Whether the coming of electric trucks sounds like a threat or an opportunity for your fleet probably depends on how prepared you are. Take the service side of things, for example: If your fleet does its own truck service, and the fleet acquires an electric truck, will the shop know what to do when it arrives?
If your technicians are going to be working on electric vehicles in the shop, you have to make sure they have all the information they need to safely and properly work on an electric truck.
First up is ensuring that your technicians are properly trained and qualified to deal with high voltage equipment.
Hydrogen fuel cell and battery-electric vehicles operate with very high voltage. That means that technicians need to know how to safely shut down and disconnect these systems prior to working on the vehicles or any of their high-voltage components.
Not all technicians need to be trained on high voltage usage, but it wouldn’t hurt to make sure that all technicians have at least a basic understanding of EV safety and precautions. To give you one industry example, Daimler requires a rigorous three-day high voltage electrical safety course and the technical service and maintenance course for high-voltage vehicles for its dealership technicians who work on them.
Watch the video here for the rest of the tips.
Fleet Equipment’s On The Road is sponsored by Noregon. Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every episode as we dive into the best practices and servicing information to keep your trucks On The Road.
