Mobile Fuel Delivery Can Bridge the Electrification Gap

These days, electrification is often the most prominent answer to the question of how to remove carbon from fleet operations — whether it’s due to the millions of dollars in federal funding being pumped into developing charging infrastructure and stimulating electric vehicle (EV) adoption, the highly visible adoption of EVs by companies like Amazon and FedEx, or just the spike in EV commercials and advertising.

While EVs will be a crucial component of wide-scale decarbonization, few fleets will be able to deploy them exclusively any time soon. Although electrification is a critical solution for decarbonizing transportation, we still need to develop ample grid capacity, wide-scale charging infrastructure, and an adequate supply of clean energy to meet demand. Electrification isn’t suitable for every fleet manager, but there are ways to lower emissions and reach sustainability goals over the short- to medium- term.

To achieve a successful net-zero landscape, we will need to rely on a mix of decarbonization solutions and technologies, each best fit for different applications. In transportation, there are a range of ways to reduce emissions that don’t rely on standard electrification, from the fuels themselves to the way they reach vehicles.

Because each fleet’s needs are unique, it is critical that each fleet has a personalized electrification solution and transition plan based on budget, timeline, and market availability. While waiting for EVs and hydrogen fuel cell EVs to scale, fleets can transition to sustainable fuels, which offer lower carbon emissions and are often indistinguishable from their conventional counterparts. One such fuel is renewable diesel, which offers up to 85% lower lifecycle emissions compared to petroleum diesel.

But, transitioning to alternative fuels and energy sources will have its own obstacles. Fueling will become more complex — many traditional fueling stations still fail to offer electric charging, and very few gas stations in the U.S. currently offer sustainable fuels. This is where mobile energy delivery steps in by providing the adaptability necessary to service a mixed-energy fleet. Mobile fuel delivery offers the flexibility fleet managers will need to comfortably adapt to the evolving sustainability landscape.

With Booster’s mobile energy delivery service, conventional and alternative fuels are delivered directly from the terminal to a fleet’s yard in non-operating hours. This model provides a range of fuels to any location, simplifying fueling for mixed-energy fleets, while significantly reducing emissions.

Though electrification will be the right choice for many fleets over the long term, barriers to adoption prohibit wide-scale use right now. For many fleets, the transition will be iterative and will require a range of solutions, from mixed-energy fleets to sustainable fuels to mobile fueling. What matters most is that we continue to make progress in decarbonizing transportation, and take advantage of every solution along the way.