The fact that electric vans do not currently require an MOT test presents a major worry for fleets as a wave of new vehicles starts to reach the market, with many being shown at next month’s Commercial Vehicle Show, Arval is warning.
The fleet management company says that the absence of a test – and, for those over 3.5 tonnes GVW, no O Licence either – removes a key element of the maintenance structure for fleets running these vehicles.
Eddie Parker, Fleet CV Consultant at Arval, explained: “The legislation covering electric vans is lagging some way behind the current situation, being really designed for a time when the only common electric commercial vehicles were milk floats.
“Our view is that this loophole will, and should, be closed quite quickly by the authorities but in the meantime, it does create an operational difficulty. Because fleet vans are often run into three, four and five years, the MOT provides useful structure for fleets when it comes to maintaining vehicles, as well as proving that they are being looked after to legal standards.”
He added that a further complication was that electric vans were also legally viewed as wheeled items of electrical plant and therefore affected by rules covering electrical equipment in the workplace such as The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016.
“The legislation here is largely common sense but it should be kept in mind because it does constitute a further legal responsibility for fleets and may need building into relevant fleet and health and safety policies.”
Eddie said that pointing out these issues in no way distracted the operational advantages of electric vans and that Arval believed that they would become a key part of the fleet mix.
“Our view is that pressure to reduce city centre emissions will mean that adoption of electric vans by certain fleets could be quite rapid and we are very much behind this trend.
“The improvements that we are seeing in the new generation of models including improved range, faster charging and bigger payloads are all very positive developments.
“However, the truth is that there is very little expertise in the fleet industry about their operation and the lack of awareness of the MOT and O Licence situation is just one example.”
Arval is launching a new guide at the CV Show, “Delivering the future: A guide to operating electric vans” that is aimed at providing operational guidance for fleets that are starting to operate electric vans.
Eddie said: “There is quite a lot of information available designed to help fleets decide whether they should run electric vans but not so much about their actual day-to-day operation.
“Our new guide is designed to quickly familiarise fleet operators with the main issues and concerns that they need to know about and our consultants will be happy to help if they need further information.”
