How Volta Trucks disrupts the last-mile delivery with a Truck-as-a-Service business model
The Company
Volta Trucks, headquartered in Sweden, is a forward-thinking company at the forefront of the automotive industry's electric vehicle (EV) revolution. As a visionary player in the electric commercial vehicle sector, Volta Trucks is committed to creating sustainable and environmentally responsible transportation solutions revolutionizing last-mile delivery in urban areas.
Founded with a strong belief in the need for change, Volta Trucks is disrupting the automotive landscape by developing electric trucks focusing on improving urban logistics and reducing the carbon footprint of urban transportation. With a mission to provide cleaner and more efficient alternatives to traditional commercial vehicles, Volta Trucks is poised to significantly impact the future of transportation. Their innovative approach aligns with the global shift towards sustainable mobility, making them a key innovator in the commercial vehicle industry.
The Challenge
Volta Trucks confronts the overarching challenge of pioneering the creation of an entirely new Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) from the ground up. As a newcomer to the automotive sector, Volta Trucks’ approach disrupts traditional industry norms. Their innovative perspective and speed to market lead to challenges that differ from those established players face.
Volta Trucks aims to simplify truck ownership through their Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) business model. This novel approach combines multiple elements, including loyalty programs, insurance, electrification, infrastructure services, financing, and telematics.
The TaaS model requires digitalization to transition from manual to streamlined, user-friendly processes. While Volta Trucks’ business model has been established, digital transformation is highly needed since it currently operates with manual processes. The challenge lies in transforming these processes into digital solutions that align with their innovative vision.
Volta Trucks significantly emphasizes delivering an exceptional customer experience marked by speed and efficiency. Their goal is to stand out in the market by providing a seamless and customer-centric experience from the moment customers engage with their products and services. Ease of use is key to facilitate and drive adoption.
As a new innovative disrupter in the commercial vehicle market, we don't have the same challenges which a traditional truck manufacturer might have. We have learned from legacy companies how to do things differently. The underlying technology and the way we are able to compose the platform will unconditionally put our customers in the centre and deliver the highest value to their business, as uptime and service of our vehicles is one of our key area of focus. We chose to partner with Spryker to get ahead of the game and invest in the best possible technology for servicing spare parts for our customers.– Martin Hofmann, CIO and CTO at Volta Trucks
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The Solution
As a company starting from ground zero, Volta Truck's overarching objective is to bring its innovative Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) business model to life in the digital realm, a mission that aligns seamlessly with Spryker's capabilities.
The TaaS model, a cornerstone of Volta Trucks' vision, aims to simplify truck ownership, ensuring easier adoption while encompassing novel business elements like loyalty programs and comprehensive services. From a digital product perspective, Spryker plays a pivotal role in turning this vision into reality, supporting Volta Trucks in the rapid development of essential functionality while maintaining flexibility.
I'm proud to support Volta Trucks as they redefine the last-mile delivery market with their innovative approach. At Spryker, we're here to accelerate their journey, enabling them to launch groundbreaking business models that will transform the industry.– Felix Bühner, Global Director Automotive at Spryker
Phase 1: Rapid Parts Catalog Development
In the first phase, Volta Trucks embarked on an ambitious journey to build a comprehensive parts catalog, driven by an aggressive timeline. Their goal was to go live within just two months from the start of implementation, with the launch of the catalog's Minimum Viable Product (MVP). They began with a streamlined approach to achieve this, setting up one price list per country for the MVP phase. This allowed for swift implementation and adaptation while ensuring a solid foundation for future enhancements. As the project progresses, Volta Trucks plans to refine these price lists to cater to a customer-specific level. The emphasis here is on speed and efficiency, powered by Spryker's vast out-of-the-box functionalities.
Phase 2: Expanding Functionality and Flexibility
In the second phase, Volta Trucks continues its digital transformation journey by focusing on developing an advanced ordering system. This phase goes beyond parts ordering, aiming to introduce additional functionalities while enhancing the overall user experience. Notably, Volta Trucks plans to integrate third-party service network prices into the price lists, making the system even more comprehensive. While there is no fixed roadmap, Volta Trucks remains committed to flexibility and agility at this stage. They've opted for a strategy of monthly drops of functionalities, allowing them to adapt and evolve rapidly while defining their roadmap. The emphasis remains on maintaining an aggressive pace of development, ensuring that their digital ecosystem evolves swiftly and aligns with their innovative vision.
Leveraging Spryker's Composable Approach for Unmatched Flexibility
Spryker's composable approach is the cornerstone of Volta Trucks' flexibility in shaping their digital roadmap on the fly. With Composable Commerce at the helm, Volta Trucks gains maximum flexibility, ensuring they can tailor their digital ecosystem to meet emerging needs and market shifts. The composable structure enables unparalleled speed and agility, empowering Volta Trucks to swiftly bring new functionalities to market through autonomous feature teams. This approach not only accelerates time-to-market but also future-proofs their solution with a cloud-based foundation, ensuring long-term resilience and adaptability. The collaborative spirit extends to consulting and implementation, fostering a partnership where Volta Trucks and Spryker work hand in hand to navigate their journey with adaptability and innovation as their guiding principles.
Business Benefits
Composable Commerce for maximum flexibility
Speed & flexibility through agile structures
Fast time-to-market of new functions through autonomous feature teams
Future-proof solution: cloud-based
Consulting & implementation at eye level
The success of our TaaS offering relies on our ability to pivot quickly based on how our customers interact with our trucks. Having the flexibility to iterate quickly is invaluable to us. Spryker’s composable commerce platform enables us to react and innovate more efficiently.– Shiv Tailor, VP Enterprise Technology at Volta Trucks.
