EV Truck Parking Management: Why Most Tech Vendors Still Don’t Get It 

I’m going to say something that makes a few parking-tech CEOs and CPO operators shift uncomfortably in their wheely chairs: most of the parking management industry still doesn’t understand EV truck operations.

Everyone’s talking about “fleet electrification,” “future-ready depots,” and “smart charging,” but when you peel back the glossy consultant-written slides, the solutions fall apart the minute you try to apply them to a real, living, breathing logistics operation.

And trust me, I’ve spoken to enough logistics companies to know their fear.

---

It’s the Little Things. Like Where the Charger Is on the Truck 

This year, I had the pleasure of visiting the huge Transport & Logistics fair in Munich, and there I specifically asked the haulage companies.

One, they were shocked that a tech company was actually taking an interest, and two, they said not one company involved in parking is getting it right, and that scares them. They are under contract to make their deliveries on time, otherwise the supply chain falls apart. 

Let me start with the simplest, dumbest detail that derails entire parking layouts: the location of the charging port. 

You’d be shocked (pun absolutely intended) how many software vendors assume trucks plug in like Teslas, nose in, cable in front. Meanwhile, half the heavy-duty EVs have ports on the driver side, some on the passenger side, some behind the door, and some (my personal favourite chaos generator) tucked mid-body.

Design a parking layout without taking that into account and guess what?

Your perfect CAD drawing turns into a yard full of trucks parked backwards, angled, or blocking lanes. Drivers start improvising. Improvisation turns into delays. Delays turn into missed windows. And suddenly it’s “EVs don’t work at scale.”

No, your plan didn’t work at scale. 

And Then There Are the Big Things. Like Load Allocation

But let’s zoom out to the big issue: Electrical load.

You can’t just drop in a few chargers and pray the grid can handle it. Managing an EV truck depot means managing electricity the way you manage fuel, warehouse space, and labour. This is where most “parking tech” solutions collapse, they were built to handle where something parks, not how much power it needs while it’s parked.

Here’s the truth: Parking management for EV fleets isn’t about parking at all. It’s about energy orchestration.

You need dynamic load balancing that adjusts by the minute. You need to prioritise trucks by route urgency, departure time, and battery state. You need confidence that truck #12 will have a 78% charge by 3:40 am, as that’s precisely what it needs to meet its route window and meet contractual delivery times.

And that requires the parking system to actually: 

• know which truck is where 

• know which charger is available 

• know the real-time electrical load 

• and coordinate all of this without blowing the depot transformer 

I’ve seen vendors claim, “Oh, we can integrate with charge management.” Translation: We’ll ask the CPO for a CSV file and call it a workflow.

EV Parking Is Now Critical Path Logistics

Real EV Parking Management Is About Operational Reality

A proper EV parking management system has to think the way fleet operators think: 

• Where can I physically fit the trucks? 

• Where do I have charger reach? 

• How do I avoid clogging my yard flow? 

• How do I guarantee charge targets by shift? 

• What’s my load curve, and how do I flatten it without buying a second substation? 

• What happens if a truck comes back late? 

• What happens if three show up early? 

• What happens if the charger I needed is down? 

If you can’t answer those, you’re not managing EV parking, you’re placing EV icons on a map and hoping no one notices.

The Industry Needs to Catch Up

The fleets are ready. The OEMs are churning out bigger batteries and bigger trucks. Utilities are slowly getting the memo.

But parking tech? Still treating trucks like they’re compact sedans in a shopping centre car park.

If you’re building for this space, build for reality: dust, noise, deadlines, heavy equipment, unpredictable schedules, and the unglamorous but absolutely mission-critical complexity of electricity as a logistics input.

The problem is, some CPO-s don’t get it

At the IFSF Conference this year, a senior member of one of the largest charger operators openly stated that trucks will charge at the depot, not on the road.

And yet, these massive distribution centres are often already packed with equipment, churning out the watts from the grid, and, if they’re lucky, the site owner (not usually them) has put a few solar panels on the roof.

The fleet operator needs to know where they can charge, and when. Know how much capacity is available, whether the truck will fit, and so on. And no, they can’t just continue to use fossil fuels and hope for the best, because their customers are now mandating deliveries by EV.

If you’re a fleet operator trying to electrify without losing your mind, remember: EV parking is not a real estate problem. It’s not a software problem. It’s not even a charging problem. 

It’s an operations problem. And operations problems require operational thinking.

Planning to install EV chargers at your site? Speak to us first.

Whether you’re a retailer with EV chargers or a truck parking operator planning your first site, we can help you turn “EV chaos” into a controlled, predictable operation. You can learn more about Cloudics here.

Connect with Gary Szendzielarz on LinkedIn.