Centrica is using smart lockers at Gridserve’s Braintree Electric Forecourt, allowing its drivers to quickly charge their vans while also collecting stock for their jobs that day.
The lockers, provided by Thinventory, enable brands with large numbers of field engineers, such as Centrica, to securely collect and return equipment and parts at convenient places near their points of service.
There are now more than 45,000 smart lockers across 1,500 UK sites, including the 21 doors installed at the Essex charging facility.
Parent company of British Gas, Centrica runs a 3,000-strong fleet of Vauxhall Vivaro electric vans, which service customers across the UK.
Rob Simister, director of fleet operations at Centrica, said, “A majority of our engineers cannot home charge their British Gas vans and we do not have depots in the UK.
“This means that the time taken to public charge our battery electric vans is a critical component of how many customers we can serve. By reducing charge time, we can get to our customers faster.
“Working with Gridserve and Thinventory provides us reliable, available high-power charging at the same location that our engineers pick up their parts for the day’s service, repair and installation jobs.
“It reduces the time they are not serving our customers to the minimum and is supporting our net zero fleet rollout.”
Andy Crees, operations director at Thinventory, said, “Operating in 31 countries, Thinventory delivers 30 million items per year, with 99.7% of deliveries made on time.
“Customers can securely deliver to smart lockers such as those at Gridserve Braintree Electric Forecourt, reducing the distance engineers need to travel to pick up and return items, benefiting both our clients and their customers.”
