Single-shift vs double-shift depots: two different charging problems
A depot where vehicles rest all night is a very different charging challenge from one running double shifts with little downtime.
Last updated 15 August 2026
Two depots with identical vehicles and mileage can face completely different charging problems, because what really matters is how much downtime the vehicles have. Shift pattern is the dividing line.
Single-shift: time is on your side
A single-shift depot — vehicles out in the day, back and resting all night — is the easier case. Long dwell times mean modest AC chargers can refill the fleet gently overnight, smart charging has plenty of slack to spread the load and hit the cheapest tariff hours, and the grid demand can be kept low. Most of this site’s default advice assumes this pattern.
Double-shift: time is the constraint
A double-shift operation runs vehicles hard with little downtime between shifts. Now the charging window is short, so you may need faster chargers, a mid-shift top-up, or spare vehicles rotating through charge. The peak is harder to flatten because there’s less slack, and the design leans more on speed — and sometimes on a battery to cover sharp peaks without a grid upgrade.
Design to the pattern, not the average
The mistake is designing to average mileage and missing the shift structure. Map each vehicle’s actual pattern: when it’s genuinely parked and for how long. That duty-cycle picture tells you whether you’re in the comfortable single-shift world or the tighter double-shift one — and the charging strategy follows directly from it.
Many depots are a mix, with some vehicles resting overnight and others turning around fast. Handle each group on its own terms rather than forcing one design across both.