DP World is putting electric HGVs into the hands of UK hauliers for the first time, and Dynamon was the chosen software provider behind it. Through the EVITA trial — part of DP World’s Low Carbon Truck Programme — hauliers run an electric truck for 12 weeks at costs aligned to diesel, charge it at DP World’s facility at Southampton, and plan every journey in RouteZERO so they know the work can be completed before a wheel turns.
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Key outcomes
- Chosen software provider — RouteZERO is the route planning tool across the EVITA trial, giving every participating haulier a consistent way to test an electric HGV against their own work.
- Up to 100 trial opportunities to 2029, on a programme with more than 1,500 trucks and over 60 UK hauliers registered.
- More ambitious duty cycles — planning payload, topography, weather and charging up front lets fleets run the longer routes where an electric truck’s low running costs actually pay back.
The challenge
For most hauliers, the first electric truck is a step into the unknown. Diesel duty cycles are well understood, but an electric HGV raises new questions about range, payload, gradient and weather — and, above all, about where and when it can charge without breaking the shift.
The safe response is to give the vehicle short, local work. That protects the trial, but it also hides what the truck can do and wastes its one real economic advantage over diesel: a very low cost per mile. A truck kept on light duties never earns that back.
Every fleet joining EVITA needed to be able to answer one question with confidence before dispatch — can this vehicle complete this job today?
The approach
DP World’s Low Carbon Truck Programme covers more than 1,500 trucks across over 60 UK hauliers. The EVITA trial — the Electric Vehicle Introduction and Transition Accelerator — lets members take an electric HGV for 12 weeks at costs aligned to diesel, with charging provided at DP World’s driver welfare facility at Southampton port. Vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and MAN are available at launch, delivered in partnership with Hireco, and the programme is expected to provide up to 100 trial opportunities by 2029.
Dynamon was the chosen software provider to the programme. Participating fleets plan their trial routes in RouteZERO, so the operational side of a trial is supported as carefully as the vehicle and the charger.
RouteZERO models the specific truck rather than a generic EV: make and model, battery and drivetrain, trailer configuration, payload, real-world topography and weather. It then determines where energy will be needed along the route, how long each charging stop takes and what state of charge the vehicle arrives with — using depot, destination and public charging as the route requires.
Planners get a clear answer in minutes: whether the job is feasible, and the charging plan that makes it work. That means charging can be placed where it suits the operation, rather than the operation being reshaped around it.
The results
Hauliers begin their trial knowing the day’s work is achievable, and that changes what they are willing to attempt. Rather than keeping the truck on short local runs, they can put it on genuinely demanding routes and watch it perform in the operation it would really have to serve.
That matters commercially as well as technically. Low energy and maintenance costs only repay over distance, so the trials that build the strongest business case are the ambitious ones — and RouteZERO makes those routes plannable instead of risky.
Each 12-week trial also leaves the fleet with evidence it can act on: which routes are already electrifiable, what charging the operation genuinely needs, and which vehicle specification suits the work. That is the groundwork for an order rather than a one-off experiment.
As the chosen software provider to DP World’s EVITA trial, Dynamon is helping UK hauliers experience electric trucks properly — on real routes, at real payloads, with the charging planned in from the start.