Transport Planning of Electric Heavy-Duty Road Freight: Assessing demand for additional system support and how such demand can be met

Abstract

The transition to electric heavy-duty trucks is a critical component of decarbonizing the road freight industry. In practice, it introduces a fundamental shift in op-erational logic that traditional transport management systems are ill-equipped to handle. This study explores the emerging demand for additional system support in Swedish electric road freight planning and investigates how these needs can be met. Employing a qualitative approach with interviews across carriers, shippers, and transport management system providers, the research applies the Multi-Level Perspective, Activities-Resources-Actors model, and platform ecosystem theory to address these objectives. The empirical findings indicate that manual planning is perceived sufficient for cur-rent small-scale operations on static routes. However as fleets scale and operational complexity increases, two distinct system support categories become critical. The first one being Route and Charge planning for operational flexibility, and the second one being Charge Management Systems for energy orchestration. Broader demand remains fragmented due to road freight actors’ divergent perceptions and opera-tional priorities, such as a focus on predictable transport corridors and a lack of immediate scaling plans, alongside a general skepticism regarding whether digital tools can effectively outperform the expertise of experienced planners and drivers. The study concludes that a gap exists between the desired unified transport manage-ment system workflow and the current prioritization of system providers who wait for broader market demand before developing specialized features. Consequently, road freight actors work in parallel systems and a few early adopters have instead developed internal solutions to satisfy complex operational needs. By mapping how operational challenges translate into software needs, this research contributes to navigating the systemic hurdles inherent in large-scale heavy-duty freight electrifi-cation. Such a mapping offers a foundation for coordinating the necessary alignment between transport actors and system providers to facilitate the industry’s electrifi-cation transition.