What can I do if all charging spots are busy?

If every charging spot is in use, don’t worry, you have options. Sometimes you arrive somewhere—at work, a shopping centre or the supermarket—and all of the charging spots are being used by other EV drivers. Instead of circling the car park waiting for a spot to open up, use Notify Me or Waitlist in the ChargePoint app to find out when a charging station near you becomes available. Please note that these features are only available when charging on ChargePoint stations, not when using your ChargePoint account on a different charging station. Waitlist is not enabled on all stations; a host must enable it for you to access this feature.

Using Notify Me

With the Notify When Available button on the station details screen in the app, we’ll let you know when the EV in the selected spot has finished charging. When you get the alert, you can move your car and charge or decide you don’t need to charge after all — it’s up to you.

Here’s how to use Notify Me:

1. Open the ChargePoint app and the map will show your location so you can easily find charging spots near you.
   
   Tip: If charging spots are busy, they appear as blue pins in the app. Available spots are green.
2. Click on the blue (busy) station pin and access station details by clicking the info bar at the bottom of the screen.
3. Hit Notify Me to confirm that you want to receive a notification for that station. If there are other busy stations nearby, you can choose to be notified when any of them become available by selecting Any Station at This Location.
   
   Tip: If Notify When Available does not appear, at least one spot at the station is available for charging.
4. Move your car to charge as soon as you receive a notification that a spot is open. A spot will not be reserved if someone else gets there first.
5. If you don’t need to charge anymore, you don’t have to do anything, but you can hit Stop Notification in the station details.

Using Waitlist

To help more drivers like you charge their vehicles, some station owners have enabled the Waitlist feature, which lets you get in a virtual line to charge. The station owner decides how long a driver can stay at a station to ensure that all drivers get an opportunity to charge. If you’re already charging, you’ll be notified when it’s time to move your vehicle so someone else can charge.

Here’s how to get in the queue with Waitlist:

1. When all stations are in use, click Join Waitlist from the map view in the ChargePoint app, or tap your phone or card at a specific station to add it to your Waitlist. You’ll remain in the queue until you either begin charging or leave the Waitlist.
   
   Tip: If Join Waitlist doesn’t show up in the app, it means that stations are available or the Waitlist feature is not turned on.
2. Then, hit the orange Join Waitlist button.
3. You’ll automatically be added to the Waitlist for all stations in the immediate area. The grey bar near the top of your screen will show how many stations you’re in the queue for.
   
   Tip: Make sure that you’ve turned on notifications in the app (click on the main menu and select Account, then choose Notifications) so we can send updates about your place in the queue.
4. When you get an alert that You’re Up!, accept the spot and it will be reserved for you. Only accept the spot if you’re ready to move your car immediately, because the spot will only be reserved for a short amount of time. Don’t accept if you can’t move your car right away.
5. If you’re busy, hit Snooze to let the next person have the spot and keep your place in the queue. You can choose how long you want to Snooze. You won’t find out about open spots until that time is up.
   
   Tip: Some stations only let you hit Snooze a certain number of times before you are taken off the Waitlist. Don’t worry, the app will let you know when it’s your last chance to snooze.
6. If you no longer need a charge, just select Leave Waitlist at any time. Move your EV as soon as you have enough range, so that others get a turn to charge.
7. You can also save a Waitlist if you want to join specific stations only.