Location Brossard adds its first ten heavy electric trucks to its fleet.
Jean-François Brossard praises their silence.
“When you bring in an electric truck, it’s amazing how quiet it is! », exclaims the director of energy technologies and innovations of the largest lessor of heavy vehicles in Quebec.
He knows what he is talking about. A member of the founding family, he has long heard the roar of diesel engines in the company garage.
“I imagine how the mechanics will feel when our entire fleet goes electric or hybrid! », he anticipates happily.
Car Location Brossard, which owns nearly 800 trucks rented by more than 850 customers, is entering the electric era.
The Dorval company has just taken delivery of five Freightliner eCascadia Class 8 trucks. Really large heavy-duty tractors, which to the layman’s eye are indistinguishable from their big brothers with diesel engines.
The other five, only slightly smaller, are Class 7 eM2 models. The first will be delivered this fall, the other four in early 2024.
Until a few months ago, Jean-François Brossard was technology director. Energy innovations have just been added to its title, which bodes well for the place that electric vehicles are expected to take.
“It’s a transition that’s important for us,” he notes. We’ve wanted to do this for a long time. We were waiting for the right moment, the opportunity. And the opportunity is now. »
However, several clients had shown interest for two or three years.
“Except that two or three years ago, there were very few vehicles available,” he explains. Knowing that we were responsible for maintenance, we found it extremely risky to have the first electric vehicle available. »
50 years this year – “we celebrated two weeks ago! » –, Location Brossard is dedicated to the rental of heavy trucks with long-term contracts where maintenance is included.
“We do tailor-made, turnkey rentals, so we take care of everything, that is to say repairs, inspections, warranties, breakages on the road,” he describes.
When the major American manufacturer Freightliner launched with a bang a silent electric version of its heavyweight Cascadia, it pricked up its ears.
“We were immediately charmed because we know this vehicle very well, but above all because we have an excellent business relationship with the manufacturer and its GLOBOCAM dealer. »
Due to the youth and uncertainties of the new technology, Location Brossard nevertheless wanted to keep a close eye on the valuable and expensive vehicles.
“For this first project, we selected a few clients who showed interest, but above all, who are partners,” he says. That is to say, they understand that with new technology, there can be pitfalls and they agree to live with that. We will work together in solution mode. »
Drivers from client companies pick up their electric trucks in the morning at the Location Brossard garage in Dorval, where parking spaces are reserved for their personal vehicles. They make the day’s deliveries, then bring the trucks back at the end of the day.
Vehicles are plugged in for charging at the appropriate time by Location Brossard employees.
“The objective was for the vehicles to sleep with us,” says the director of energy technologies and innovations.
Participating companies are not necessarily located near Location Brossard, but their trucks travel within a limited radius around the garage.
“When we went to see our customers, we asked them to find roads to be able to do 225 kilometers per day. And that’s all year round. »
The nuance is important. The electric truck has a range that can approach 400 km in the best summer conditions, but the operator must take into account the loss of energy in extreme cold.
The three main charging stations and the two additional stations are supplied and installed by Cléo, a young subsidiary of Hydro-Québec founded in 2022, whose mission is to accelerate and support the electrification of commercial vehicle fleets.
“Their business model is the same as ours,” emphasizes Jean-François Brossard. We rent trucks with maintenance, they rent terminals with maintenance. We understood each other straight away. »
Cléo also provides an intelligent platform to manage and optimize truck charging according to operational needs.
“We don’t talk about it much, but if we mismanage our charging, there can be a fairly significant impact on the operating costs of a fleet of electric vehicles,” explained Jeff Desruisseaux, president and CEO of Cléo. The beauty of the platform that we have deployed and that we offer to our customers is precisely being able to plan charging times and manage them optimally. »
A comforting story like a soft cuddly toy… The small Montreal business Zuri
They are now gathered around the same table and under the common light of a unified corporate name. The furniture manufacturers Bouty, ADI Art Design International, Modullis and Meubles Perez are now grouped under the Dessana brand “around an enlightened vision”, underlines the press release. “It will be a parent brand that will oversee our four operating companies… and others potentially to come,” Eric Morin, president of the four entities, clarified by email. “This is a very exciting step for us, as we will be able to better present our positioning to industry players. » Where does the name Dessana come from? “An idea that I had by mixing the key words of our foundations: living space, well-being, healthy body/mind, design, comfort, conception, creation, etc. “, he replied. The result of this brainstorming is the combination of the words design and sana, the translation of “healthy” in Spanish and Latin. Each of the companies in the collective will retain its identity and benefit from Dessana’s marketing efforts.
AGA Assurances Collectives, a Quebec firm specializing in the development and administration of tailor-made group insurance and annuity plans, has taken another leap on the path to growth with the acquisition of Cangaroo. Cangaroo, as its name does not suggest, is a Quebec SME which has developed online human resources management software, which it claims to be versatile and efficient. This acquisition allows AGA to expand the range of services it offers to Canadian companies and Cangaroo to take advantage of AGA’s growth spurt to quickly gain market share, the two companies argue. Founded in 2015 in Montreal, Cangaroo today has nearly 20 employees. “This transaction comes at just the right time. We arrived at a critical moment for the company and wanted to take action to make it shine even more,” commented Cangaroo co-founder and president David Théberge in a press release. Carried out in partnership with the Canadian private investment fund Novacap, the transaction took effect on October 2.
Monthly credit card spending for Canadian small businesses is currently 18% higher on average than before the pandemic, at $2,652 per business. That’s according to Intuit QuickBooks’ just-released 2023 Small Business Annual Report.
