Training drivers on e-mobility
By Marcus Schick I 7 minute read
27/11/2025
Alexander Sontheim is a driving trainer at DACHSER Driver and Truck Fleet Services GmbH. His job is to get drivers ready for efficient driving – in a world of transportation that’s rapidly changing. His greatest strength? An unshakeable belief in people and technological progress.
When Alex Sontheim thinks of the new electric heavy-duty trucks and yard transfer vehicles, he feels a rush of joy. “These beauties are completely my thing: cutting-edge technology that’s robust, stylish, and trimmed for high performance. Sometimes I feel like I’m in Formula One,” he says, with a loud, hearty laugh that shakes his long beard. “The only difference is that I focus on charging behavior and energy efficiency instead of competition and lap times.”
Alex Sontheim is a driving trainer at DACHSER Driver and Truck Fleet Services GmbH – and one who knows what he’s talking about. The 54-year-old Allgäu native drove trucks himself for more than 25 years, first as an employee, then as a subcontractor for DACHSER Food Logistics in Memmingen. Two years ago, he joined the DACHSER Driver and Truck Fleet Services GmbH trainer team, where he now not only puts the new generation of professional drivers on the road, but also guides experienced drivers safely into the new age of connectivity and e‑mobility.
Alex Sontheim knows that, in a traditional profession like truck driving, change doesn’t happen on its own. Skepticism toward alternative powertrains is still widespread among drivers, and he encounters it constantly when performing his trainer duties. But he can handle that just fine. “I’m not a theorist,” Alex Sontheim says. “I’m someone who talks to people as their equal – someone who knows what it feels like when you get into your vehicle at half past three in the morning and have to work.” This authenticity gets a warm reception – not only among young drivers, but also among those who have already seen a lot.
From tank to training cockpit
Alex himself knows all about change. After an apprenticeship as a sales rep and additional training as an order picker, he joined the German army, becoming a gunner and trainer for self-propelled howitzers. When he left the military in 2000, he first took a year off to follow his great idol Michael Schumacher around the world as a fan on the Formula One circuit – Melbourne, Imola, Spa, Budapest, and Nürburgring and Hockenheimring, to name just a few. This all-around talent was also a ski instructor, a professional driver for a haulage company, and ultimately a subcontractor driving his own truck. “I tried out a lot of different things, but wherever I went, I learned how important it is to have discipline, trust, and an intuitive knowledge of people.”
He brings this intuition to his current role as a driving trainer. Together with his Kornwestheim colleague Roland Zitzmann, Alex Sontheim has developed a training concept for driving safety and efficiency. The focus is on giving drivers the skills they need to handle e-trucks. Although it sounds simple, in practice the concept is a complex blend of technology, safety, responsibility, and communication. “Electric vehicles drive differently, they brake differently, they ‘refuel’ differently – that’s not something you learn on the fly. However, those who are open to it will be rewarded with a completely new angle on intelligent driving.”
One of the key components of supporting drivers in their day-to-day work is telematics. Here, the trainers use ZF Scalar, a specialized digital platform now widely deployed in DACHSER vehicles. “It transmits driving data from the cockpit to the system in real time and maps how the driver brakes, drives, and accelerates,” Alex Sontheim says. This makes the efficiency targets – those already met as well as those still achievable – directly visible for each individual driver and for fleet managers. “That’s a great help to everyone.”
The driver trainers at DACHSER Driver and Truck Fleet Services GmbH teach DACHSER drivers and service partners theory and practice, focusing on safety, efficiency, and new vehicle technologies such as electromobility. They help professional drivers with technological changes, give them confidence in using new systems, and promote understanding of modern logistics processes.
Electric vehicles drive differently, they brake differently, they ‘refuel’ differently – that’s not something you learn on the fly.
Driving training with confidence
DACHSER Driver and Truck Fleet Services GmbH plans to rent all-electric semitrailers with four seats in the cockpit to be used in driver training. This will let the trainers explain “live” how to use the retarder correctly when decelerating and braking, or what strategies are useful for optimizing range. Not only that, but Alex Sontheim will also talk about the correct behavior when faced with unexpected challenges on the road, the importance of defensive driving, and the interplay between telematics and everyday practice.
“In the end, it’s not about technology, but trust,” Alex Sontheim says. Trust in the systems – but also in oneself. For this, drivers have to embrace change without completely reinventing themselves. The biggest challenge is often not the technology, but the mindset. “If someone gets into the vehicle with an open mind, that’s already half the battle.”
Every day, Alex Sontheim sees how the professional driver’s job description is changing. Yet the profession is still widely held in low regard, a perception that by no means reflects the services that today’s drivers provide in the cockpit and at the loading bay during delivery. “Drivers today are communication interfaces, guarantors of safety, and technology managers all in one,” he says. “It’s no longer enough to master just the vehicle – you have to understand how the processes behind it work.”
His training sessions are thus more than technical briefings; they also always involve some work on the personal side of things: showing appreciation, reducing fears, communicating a sense of pride. “We need people who don’t just drive, but who can see the whole picture, really commit, and develop a sense of how important their work is for the entire logistics chain.”
The trainer as a multiplier
At the moment, Alex Sontheim isn’t just out on the road, he’s also in the process of multiplying his knowledge. Together with DACHSER Driver and Truck Fleet Services GmbH colleagues and other experts, he’s developing a Europe-wide concept for training the trainers. The aim is to build up a network of driving trainers over the next few years that will spread their expertise in electromobility, safety, and modern driving behavior – from the Allgäu to Spain to the Arctic Circle.
“I don’t see myself as a lone warrior, but rather as part of a movement,” Alex Sontheim says. For him, change in the cockpit isn’t an abstract question for the future, but something that has long been a reality. “With every training session, every ride, every bit of feedback, the shared understanding grows – as does the self-confidence of those who assume responsibility on the road day after day,” he says. How does that happen? Laughing, he taps his forehead with his left index finger and points to his right foot with his right. “The whole magic of this new way of driving lies in the connection between head and foot,” he says.
