UPS Adds 1,400 New Natural Gas Vehicles to its Fleet

Professionals working within the automotive industry have noticed a decided shift towards green technology within the past decade. Auto mechanics have noticed more new electric and hybrid cars on the streets and in garages, auto sales professionals have been selling quite a few more fuel-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles and even truck dispatchers have been managing fleets of green big rigs.
One sector of the automotive economy, the parcel delivery industry, has been making significant strides towards a greener and more efficient future for quite some time. These initiatives are about to be expanded, thanks mainly to the efforts of one company: UPS.

UPS Dispatching New Fleet of Natural Gas Vehicles

Over the next year, UPS plans to purchase and deploy over 1,400 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles. This is in addition to the CNG vehicles and other alternative fuel sourced delivery vans and trucks already in service with the company.
The new vehicles include both delivery trucks for local use and heavy-duty semi-trucks for transport between cities. In order to power this fleet, UPS will build 15 new natural gas fueling stations.
Once these new CNG vehicles are in operation, UPS hopes that its alternative fuel source fleet will log a total of 563 million kilometers per year. This means eliminating 204 million litres of conventional diesel gas annually.

Auto Mechanics Have Been Making UPS Green for Years

Graduates who have received their auto mechanic training and go on to work for UPS, know that this new CNG fleet is something the delivery giant has been building on for years. Here is a brief timeline of UPS and their use of alternative fuel:

• In 1934, UPS tested a few all-electric delivery vehicles in New York City, making them the first delivery company to experiment with alternative fuel sources.
• CNG vehicles have been part of the UPS fleet since 1989, with more added in 2010 (and now 2015).
• Liquefied Natural Gas vehicles have been in service with UPS since 2000.
• Another electric test was done in Chile in 2001 and in 2013, UPS added 100 all-electric vehicles to its fleet.
• UPS was part of a project to build a hybrid delivery truck in 2006.

There’s no doubt that students with dispatcher training working for UPS will get to experience working for one of the most forward-thinking transport companies today. There are currently 3,150 green UPS delivery vans and trucks on the road today.

What Are the Advantages of CNG?

To understand why UPS is now focusing so much of its green efforts in natural gas, it’s important to look at some of the benefits of this fuel:

• Cleaner emissions and less wear and tear on engines than regular gasoline
•  Traditionally-fueled vehicles can be converted to run on CNG with only a few alterations to the engine
• Fueling stations can be located anywhere natural gas lines exist
• Can also be combined with biogas from landfills or waste water

Given their heavy use of green auto tech and their recent move toward CNG vehicles, does UPS sound like a company you would like to work for as a mechanic or dispatcher after graduating from automotive school?