[proddick]

Source London already have a mechanism of booking a charging point up to 40 minutes ahead for £2 on top of their expensive rates

Initially they didn't cost extra and I took advantage when driving into London in Ampera. Stopped in West London and booked one near my destination.

How do I reserve a charge point ?

Once you have subscribed and received your membership card, you can reserve our charge points up to 40 minutes in advance directly from our mobile app or from your online account. Alternatively, you can also contact our customer service team on 020 30 56 89 89. Please note that charge point...

www.sourcelondon.net

 

[JeffG]

Next you’re going to tell me Christmas was our idea?

Who mentioned Christmas?

 

[mikegs]

booking a charging point up to 40 minutes ahead

That's an interesting take. Makes more sense, but also means you only have half an hour or so to generate plan B if there isn't a charger available.

 

[cah197]

Who mentioned Christmas?

You did - unwanted imports from America.

 

[JeffG]

You did - unwanted imports from America.

Well, I didn't. But I can't be bothered to argue. You mentioned Black Friday which is nothing to do with Christmas.

 

[donald]

You did - unwanted imports from America.

It's a Viking thing, isn't it? King Haarkon, first Christian king of Scandinavia? They used to have a 3 day booze festival after winter solstice. He figured he could sneak in a Christian festival while all his pagan subjects were still drunk, they'd be too dazed to object.

A bit like the UKs binge culture, really? Repeated in many towns across England every year.

 

[ringi]

That's an interesting take. Makes more sense, but also means you only have half an hour or so to generate plan B if there isn't a charger available.

Unless you can book before passing plan b.

 

[G.a.r.y]

There is a big difference with reserving an air bnb and reserving a charge point - value. Reserving works for air bnb because the average spend must be £100 or more and you stay for a multiple of days. Similarly in a restaurant they allow you to book because they are getting a decent amount of money from you, its guaranteed trade of a reasonable value. They want a table of 10 people to book because its guaranteed trade, rather than 10 people turning up and not having space because all thats left is a table of 4 here and 6 at the other side of the restaurant. Charge operators have trade, in fact so much sometimes that people fight over it and queue up.

Average spend at a charge point is probably around £5. There are also not enough charge points and as has already been mentioned there is no incentive for charge point operators to do the work to integrate your reservation system. Actually there is a disincentive, because if its not booked then anyone can use it - if its booked it restricts who can use it. Charge operators seem to barely make any money, and probably survive on grants... they are unlikely to want to integrate into your booking system so that they can turn away custom.

Anyway, who needs more apps and faff related to charging? No thanks.

If someone is that annoyed with charging that they want a simpler and more plentiful charge infrastructure then they buy a Tesla.

And if a charge operator wanted to allow booking, they would just add it to their app...

Back to the drawing board for your millions i'm afraid...

 

[donald]

There is a big difference with reserving an air bnb and reserving a charge point - value.

Not just value, but timing of the reservation (how many air-bnbs take passing trade?) and significance of requiring the planning.

This could all work out with enough chargers and enough software behind it. For charging hubs that get maxed out at peak times, it may disallow reservations for those periods. Instead at those times it may have a mix of 20min chargers, 30 min, and >30min.

At other times the percentage of chargers allowed for reservations will be limited.

The current turn-up-and-grab is just not going to work if you end up with two chargers and 10 people waiting, all hovering around the spot. How is that ever going to be subjected to orderly queuing? This is the question people should be asking, and it's why I mentioned a more genteel class of folk. Who is likely to get onto a charging spot first, a diminutive retired 80 year old lady who has been patiently waiting for 30 minutes or a cut-and-thrust sales executive who turns up just at the moment the car on the charger is finally backing off it?

Respecting orderly queuing is all about attitude and demographic, so something else needs to be figured out, and quick, else it will become a wild west out there(which it already is turning into).

 

[ringi]

Queuing is not a problem to be manged it is a problem to design out by having large hubs of rapid chargers for long distance travel. Along with rapid chargers at pub, supermarkets, gyms get that can be used before a person needs to charge, allowing them not to need to queue.

Reservable charging is as about as practical as reversable parking, and should be part of reserving parking in the few cases that reserving packing makes sense.