In het kort:  

• Workplace charging now spans home, office, and public networks – but infrastructure and charge cards are often managed by different providers 

• This means employees’ cards may not work as intended at office chargers, even when both systems function correctly on their own 

• The root cause is a gap between access (technical) and authorisation (policy-driven) 

• Authorised whitelisting – offered through a CPO platform – lets organisations control exactly which cards work where, and at what price 

• Last Mile Solutions estimates that whitelisting can reduce costs by 10% and increase HR operational efficiency by 50% 

As organisations build out their infrastructure to support employees switching to electric vehicles, workplace charging is no longer limited to a single environment. Employees charge at home using a private charger, at the office, and occasionally on public networks. From the driver’s perspective, this feels like one continuous journey. From an organisational perspective, it rarely is. 

Workplace charging infrastructure may be installed and operated by one provider, while employees already use charge cards issued by another mobility service provider (MSP). Each service works well on its own terms – but not necessarily together. Understanding why requires a closer look at the difference between access and authorisation. 

Why access alone is not enough  

Traditional charge card models are primarily designed to answer a single question: can this card start a charging session? 

In public charging environments, this works well. Broad acceptance is highly convenient, and individual sessions are typically settled between providers without requiring additional policy interpretation.  

But employer-supported charging – at home and at the office – introduces a different set of requirements. Organisations need to determine: 

• Which cards are allowed to charge at specific locations 

• Whether a session is private or company-related 

• How that session should be treated for reimbursement or cost allocation 

In these scenarios, unrestricted access creates ambiguity rather than simplicity. A card may be technically valid, but still inappropriate for a particular charger or context. This highlights an important distinction: access determines whether charging is technically possible; authorisation determines whether it is permitted under defined conditions. As EV charging increasingly spans home and workplace environments, the ability to apply clear authorisation rules becomes just as important as connectivity itself. 

Where complexity starts to appear  

Complexity tends to surface when charging infrastructure and charging access are provided by different parties – which, in practice, is common. 

A typical workplace scenario looks like this: office charging stations are hosted and managed by Provider A (charge point operator), while employees use charge cards issued by Provider B (e-mobility service provider). Individually, both services work as intended. The challenge arises when employees expect them to work together seamlessly – and discover that the card in their wallet isn’t recognised by the charger in the car park. 

The same challenge arises within organisations that operate across multiple subsidiaries or locations. When an employee from one subsidiary visits another office, they may be treated as a guest on that site’s charging network – incurring guest pricing that was never intended to apply to them. Resolving this requires more than technical compatibility between systems. It depends on clear pricing agreements being in place between the company and the charging point operator (CPO), so that employees receive consistent, policy-aligned rates regardless of which office they’re charging at. 

For organisations, the impact goes beyond a frustrated employee at a charging point. Charging access becomes governed by provider compatibility rather than company policy. Administrative effort increases as teams reconcile data across misaligned systems. And for multinational companies, this plays out across multiple providers, currencies, and countries simultaneously. 

In this context, interoperability alone does not guarantee a smooth charging experience. The underlying issue is not simply whether systems can connect, but whether access is intentionally governed. 

What is authorised whitelisting?  

As charging services become increasingly distributed across different providers, organisations need a way to decide which charge cards are allowed to work on which chargers and under what conditions. 

This is where authorised whitelisting – also called third-party authorised charging – comes in. 

At its core, whitelisting means explicitly permitting specific charge cards to work on specific chargers, even when those cards are issued by a different provider from the one operating the charging station. Rather than relying on broad network – level compatibility, it introduces intentional control: cards are accepted not by default, but because they have been authorised for a particular context. 

In practice, this allows organisations to address a common mismatch: when the charging infrastructure and charging access are managed by different entities, the company policy needs to govern both. Third-party authorisation creates a layer where this policy can be applied. 

Importantly, this doesn’t mean opening chargers to all third-party cards, nor does it require replacing the cards employees already use. Instead, it allows interoperability to be selective and governed rather than binary – which matters especially when charging sessions have financial or administrative implications.  

This extends to pricing: by establishing clear agreements between the company and the CPO, whitelisting ensures that authorised employees receive the correct rates across all locations, and not the guest pricing that would otherwise apply. When a session is linked to reimbursement or cost allocation, it’s not enough to know that it happened. It must also be clear that it was authorised to happen. 

By separating technical access from policy-driven authorisation, whitelisting gives organisations a structured way to deliver a seamless charging experience – without requiring every provider to be part of a single closed ecosystem. 

Third-party authorisation at Last Mile Solutions 

Putting this into practice is exactly what Last Mile Solutions does. 

If your employees’ charge cards are hosted by external providers, we can implement custom rules that align with your EV charging policy – so the right cards work at the right chargers, every time. The result is fewer exceptions, less manual administration for reimbursements, and no more guest charging fees that employees shouldn’t have incurred in the first place. 

Our research estimates that whitelisting can help our partners reduce costs by 10% while increasing HR operational efficiency by 50%. 

Do you want to know more about optimising your office charging setup? Contact our team today.