Driving Toward a Cleaner Supply Chain

Since 2014, we’ve partnered with Rutgers Business School to conduct research on EVs and their feasibility in being deployed for the supply chain. That research led us to pursue obtaining an EV of our own in April of 2024.

EV1, as the organization affectionately calls it, is a Freightliner eCascadia and comes equipped with the wide range of safety features that the diesel counterparts produced by Freightliner does: side guard assist, active brake assist, adaptive cruise control, active lane assist, lane departure warning, intelligent high beams, automatic wipers/headlamps.

Additional vehicle facts:

• 470 horsepower
• Range: up to 250 miles
• Battery size: 438 kWh
• Recharge: 80% in ~90 min
• 82,000 lbs. max gross weight
• 21,800 lbs. truck tare weight

“It’s like driving on a cloud,” remarked Hermann Transportation driver Andrea Ene. With smoother acceleration, no diesel smell, and an easier ride, the driver’s experience in an EV can’t compare! And when truck drivers are spending forty-plus hours a week in the cab, improvements such as these greatly benefit their physical and mental health.

We currently use EV1 on a local, dedicated lane here in central NJ for a large company in the manufacturing and beauty space. This customer is thrilled by the reduction in carbon emissions for their supply chain and the continued level of excellent customer service provided. While all charging is currently done at the Hermann warehouse in central New Jersey, we’ve discussed adding chargers at this customer’s location to support the EV’s functionality and support a larger fleet in the future.

In September, we applied for a grant through the NJ DEP which would provide funds for purchasing EVs. We received the incredible news in October that we were awarded up to $5.5 million to expand our fleet! This incredible award will not only allow us to purchase more EVs which will improve our drivers’ experiences and reduce our Scope 1 emissions, but through our customer partnerships we can help them reduce their Scope 3 emissions.

The NJ DEP also invited us to showcase our truck at a press conference on October 23rd at the Vince Lombardi rest stop in Ridgefield, NJ, where members of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Environmental Protection Agency, and other government officials celebrated the awarding of $250 million dollars to the Clean Corridor Coalition to install heavy-duty charging stations along the I-95 corridor. The states making up this coalition – New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland – will be installing these chargers with a final completion date in 2029.

After seeing our presence at the NJ DEP event, we received an invitation from the NJ Sierra Club to attend their press conference on October 31st, at the Thomas Edison rest area for a similar celebration for expanding heavy-duty electric vehicle charging with government agencies and officials.

Hermann Transportation is far from done with our sustainability initiatives! With the NJ DEP’s grant, we plan to purchase an additional fifteen electric heavy-duty Freightliner eCascadias which will go into use for our client currently utilizing EV1. While we are looking for other grants or funding to help cover part of the cost to purchase additional EVs, we fully plan to acquire more units and deploy them in New Jersey and Houston, Texas. Here in New Jersey, we’ve been in discussions with PSEG to form a supportive plan on building charging stations at our warehouses, with the possibility of a public charging station to support the state’s need for additional infrastructure! Also in our future plans for reducing our carbon emissions is exploring the use of other alternative fuels – CNG, hydrogen, and renewable diesel to name a few.

As an organization, we’re proud of the steps we’ve taken this year to drive a sustainable supply chain, and we look forward to future advancements and celebrations in this industry as we look toward a future of zero emissions!