Tag: UPS

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.”

The US must reinvest in its ageing, overused transportation networks or risk losing ground to the world’s other leading economies, United Parcel Service’s Chief Executive said.

Scott Davis told the Financial Times that the nation’s private sector should seek out opportunities to partner with transportation authorities to help modernise the infrastructure that underpins the US economy.

“We’ve got to work very closely with the government to look ahead and take a candid look at where we are,” said Mr Davis, who took over as Chief Executive of UPS in January. “It’s so critical to the future competitiveness of the US that we build the transportation infrastructure that we need.”

The US may need to spend USD 1,600bn in the next five years to restore its infrastructure to good condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

While some state and local governments have sought investors to help fund infrastructure improvements, the programmes often meet resistance from politicians and consumer advocates concerned that the arrangements cede control of a steady source of revenue to private entities.

Repairing and upgrading ageing roads and bridges, antiquated air-traffic control systems and overcrowded ports and railways would help ensure the US remains a viable trading partner, Mr Davis said. Total cross-border transactions may swell to more than USD 70bn by 2025, compared with USD 10bn last year.

“If we sit still, we may get left out of global trade,” Mr Davis said. “That’s the danger for the US. Just think of the problems we’re going to have with the ports and the highways and the airports and the rails.”

In spite of its global reach, the US remains the Atlanta-based company’s biggest and most important market.

UPS underscored its continued dependence on the US this month, warning that a drop in demand for domestic package deliveries, which had set in by February, may leave the company short of its quarterly profit forecast in spite of growth from its international and supply-chain management businesses. FedEx, UPS’s arch-rival, cited the same concerns for the US economy last week.