UPS boosting alternative fuel fleet

UPS boosting alternative fuel fleet UPS has ordered 200 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and 300 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles for its U.S. delivery fleet. No financial details were disclosed.
   The purchase means the UPS alternative fuel fleet — said to be the largest such private fleet in the United States — will grow 30 percent from to 2,218 low-carbon vehicles.

UPS has ordered 200 of the hybrid electric vehicles (pictured) and 300 Compressed Natural Gas vehicles for its U.S. fleet.

   “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.”
   The new HEVs will next year join 50 of the same type delivery trucks already in operation and are expected to save 176,000 gallons of fuel annually and reduce CO2 emissions by 1,786 metric tons each year, which UPS said is equivalent to removing almost 100 conventional UPS trucks from the road for a year.
   The 300 CNG vehicles will be deployed later this year and join more than 800 such vehicles already in use in the United States. These vehicles, which run on natural gas, are expected to yield a 20 percent 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 Corp., with Eaton Corp. supplying the hybrid power system for the HEVs.