Data, charging costs and the complexity of a port fleet: a conversation with Steve Pottiez

Steve Pottiez is Fleet Manager at Port of Antwerp-Bruges and manages a complex mix of company cars, pool vehicles and operational vehicles. With a current team of four and a background in the car rental sector, he has been steadily greening the fleet over the past few years. We spoke with him about the challenges of electrification in an operational context, charging data, privacy and the future of the port fleet.

A fleet like no other

A consultancy has company cars. A logistics company has vans. Port of Antwerp-Bruges has everything at once: around 250 company cars, 150 pool vehicles and a hundred or so utility vehicles, from small city cars to forklifts and a sewer cleaner.

That diversity does not make fleet management any easier.

Consultancy firms mostly talk about company cars. With us, everything comes together, and the approach is naturally different.

For company cars and pool vehicles, electrification is going well: both segments are around 80% EV. For utility vehicles, the situation is more complex.

When we look at light freight with an open loading bay, payload is a serious concern. These are vehicles used by maintenance technicians who sometimes need to transport sand and stones. That quickly becomes a limiting factor for EVs.

Steve would rather avoid ordering diesel vehicles. But operational reality does not always offer an alternative. And a diesel vehicle ordered today will still be on the road well into the 2030s.

We really want to stop ordering diesel vehicles. But you cannot tell those teams to switch to an EV when the technology simply is not there yet for their type of work. It is about maintaining bridges and locks. Fairly critical infrastructure.‍‍

‍Steering electrification without forcing it

For company cars, Port of Antwerp-Bruges opted for a smart budget approach rather than a hard mandate. Choosing a plug-in hybrid leads to a small city car. Choosing fully electric means a Volvo EX60 or Audi Q4.

Colleagues automatically end up with an EV. Was that intentional? Yes.

Management always wanted to leave a small door open. Freedom of choice for the driver remains a principle. In practice, the budget structure clearly steers towards electric.

The approach works. So well, in fact, that some employees now consciously choose not to have a home charging station.

Public charging infrastructure has expanded. We notice that some colleagues deliberately choose not to install a home charging station, depending on their situation.

That opens a new discussion. Port of Antwerp-Bruges wants to revisit its approach to home charging: moving away from covering the full installation cost towards a fixed annual budget that employees can use as they see fit.

The idea is to move away from providing a home charging station and instead offer a fixed annual budget, which you can use to invest in a home charging station if you want, or put towards public charging or fast chargers.

Charging data: the biggest blind spot

Employees charge at home, at the office, in public and abroad, using different charging passes from different providers. Overview is almost non-existent.

The information can come from anywhere and the overview is currently not zero, but not far above it.

Port of Antwerp-Bruges already ran a trial with a connected vehicle platform to pull charging data directly from the vehicles. Promising, but stopped due to a parallel process with another provider. The problem remains unsolved.

Rotation costs, idle fees, digging through invoices to get there. It is operationally not feasible right now.

His ideal setup: split billing, a maximum rate covered by the company, control over fast charger use. Tools that can deliver on that today are more than welcome.

If they can deliver on their promises, that would be great.

In the meantime, Port of Antwerp-Bruges is focusing on awareness. New users receive information about efficient driving and the cost differences between charging options, which can vary by a factor of five.

Privacy: if you pay, you get a say

The question of how far a company can go in monitoring charging and driving data is one Steve approaches with nuance.

When it comes to a company car, I think data that is useful to the company should be visible. And useful means cost-related, above all.

Exact location data? He is clear on that: not necessary and not desirable. The nature of a charging session, public or home, fast or slow, domestic or abroad, is relevant business information in his view.

Simply put: the one who pays should still have some say.

He adds: anyone who wants to protect their privacy can always use a personal charging pass. The boundary is clear, but requires ongoing alignment with the DPO and GDPR legislation.

It will undoubtedly remain a hot topic in the years ahead, especially as the possibilities expand.

Looking ahead: the world's first climate-neutral port

Port of Antwerp-Bruges is looking beyond its own fleet. Together with the port of Rotterdam, work is underway on a green corridor between the two ports. The ambition is clear:

We want to become the world's first climate-neutral port.

Those are big words, but Steve puts them in context: geopolitical realities, competitive position and European standards make the path complex. Collaboration, including with competitors, is unavoidable.

Emissions do not stop at the border. So these are projects that need to be rolled out more broadly.

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