UPS Continues Search For Its White Whale (Of Fuel Efficiency)

When it comes to making deliveries, UPS is one of the titans of the the industry. Given the 15,000,000 packages it delivers daily it's also a titan of fuel consumption. In the past we've ready about UPS experimenting with hydraulic hybrids and routing delivery trucks so that they don't have to make left turns. Now UPS has placed the single largest commercial order for alternative-fuel vehicles, 200 hybrid-electric vehicles and 300 compressed-natural gas vehicles, ever made. The order of 500 vehicles will increase the size of the UPS' alternative-fuels fleet from 1,718 to 2,219 vehicles--actually, its 2,218. I just fudged the number to see if you are awake.

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.