Electrifying heavy transport can sound straightforward. Replace diesel trucks with electric trucks, install chargers, and start reducing emissions.
But when Toll Australia began rolling out electric trucks under an ARENA-supported initiative across nine depots nationwide, the project quickly showed that the vehicle is only one part of the transition. The bigger challenge was designing the infrastructure, approvals process, safety controls and ongoing support needed to keep working freight depots moving.
For a large transport operation, charging is not just a technical installation. It becomes part of the operating system of the depot.
Freight depots do not have room for downtime
Freight operations run on tight delivery windows. Trucks leave early, return late, and often operate around customer schedules that cannot easily be moved. A delay of even one hour can affect customers, contracts and supply chains.
Diesel has suited this operating model because refuelling is fast and predictable. A truck can return to base, refuel, and be ready for the next run.
Electric trucks change that equation. Charging takes longer, trucks do not all return at the same time, and additional chargers cannot simply be added without considering site power, depot layout, safety requirements and cost.
For Toll, the core question became clear: how do you introduce electric trucks into depots that were originally designed around diesel operations?
Where the pressure points emerged
As the rollout progressed across nine sites, several practical challenges became clear.
Some depot sites did not have enough electrical capacity to support multiple high-powered chargers. Even where capacity was available, the physical layout of the yard could make it difficult for large trucks to access charging equipment safely and efficiently.
There was also no established template for the project. Heavy vehicle charging at scale remains a developing area in Australia, particularly across multiple sites with different landlords, layouts, operating conditions and approval requirements.
The operational risk was also significant. Toll’s vehicles were supporting different freight tasks, including gas assets, fast-moving consumer goods and large steel manufacturing materials. If charging infrastructure was unreliable, unsafe or poorly aligned with fleet schedules, trucks could sit idle, miss their next run or become unavailable for critical work.
The lesson was that electrification was not just a vehicle decision. It was an infrastructure, operations, safety and compliance challenge.
Designing charging around the fleet
EVSE Australia worked with Toll to treat charging as a core part of depot operations, rather than a bolt-on addition.
The first step was using a return-to-base charging model. Trucks complete their daily work, return to the depot, and charge before their next shift, typically overnight. This reduces reliance on public infrastructure or mid-route charging and gives fleet operators more control over availability.
Each of the nine depots was then assessed as an individual project. Charger type, power level and placement were matched to the duty cycle of the trucks operating from that site. Some vehicles needed faster turnaround times, while others could charge more slowly overnight.
This avoided the mistake of applying a single charging design across every depot. In heavy transport, the right charging solution depends on route structure, dwell time, payload, site layout and available power.
Smart energy management was also used to balance demand across multiple chargers. Rather than upgrading every site to maximum grid capacity, load management helped keep charging within existing grid constraints where possible. Charging schedules were also aligned with off-peak tariff periods to reduce ongoing energy costs.
Safety and approvals became a major part of the project
One of the most important parts of the rollout was the approval process required to install high-powered DC charging infrastructure in commercial freight depots.
Because some depots were supporting vehicles carrying gas assets, FMCGs and industrial materials, safety requirements were critical. EVSE Australia developed site-specific installation methodologies that considered charger placement, cable routing, proximity to buildings, fire risk, fuel sources and high-risk cargo.
The project also had to account for scalable infrastructure. Conduit runs, switchboard configurations and civil works were designed with future expansion in mind, reducing the risk of expensive rework as electric truck numbers grow.
Some sites required town planning permits and location-specific approvals covering zoning, electrical load and safety standards. Where Toll operated from leased premises, landlord approvals were also needed. That meant providing technical documentation, proposed layouts and assurances around reinstatement, while often meeting landlord-specific EV charging requirements.
Insurance requirements added another layer of detail. Installation methodology and equipment specifications had to support the requirements of depot operators and site owners, including examples such as locating chargers 10 metres from building walls and 10 metres from fire extinguisher locations.
This added time to the pre-installation phase, but it helped avoid a bigger risk: projects stalling because approvals, safety or insurance requirements had not been addressed early enough.
Ongoing support matters as much as installation
For a freight operator, a charger fault is not just an inconvenience. If a charger is down, a truck may not be ready for its next run.
To support long-term reliability, EVSE Australia implemented its EVSE Shield Service Level Agreement across the nine sites.
The package includes bi-annual preventative maintenance, with scheduled visits twice a year to inspect equipment, check connections and assess system health. It also includes priority service response so faults or outages are escalated ahead of standard service queues.
Depot teams also have access to live tracking and ticketing dashboards, showing charger status, charging session data and active service tickets.
This changes the charging network from a collection of installed assets into a managed infrastructure system. For electric trucks to operate reliably in freight, chargers need to be treated with the same importance as other critical depot assets.
Turning charging into an operational system
Once the charging infrastructure, approvals, safety methodology and support arrangements were in place, the electric trucks could operate more like any other asset in the fleet.
They completed routes, returned to base, charged, and went out again for the next shift.
That is the point many fleet operators are trying to reach. The aim is not simply to install chargers. It is to make charging predictable enough that electric trucks can be scheduled, dispatched and managed with confidence.
For Toll, partnering with EVSE Australia across nine depots helped turn a complex transition into a practical and scalable operating model.
What other fleets can learn
The broader lesson for Fleet Managers, Fleet Coordinators and Procurement Managers is that heavy vehicle electrification cannot be planned around the truck alone.
Charging infrastructure needs to be designed around real fleet behaviour. That includes route timing, dwell windows, power availability, depot layout, safety controls, approval pathways, landlord requirements, insurance obligations and ongoing service support.
If charging is treated as an afterthought, it can quickly become the bottleneck that limits electric truck adoption. If it is designed around the way the fleet actually operates, it can become an enabler.
For heavy transport fleets, electric trucks are unlikely to fail because the technology exists. The larger risk is that the infrastructure is not built for the job, or that the support systems are not in place to keep it operating when the depot needs it.
