Driven by change: Commercial drivers' acceptance and efficiency perceptions of light-duty electric vehicle usage in Germany

By conducting a cross-sectional survey at Deutsche Post, a major German postal delivery service provider, the authors examine to what extent commercial drivers accept the substitution of conventional cars with light-duty e-vehicles (LDEVs). Specifically, the authors explore drivers’ acceptance from two perspectives. First, the authors investigate drivers’ perceived satisfaction with LDEVs compared to conventional vehicles. Second, the authors question whether electric cars in general increase drivers’ perceived efficiency of them. Combining these two perspectives, the authors show that the greater the drivers’ overall perceived satisfaction with LDEVs is, the higher is the drivers’ perceived efficiency of LDEVs. The authors prove this by means of perceived usefulness (perceived relative advantage) and perceived ease of use (the opposite of perceived complexity) of LDEVs, using adaptations of Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model and Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory to form the authors' Unified Technology Acceptance Model (UTAM). The authors' findings suggest that, on average, drivers are slightly more satisfied with the LDEVs than with the available conventional cars (n = 66). If drivers were able to choose their preferred vehicles, the majority of them would favor LDEVs. The authors detect statistically significant patterns of latent measures affecting perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of LDEVs. Although this paper focuses on German delivery service employees, the methodology presented here could easily be applied to any other enterprise in the growing logistics segment which plans to electrify its car fleet. Hence, the authors' contributions are valuable for transportation research and, more specifically, to all potential commercial EV drivers, e.g., the authors' insights might be relevant for the approx. 500,400 drivers employed in the German logistics sector alone.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2019.05.017
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X18316243
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/0968090X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Wolff, Stefanie
  • Madlener, Reinhard
  • 0000-0003-1514-6486
• Publication Date: 2019-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 262-282
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
  • Volume: 105
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0968-090X
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0968090X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceptance; Attitudes; Automobile travel; Commercial drivers; Delivery vehicles; Electric vehicles; Energy consumption; Light trucks; Postal service
• Identifier Terms: Deutsche Post
• Geographic Terms: Germany
• Subject Areas: Energy; Freight Transportation; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01708128
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 20 2019 5:19PM