UPS announced it has deployed 245 new delivery trucks powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to cities in Colorado and California. The new CNG trucks have been deployed over the past month to Denver (140) and to four cities in California: San Ramon (18), Fresno (16), West Los Angeles (59) and Ontario (12).
The vehicles are part of UPS’s continued effort to reduce its emissions from the use of fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel and lower its carbon footprint. UPS operates one of the largest private fleets of alternative fuel vehicles in its industry – more than 1,900 in total with these additions. Since 2000, the company’s “green fleet” has traveled more than 165 million miles.
“The greening of our fleet demonstrates the effectiveness of harnessing multiple technologies and applying the right vehicles to areas where they will provide the best advantage,” says Bob Stoffel, senior vice president of supply chain, strategy, engineering and sustainability for Atlanta-based UPS. “Compressed Natural Gas continues to be a sustainable technology for UPS’s fleet because natural gas is cost effective, clean-burning and abundant.”
The 245 trucks deployed over the past month, built from scratch as CNG vehicles, join more than 900 CNG vehicles already in use by UPS worldwide. The CNG truck bodies are identical externally to the signature-brown trucks that comprise the UPS fleet. Marked with decals as CNG vehicles, the trucks are expected to yield a 15 percent emissions reduction over the cleanest diesel engines available in the market today.
For its alternative fuel fleet, UPS has deployed CNG, Liquefied Natural Gas, propane, electric and hybrid electric vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Brazil, Chile, Korea and the United Kingdom. The company also has purchased hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicles and has conducted research with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.