“Before the chargers were installed, we used to have a lot of operatives charging from home, charging at various locations throughout the region. Some would be stopping off at petrol stations, some on slow home chargers. Since the new ones have been installed, a lot of that has changed.”
Simon Barrett,
Operations Manager, Amey Highways, Gailey Depot

Amey Highways is a global leader in infrastructure services, managing everything from road maintenance to bridge design across the UK. Working in close partnership with Staffordshire County Council, Amey has been actively driving its fleet toward zero-emission transport, not just meeting government ZEV mandates, but exceeding them.

The Gailey site is one of Amey's busiest operational depots in Staffordshire, running a mixed fleet of electric vans, Zoe vans, cars, and smaller commercial vehicles across a large geographic area. As the electric fleet grew, so did the need for reliable, fast, and data-driven charging infrastructure that could support operations without disrupting them.

Amey partnered with EVC Solutions to deliver a smarter, scalable EV charging solution; one that would work within the site's existing power constraints and give both depot management and Staffordshire County Council full oversight of the charging network.

The Gailey site presented a challenge that EVC Solutions encounters regularly, and one that stops many businesses before they start: limited power capacity.

Rather than a single power supply, the depot operates across two separate supplies, both with restricted available capacity. The brief required nine charge point sockets to be installed and operational across the site, without triggering costly infrastructure upgrades or overloading either supply.

Three specific challenges had to be solved:

Limited and split power supply:
Two independent supplies, both constrained, with no straightforward way to increase capacity.

Operational continuity:
A busy, active depot with vehicles going out and coming back throughout the day. Downtime during installation was not an option.

Lack of visibility:
Drivers had previously been charging wherever they could: at home on slow chargers, at public charge points, or at petrol stations. Management had no oversight of when vehicles were charged, how far they were travelling, or how efficiently the fleet was operating.

EVC Solutions conducted a full site survey across the Gailey depot, assessing both power supplies and identifying the optimal configuration for each area. Rather than accepting the constraints at face value, the EVC team engineered a solution using smart load management devices on both supplies, enabling higher-capacity chargers to operate safely within the available power, with no infrastructure reinforcement required.

The installation was delivered in two phases across the depot:

Phase 1: NexBlue 7kW Chargers
Three 7kW NexBlue single-socket pedestal chargers were installed in the first depot area, all load managed across the available supply. These provide rapid on-site charging for larger fleet vehicles, significantly reducing the time vehicles spend off the road waiting to charge.

Phase 2: Ratio EV 22kW Double-Socket Posts
Six double-socket Ratio EV charge point posts were installed in the second depot area, again fully load managed, giving the site a total of twelve available charging sockets across this phase. The Ratio EV units are robust, purpose-built for fleet environments, and fully compatible with the EVC Connect platform.

EVC Connect: Full Charge Point Management
All charge points across the Gailey depot operate on EVC Connect, EVC Solutions' intelligent charge point management platform. EVC Connect gives Amey depot management and Staffordshire County Council a single, real-time view of the entire charging network, including:

1. Charge point utilisation across both depot areas
2. Energy usage and carbon savings reporting
3. Individual vehicle charging data; which vehicle charged, when, and for how long
4. RFID card management; one card assigned per vehicle for complete driver and mileage visibility
5. Daily, weekly, and monthly usage reporting