UPS today announced the deployment of 167 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) delivery vehicles in Texas, Georgia and California. The CNG 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 CNG trucks, 25 have been deployed in Dallas; 42 in Atlanta, 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.
“UPS has deployed alternative fuel vehicles for more than 70 years and this CNG deployment is one more step towards the ‘greening’ of the UPS fleet,” said Robert Hall, UPS’s director of vehicle engineering. “Continuing to add CNG delivery trucks to our fleet is a sustainable choice because natural gas is a cost effective, clean-burning and readily available fuel.”
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 compared to the cleanest diesel engines available today. UPS operates the transportation industry’s largest private fleet of alternative fuel vehicles. This deployment brings the UPS
“green fleet” total to 1,629 trucks. UPS 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. The company’s “green fleet” has traveled 143 million miles since 2000.
“Deploying eco-friendly delivery vehicles is one of the many ways UPS demonstrates its commitment to sustainable business practices,” added Hall. “The company plans to continue to expand its ‘green fleet’ and to focus deployments in areas with air quality challenges.”