Westminster commercial vehicle charge point trial expanded

Westminster City Council has been testing 15 charging points for commercial vehicle use and in the New Year will expand on that with a wider scale pilot scheme involving an initial 20 extra EV points for vans.

More will follow as part of a transport strategy designed to service the rapidly growing market for fast food, groceries and online shopping delivery vans, it says.

Freight and commercial vehicles now make up nearly a third of all vehicles in Westminster.

Westminster is already catering for electric cars with 1,000 charge points installed and a further 500 on the way by next spring.

Faster charging points for the emerging market in electric commercial vehicles are the next step in growing what is already an extensive network, it says.

Around 196,000 individual goods vehicle trips are made each day within Westminster - many for brief kerbside deliveries and collections.

Cllr Rachael Robathan, leader of Westminster City Council, said: “Lots of small traders need to access our shops and streets for business, and they are vitally important to our economy. It seemed the obvious sensible next step to ensure they are catered for and Westminster’s economy is truly plugged in.

“This move makes even more sense with the introduction of the ULEZ zone, so we are doing our bit to ensure businesses can keep on the road without being loaded with extra costs. This is about the traditional white van driver becoming a green van driver and helping to clean up the air in our city.” 

In a related development, Westminster City Council has just rolled out a new fleet of electric street cleansing vehicles for the West End and has plans to further electrify our waste collection vehicle fleet across Westminster, powered by the energy generated from household waste.  

Cllr Robathan recently spoke to New York City’s commissioner for waste to learn how the US city keeps the number of daily rubbish truck deliveries to a minimum by combining waste pick-up routes.