UPS (NYSE: UPS) announced it has ordered 200 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)–the largest commercial order of such trucks by any company–in addition to another 300 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles for its U.S. delivery fleet.
The purchase of the 500 additional vehicles means the UPS alternative fuel fleet–already the largest such private fleet in the United States–will grow 30% from 1,718 to 2,218 low-carbon vehicles.
"Alternative fuel research and development is just one of the ways that UPS is mitigating climate change risks," said Bob Stoffel, UPS’s corporate sustainability officer. "We also are focused on aggressive conservation programs and improving network efficiency to cut fuel use."
UPS’s "green fleet" operates in the United States, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom and has traveled nearly 144 million miles since 2000, the company said. The fleet includes electric, hybrid electric, CNG, liquefied natural gas and propane-powered vehicles. The company also is continuing work with the Environmental Protection Agency on a hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicle.
The 200 hybrid electric vehicles will be deployed in 2009 and join 50 HEV delivery trucks already in operation.
The 300 CNG vehicles will be deployed later this year and join more than 800 such vehicles already in use in the United States. CNG vehicles run on natural gas, a cleaner-burning and readily available fuel. These vehicles are expected to yield a 20% reduction in emissions over the cleanest diesel engines available today.
The chassis for the CNG and HEV trucks are being purchased from Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation, with Eaton Corporation supplying the hybrid power system for the HEVs. The truck bodies are identical externally to the signature-brown trucks that now comprise the UPS fleet with additional script markings that will identify them as CNG and HEV vehicles.
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