UPS has announced the deployment of 167 compressed natural gas (CNG) delivery vehicles in Texas, Georgia, and California. The vehicles, part of UPS's global alternative fuel fleet, will help reduce the company's carbon footprint and its dependence on fossil fuels.
Of the 167 new trucks, 25 have been deployed in Dallas TX, 42 in Atlanta GA, and the remaining 100 in five California cities: 30 to Sacramento, 14 to Los Angeles, five to Ontario, 10 to San Ramon, and 41 to Fresno. They join more than 800 CNG vehicles already in use by UPS in the United States. Previous CNG vehicles in UPS's fleet were converted from gasoline and diesel vehicles in the 1980s to run on alternative fuels. The new vehicles are originally manufactured for alternative fuel use.
The CNG truck bodies are identical externally to the signature-brown trucks that now comprise the UPS fleet, although they will be marked as CNG vehicles. The trucks are expected to reduce emissions by 20 percent and improve fuel economy by 10 percent.
This deployment brings the UPS “green fleet” total to 1,629 trucks. It has deployed CNG, LNG (liquefied natural gas), propane, electric, and hybrid electric vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. The company also is working with the Environmental Protection Agency on a hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicle.
UPS began deploying alternative fuel vehicles in the 1930s with a fleet of electric trucks that operated in New York City.