EV short-haul savings look real, but the dock doesn't move faster

#drayage #electricvehicles #supplychaincost #portofmontreal

The Diesel Math Is Real, but It's Only One Piece

Kenvue's pilot saved 44.7% on fuel costs running electric trucks for short-haul GTA drayage. That's a material reduction in the variable cost of moving a container 100 km from Port of Toronto into Mississauga or out to a warehouse in Brampton. If the economics hold and Kenvue scales the fleet, other shippers will follow. The carbon story is separate; the cost story is what importers care about, and 44.7% is hard to ignore.

The catch is that fuel is typically 30-40% of short-haul drayage cost. Cutting 44% off fuel means a 13-18% overall drayage savings per move, depending on labor, maintenance, and fleet depreciation. A CAD 2,400 run from port to warehouse drops to roughly CAD 2,050. Over 50 moves per year, that's a CAD 17,500 annual saving for an importer running weekly FTL import boxes.

Sounds material. It is. The problem is that drayage is rarely the reason a container sits in inventory for three weeks instead of two.

Where the Real Cost Bleeding Happens

At FENGYE LOGISTICS, we watch where dwell time and delay actually accumulate. The sequence is simple: container arrives at Port of Montreal or Port of Toronto, PARS release is pending, drayage window opens 18-36 hours later. The truck gets loaded. Then the container enters the sufferance warehouse, putaway happens within 48 hours if the dock is running clean. Release on minimum documentation (RMD) clears in 24-48 more hours if CBSA doesn't flag it.

That's five to six days best-case from gate-in to pick-pack ready. In reality, Q4 dwell runs 8-12 days because CBSA exam hold, broker backlog on CAD filing, and cold-weather drayage window squeeze all stack at once. A shorter drayage run — one that costs 13% less fuel — doesn't move the needle on exam hold or on CBSA's release timeline.

The math shifts quickly. If drayage saves you CAD 350 per box but CBSA detention adds three days of warehouse holding at CAD 40 per pallet per day (a standard sufferance warehouse in-storage rate), you're burning CAD 480 in fees while pocketing CAD 350 in fuel savings. The importer nets a CAD 130 loss. This isn't hypothetical. It's what we invoice weekly.

EV Drayage Scales When Delivery Windows Are Predictable

Electric trucks work best on fixed routes. Kenvue's GTA pilot succeeded because Kenvue controls demand. They move their own product in predictable lanes: manufacturing facility to distribution center, DC to retailer. Charge time is built into warehouse dock time, not added to the drayage window.

For import drayage, the calculus changes. Port of Montreal offers dock-to-stock at 06:30 EDT. A drayage window opens 18 hours post-PARS release. The broker's CAD filing speed determines whether that window stays open or compresses. If the broker hits a CBSA hold flag, the window closes and the container goes back on demurrage, eating up the fuel savings three times over.

An EV truck sitting in queue waiting for a PARS release that's stuck with a broker delivers zero savings. The kilowatt-hours charged still cost money. The dwell still runs. Fuel savings don't compound when the real bottleneck is customs clearance velocity.

What Changes for Importers Running Import Drayage

If Kenvue's fleet model spreads, the first movers will be shippers with high-volume, short-distance runs to fixed destinations. That might be a consolidator pulling LCL freight from port to warehouse, or a major importer staging containers at a Mississauga cross-dock before final distribution.

The second wave could include 3PL providers like ourselves. FENGYE LOGISTICS runs regular milk-runs between Port of Montreal and our Lachine warehouse, roughly 12 km. An EV unit for that lane would cut fuel cost by 44.7% (roughly CAD 18 per run in fuel at current diesel rates). Over 200 runs annually, that's CAD 3,600 savings before maintenance and charging overhead. It's a business case, but not a home-run.

The importer doesn't see that saving directly. It flows to us as a carrier cost reduction. Whether we pass it on depends on rate competition. If the drayage market stays tight, we keep the margin. If it softens, we cut rates by 8-12% and still improve position versus diesel competitors.

Detention and Dwell Remain the Actual Cost Killers

Here's what importers should focus on instead of EV drayage savings: CBSA release velocity and warehouse dock efficiency. A container that clears CBSA 12 hours faster than the median saves CAD 480 in warehouse dwell at standard Montreal rates. That's a 2-day swing, repeated across 50 annual imports, worth CAD 24,000 in working capital unfrozen and storage fees avoided. No fuel cost reduction gets close to that number.

CBSA release times vary wildly depending on whether a CAD triggers an exam, and exam timing depends on broker workflow and examiner availability, not truck fuel type. An importer working with a broker who files CADs within 2 hours of PARS release and follows up on holds will outpace an importer with an EV drayage saving by a factor of 4:1 in total landed cost.

Similarly, a warehouse that dock-to-stocks within 24 hours rather than 36-48 hours cuts inventory carrying cost and accelerates cash conversion for fast-moving SKUs. FENGYE LOGISTICS targets 48-hour dock-to-stock on FTL import containers to keep dwell tight. That operational discipline costs nothing in fuel and saves everything in time.

The Real Trend: Fuel Savings Flow to Core Operations, Not the Edge

Kenvue's 44.7% diesel saving is real. It will attract capital and competition in the EV truck space over the next 24-36 months. Fuel Transport and its competitors will expand pilot fleets. By 2027-2028, short-haul drayage in Ontario and Quebec will have a meaningful EV option.

Importers should care about it the same way they care about a 0.3% Bank of Canada interest rate cut: it's directionally positive but doesn't rewrite the supply chain strategy. A 13-18% overall drayage cost reduction is better than nothing. But it's not transformative when dwell time, exam hold, and warehouse handling time dwarf fuel cost in the landed-cost equation.

The importers who win over the next two years will be those who squeeze broker cycle time and warehouse putaway time. EV drayage savings come second. By the time an importer is worrying about diesel vs. electric truck fuel, they should have already cut their CBSA release time from 48 hours to 24 hours and their dock-to-stock window from 48 hours to 36 hours. Those moves are free and save tens of thousands annually. The EV truck is then a bonus.

If your drayage partner can offer an EV-powered short-haul delivery option at the same or lower rate, take it. But don't let a 13-18% drayage saving distract you from the 40-50% total landed cost reduction available by fixing customs release velocity and warehouse efficiency. The dock moves on timing and process, not on whether the truck runs on diesel or electrons. Learn more about FENGYE Warehouse.

Originally published at https://www.fywarehouse.com/news/ev-short-haul-savings-look-real-but-the-dock-doesnt-move-faster-f81ec448.