrives at a customer’s doorstep or a store, it travels through multiple steps, one of which is drayage. Short-haul trucking from ports or rail yards, to fulfillment centers, warehouses, or storage lots is a type of drayage. Drayage allows connections that make multimodal freight (rail, marine, trucking, etc.) possible.

*(Image by* *John Simmons* on *Unsplash)*

The Intermodal Association of America promotes efficient intermodal freight transportation and advocates for the intermodal freight transportation industry. IAA lists six types of drayage:

Pier Drayage: trucking to the port.
Intra-Carrier (IMX) Drayage: moving goods within the intermodal transport hub of a single freight carrier.
Inter-Carrier Drayage: transfer from rail to sea, rail to rail, sea to rail, or other transfers.
Shuttle Drayage: moving containers to other locations for temporary storage, and more.
Expedited Drayage: used when a cargo load urgently needs to reach its destination quickly.
Door-to-Door Drayage: trucking from the transportation hub direct to the end customer.

Why Drayage trucks need to electrify

One of the truck types that is quickly moving to electric are drayage trucks. Drayage trucks include heavy-duty, class 8 trucks and other smaller trucks. Most of these trucks are diesel-fueled. Because of the many well-documented, harmful effects of work vehicles burning diesel gasoline near ports, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a list of best practices, to assist drayage truck drivers, port authorities, and other port workers to reduce drayage truck emissions.

*(Image by* *Pascal Meier* on *Unsplash*)

The recommendations by the EPA to decrease drayage truck pollution include reducing idle time, avoiding at-risk populations, and using rail and marine transportation instead. Ultimately, the best solution is to convert the trucks to battery electric. Battery electric trucks are the most environmentally friendly trucks currently in use. Electric trucks have no emissions, and when renewable energy is used, it creates a completely clean transportation solution, which mitigates the harmful effects of climate change.

California is leading the rest of the country in EV adoption and fleet electrification. In April 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom released news that the state would end the sales of polluting internal combustion engine (ICE) freight, drayage, refuse, and delivery trucks by 2036. The new rule’s name is Advanced Clean Fleets, and it was approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

Drayage trucks are among the first truck fleets to electrify

Under the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, drayage trucks will be the first to be electrified. Drayage trucks must transition to electric by 2035, along with local delivery and government fleets. Rules for other types of trucks are a little more lenient; for example, garbage trucks have until 2039 to electrify. The pollution caused by diesel trucks at ports and the surrounding areas is the reason for the haste in the transition.

Battery electric trucks, including drayage trucks, currently have a problem. There are long wait times at the charging stations to get the trucks charged due to the large amount of power the trucks require. For example, a typical class 8 truck has a range of 250-275 miles and can reach an 80% charge in about 90 minutes when plugged into a high-power EV charger. This charging time decreases valuable transportation time.

*(Image by* *Sander Yigin* on *Unsplash*)

Why wireless EV charging is the best solution for electric drayage trucks

Wireless EV charging is a cleaner, less expensive, more efficient, and a more elegant solution. With wireless EV charging, trucks such as these can recharge in short bursts known as “topping off” while stopped during driver rest breaks and other periods when they are naturally traveling through their normal routes. These stop times are for short periods, while not in motion (for example at a warehouse dock, or at a security checkpoint queue). Parking the trucks on a wireless EV charging pad avoids the long wait times while charging at the wired charging stations in a depot and saves valuable working time. Trucks are being charged while drivers are stopped anyway, rather than having to dedicate non transport time to charging.

Wireless EV charging allows smaller batteries to be used in trucks because a short burst of high energy charge is never very far away and vehicles don’t have to have batteries that enable them to ‘return home’ to a long charge time at a depot. The battery is the heaviest and most expensive part of electric trucks. Wireless EV charging offers cost-savings at many levels; these are just a few of them.

How do electric drayage trucks charge wirelessly?

Wireless EV charging uses magnetic induction and coils to charge electric trucks, including drayage trucks. Drivers don’t have to get in and out of the trucks to plug in and charge. The trucks can begin charging within seconds after stopping on top of the charging pad. Magnetic induction sends the energy from the charging pad through an air gap to the vehicle. Power flows from the grid to a cabinet to a flush mount ground assembly (GA), also called a charging pad, on the ground.

On the bottom of the vehicle, a vehicle assembly (VA) is the unit that receives the power and charges the truck’s battery. A display in the dash of the truck indicates power delivery progress and alignment to the charging system. Everything is handled automatically and autonomously. The only action the driver has is to align the vehicle and put it in park. The rest is handled with software, wireless communications and wireless charging.

Safety is a significant problem for plugged electric trucks charging at ports

Safety concerns can be extreme when charging trucks at ports due to the large size and weight of the charging cables. In some cases, union drivers and operators in ports and transit facilities are prohibited from handling cables, making wired EV charging adoption even more of a problem for those users.

InductEV, the leader of the wireless EV charging industry

InductEV is the clear leader in the wireless electric vehicle charging industry. The company has extensive experience with drayage transportation and all aspects of electrifying port operations transportation. Contact the company for more information on charging electric drayage trucks quickly, efficiently, and at significantly lower cost than plugged EV chargers or diesel fuel trucks.

M. David Dealy, President and Chief Commercial Officer at InductEV is one of the company’s leaders with profound knowledge and experience with drayage. Dealy was Vice President of Transportation at BNSF Railway for 14 years, overseeing millions of rail transportation trips by BNSF and managing tens of thousands of employees.

Dealy said: “Large rail terminals, ports, and intermodal facilities operate 24 x 7 with high duty cycles with hundreds of millions of dollars of freight that must be moved on time, everytime. Taking effort to refuel a diesel vehicle, taking it off line for it’s regularly required maintenance and service, getting fuel into the depot and exposing workers to noxious fumes as well as the surrounding community are issues that will become a thing of the past as we electrify first, middle and last mile delivery. Electrification of drayage trucks is an important first step and it’s great to be providing my former industry with clean, high ROI, low TCO vehicles that are good for business, good for economics and good for the planet.”

Wireless EV charging has many benefits. Rain, snow, and extreme hot or cold temperatures do not affect energy transfer. A common misconception is that wireless EV charging is less efficient than plugged EV charging. This is not true. The two types of charging have virtually the same efficiency of 90%. The operating expenses of wireless EV charging are less than wired charging. Costs are reduced by around 50% per year for switching to wireless, and the total cost of ownership is typically 30% lower.

Contact InductEV for more information on charging electric vehicles more efficiently and at significantly lower costs. The company has installed industry-leading wireless EV charging around the globe in many different applications. One example is efficient wireless EV charging stations by InductEV for many bus fleets across the United States. Another example is a taxi fleet of electric Volvo XC40 SUVs charged wirelessly by InductEV at wireless EV charging stations in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Written by Bill Pierce, Publisher EVinfo.net

Why Wireless EV Charging is Best for Electric Drayage Trucks