Overview
Automated charging stops planning helps ensure route feasibility and delivery precision for EV fleets. Mover TMS integrates charging logic during Route Optimization, calculating if and where a vehicle will need to stop based on its range, battery level, and charging station availability. Manual adjustments can still be made when exceptions arise, or additional customization is needed.
Why use automated charging stop planning?
Reduced manual effort: Eliminate the need for manually placing EV charging stops. The system positions them intelligently, saving planners time and reducing risks of errors and inefficiencies.
Optimized Travel Time: Charging is planned in advance so drivers follow realistic, executable routes—helping avoid delays and stay aligned with customer commitments.
Accurate Planning: The algorithm selects the most powerful and relevant charging stations near the route to minimize charging time and maximize efficiency.
Seamless Execution: Routes are validated against your specific EV model, battery capacity, load, and operating conditions, ensuring they're feasible—not just optimized..
How to Automatically Plan Charging Stops
1) In your Route Planning Rule Set, define a new vehicle group (or edit the vehicle group you are already using for your EVs)
2) You will notice that if you select Fuel Type = “Electric”, a new section appears, where you can define some key parameters for your electric vehicle
3) First, you need to select the specific vehicle you will be using. Input the maker and model of your vehicle and select the best match. With this one parameter, we will be able to extract most of the knowledge needed to optimally place a charging stop on the Route.
4) You will notice that as soon as you select a vehicle, the usable capacity is automatically populated. It is a field that you will be able to edit anyway: if your vehicle is getting old, or you want to plan more conservatively, you can change the value to suit your use case.
5) You can select the preferred charging operators: if you or your Contractor have special agreements with one or more providers, you can ensure that your vehicle will only charge at the stations owned by one of them. You can select one or many, and if the filed is empty, all the charging stations will be considered.
6) Define the battery level at the start and end of the route. If you vehicle starts the Route already charged, you can set the battery at route start to 100%, and if you do not need your vehicle to finish the route with a minimum level of charge, you can set it to just 5% or less.
The Battery at route end cannot be higher than 60%.
7) At this point you can complete configuring your vehicle normally, and save the changes
8) When the Route Plan will be generated, charging stops will be identified by a lightning symbol, and it looks like this:
9) Remember that:
A charging stop will be planned only if the vechile needs to be recharged on Route
If the planning of a charging stop fails (for whatever reason), there will be a deviation on the Route where it failed. To solve this it will be possible to use the manual planning of a charging stop after the routes are approved, or to re-run the simulation.
Best Practices for Automation
Allow for Charging Time in Your Plan: Since charging stop planning occurs after initial route optimization, there’s a chance it may push some deliveries later than expected. To mitigate this, use the “Extension of Latest Arrival Time” setting and assign a small negative value. This creates intentional slack in the schedule to accommodate average charging durations (driving time + stop time) without breaching delivery windows.
Avoid Manual Moves: Don't drag and drop automated stops—doing so may degrade route optimization.
Tag EV Routes: Use EV-specific tags or filters in your Rule Sets to easily identify and manage electrified routes.
Limitations
Depot Charging Not Included: Planning charging stops at depots is currently not supported. To do so, you will have to include that charging time into your PIickups or Refills and plan the Route as if it was a regular Gass or Diesel Route.
Real-Time Post-Processing Is Not Continuous: The system does not automatically reprocess routes after every change done with Drag & Drop. Keep this in mind when changing your routes after they have been optimized.
Weather, Terrain, and Speed Not Considered: These factors are planned for future enhancements.
Manual Charging Stop Setup (As Needed)
Manual setup is helpful in rare cases when automated charging placement doesn’t meet specific route needs or a custom charging location is required. To insert a manual charging stop:
Open the route in the TMS.
Click the “+” button between two stops.
Select Stop Type = Charging.
Review suggested stations or enter a custom address.
Define charging time and battery goals.
Add instructions for the driver.
Click Create Stop.
Driver Execution of a Manual Charging Stop:
Once added, the charging stop will appear in the Driver App just like any other planned stop:
Charging stop is labelled clearly in the top bar.
Address and station name appear along with any planner instructions.
Drivers must tap Start Charging once the vehicle is plugged in.
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Tap Complete Charging when finished.
If issues occur, drivers can report a deviation (e.g., wrong address, out-of-service station, long queue, already charged).
The app logs charging start and end times, which are visible in the route timeline.
👉 For more documentation about manually adding charging stops, check out this article.
Summary & Recommendations
Automated charging stop planning in Mover TMS saves planners time and keeps deliveries on schedule while maximizing EV range usage. Use automation for efficient setup and rely on manual adjustments only when needed during execution.
With proper configuration and driver guidance, charging stops become a seamless part of your electric fleet’s daily operations.
FAQ
How does the system choose which is the most optimal charging station?
The system chooses the most optimal charging station by balancing travel time, charger power, and route feasibility. It aims to minimize the total driving time to reach a charging station and the stop duration. Additionally, it ensures charging happens at the right moment—neither too early nor too late—by factoring in power consumption and battery depletion along the route.
Why are some deliveries exceeding the Delivery interval?
In some cases, delivery timeframes may be exceeded due to the additional time required for charging stops. Since charging stop planning happens after the initial route optimization (in post-processing), the system may insert necessary charging stops even if it causes slight delays. To minimize this risk, we recommend planners set an "Extension of Latest Arrival Time" to account for potential charging durations and ensure deliveries remain within the expected timeframe.