Haijo Kampinga
Co-founder & Managing Director, EUlectrify
The “why” is coming from the demand side
The strongest trigger for electrification isn’t internal – it cascades down the supply chain from shippers and forwarders. Serving customers, consumers and society is what sets the whole thing in motion.
The “how” doesn’t start with a truck
Before any hardware come two questions:
→ Do we genuinely understand our operational requirements – reliability and cost?
→ Is our organization actually ready?
Yet most journeys still begin with: “My diesel lease is ending, so I can order an electric truck to grab a subsidy and serve in zero-emission zones.”Maybe that is the wrong start.
The Electrification Pyramid
So I sketched a simple Electrification Pyramid. Nothing academic, just to trigger thinking.
Read it bottom-up.
The vehicle – still the key value lever – sits at the apex. But it only pays off when everything beneath it holds: governance and organizational capability, the right operational and financial data, infrastructure, and financial engineering.
Most organizations climb it upside down.
It’s also why I keep arguing that every supply-chain-centred organization deserves a Chief Energy Officer.
From individual depots to shared infrastructure
One idea I particularly like is a regional Depot Charging Club – operators collaborating at depot level to share infrastructure knowledge, drive down cost and drive up utilization.
Less duplication. More density. Better economics for everyone.
Not through a third party, but together.