Powered by AWS
The innovative project will be implemented using Spryker’s customizable Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution, built on top Amazon Web Services (AWS) using AWS-designed highly performant AWS Graviton chips and serverless technology with AWS Lambda. The composability on AWS is crucial to deliver the highest level of flexibility for Volta Trucks. It allows Volta Trucks to select the best-of-breed components they need, which will work seamlessly and reliably straight away, thanks to Spryker being a truly composable platform and the high levels of service AWS has. Due to AWS, the onboarding takes from as little as 4 hours to 1-2 days, compared to months previously. With the Spryker Cloud Commerce OS solution, built on AWS, Spryker can scale computational and storage resources to accommodate Volta Truck's goals.
We are proud to work with Spryker to help drive the success of Volta Trucks’ disruptive TaaS model. Through the synergy of our cloud services, serverless technology, and Spryker's composable commerce platform, we're helping to enable Volta Trucks to achieve maximum flexibility and scalability. Together, we're helping to transform Volta Trucks’ business and shaping the future of automotive innovation.– Andrea Ketzer, Director of Technology Strategy, Automotive and Manufacturing at AWS.
Outlook
Creating Customer Value with a 3-click-experience
Central to Volta Truck's strategy is the "3-click experience," aimed at streamlining essential tasks for both internal and external users. Volta Trucks aspires to ensure that any user can accomplish key actions, such as ordering a truck or scheduling a vehicle demonstration, with just three clicks. Spryker will support Volta Trucks in making this vision a reality by streamlining the user journey with an intuitive and efficient interface that significantly reduces the steps needed to complete essential tasks. This 3-click principle isn't just about simplicity; it's a catalyst for delivering exceptional value to customers, allowing them to engage with Volta Trucks' offerings quickly and effortlessly, thus setting a new standard for user-centric service in the automotive industry.
Driving Automation with Spryker's IoT Capabilities
Spryker's IoT capabilities catalyze automation within Volta Trucks' ecosystem, ushering in a transformative revolution. With this technology at their disposal, Volta Trucks envisions a future where vehicle performance insights trigger automated responses. If a vehicle exhibits signs of malfunction or requires maintenance, there's no need for human intervention. Spryker empowers Volta Trucks to automate the entire process, from diagnosing issues to booking service appointments seamlessly. This level of automation enhances operational efficiency and ensures that their customers enjoy a reliable and hassle-free experience, setting a new standard for innovation and convenience in the automotive industry.
Elevating Customer Loyalty with Spryker's Support
Spryker empowers Volta Trucks to offer their customers an enticing driver loyalty program. Through Spryker's versatile platform, Volta Trucks can create and manage a driver-centric loyalty initiative with ease. This program includes innovative features such as an air miles token model, which rewards drivers for their loyalty and engagement. Additionally, Volta Trucks can introduce exclusive merchandise and other appealing incentives designed to motivate drivers to accumulate more miles in their Volta trucks.
What Volta Trucks is doing is truly disruptive in the industry and we are proud to support it. Their approach aligns with the global shift towards sustainable mobility, making them a key innovator in the automotive space. By utilizing Spryker’s intelligent composable platform, designed specifically for sophisticated transactions, Volta Trucks will be able to create new business models with complex pricing elements quickly, easily, and with a faster return on investment. This collaboration will drive forward innovation that empowers businesses to embrace a more efficient and sustainable future.– Boris Lokschin, Co-founder and CEO at Spryker.
Anticipated Results and Benefits: Driving Future Growth
As Volta Trucks embarks on its journey with Spryker, it anticipates a wealth of concrete and measurable benefits that will shape its future. The streamlined and user-centric digital ecosystem will attract a growing customer base, fueling sales.
In the future, the agile implementation and composability-driven approach will improve efficiency. Volta Trucks will achieve faster time-to-market for new functionalities, with monthly drops of features allowing them to adapt swiftly to evolving market demands. This agility will not only increase operational efficiency but also position Volta Trucks as an industry leader in terms of innovation.
Crucially, these transformative changes will translate into higher customer satisfaction ratings. The 3-click experience and introducing a driver loyalty program will garner acclaim from both internal and external users. Customer interactions will become more efficient and rewarding, elevating the level of engagement with the Volta Trucks brand.
In summary, the partnership between Volta Trucks and Spryker is expected to drive future revenue growth and streamline operations, leading to improved efficiency and, most importantly, elevated customer satisfaction.
Further resources
Updated: September 2024
About Spryker
Spryker is the leading global composable commerce platform for enterprises with sophisticated business models to enable growth, innovation, and differentiation. Designed specifically for sophisticated transactional businesses, Spryker’s easy-to-use, headless, API-first model offers a best-of-breed approach that provides businesses the flexibility to adapt, scale, and quickly go to market while facilitating faster time-to-value throughout their digital transformation journey. As a global platform leader for B2B and B2C Enterprise Marketplaces, IoT Commerce, and Unified Commerce, Spryker has empowered 150+ global enterprise customers worldwide and is trusted by brands such as ALDI, Siemens, ZF Friedrichshafen, and Ricoh. Spryker is a privately held technology company headquartered in Berlin and New York backed by world class investors such as TCV, One Peak, Project A, Cherry Ventures, and Maverick Capital. Learn more at spryker.com.
