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National broadband network Openreach (BT) has confirmed that they’re working to adopt Allstar’s fuel card network to help support their transition to electric vehicles (over 7,000 of their 22,000 vehicles are now EVs). The goal is to make it easier for their telecoms engineers to charge their work vehicles.
Openreach currently aims to upgrade the “vast majority” of their diesel-powered vans and cars to EVs by the end of March 2031 – supporting their Net Zero target for the same date. As part of that they’ve been busy installing EV charging points at operational sites and engineers’ homes (they’ve done more than 4,000 of these) for convenient overnight charging.
However, despite the progress, the broadband operator recognises that charging can still be a problem, particularly with around one in three of their engineers being unable to install a home charger. The company has thus been busy building other partnerships, such as with First Bus, so engineers can charge their vans at First Bus depots, taking pressure off public charging points and making life easier for those who live in flats. Similar deals have since been signed with Sainsbury’s (here) and Source (here).