Logistics News

UPS ramps up gas-vehicle investment

Global package delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS) is bolstering its alternative vehicle fleet

April 29, 2013

United States global package delivery company, United Parcel Service (UPS) is bolstering its alternative vehicle fleet, with plans to purchase about 700 liquefied natural gas (LNG) vehicles, and build four refuelling stations by the end of 2014.

UPS Chairman Scott Davis says the LNG private fleet will be one of the most extensive in the US.

“LNG will be a viable alternative transportation fuel for UPS in the next decade as a bridge between traditional fossil fuels and emerging renewable alternative fuels and technologies that are not quite ready for broad-based long-term commercial deployment,” Davis says.

An initial investment of more than $18 million to build fuelling stations will be supported by the purchase of these 700 LNG tractors and continued expansion of the natural gas fleet in the US.

“Public-private partnerships and legislative action can remove disincentives from fuel taxes on natural gas as well as offset the higher incremental costs of the vehicles to create the favourable conditions for companies like UPS and others to broaden deployment,” Davis says.

According to UPS, the company has been operating natural gas vehicles for more than a decade, with more than 1,000 natural gas vehicles on the road, worldwide
today.

Natural gas prices are 30-40 percent lower than imported petroleum and the industry also cites 25 percent less CO2 emissions.

UPS’s alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet of more than 2,600 vehicles also includes low-emissions vehicles, including all-electrics, electric hybrids, hydraulic hybrids, propane, compressed natural gas and biomethane.

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