UPS Deploys 167 Additional CNG Vans
27 March 2008
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| The new CNG UPS van. |
UPS has deployed 167 additional Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) delivery vehicles in Texas, Georgia and California, joining more than 800 CNG vehicles already in use by UPS in the United States.
While previous CNG vehicles in UPS’ 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. The CNG truck bodies are identical externally to the signature-brown trucks that now constitute the UPS fleet although they will be marked as CNG vehicles.
The vehicles from Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC) use a 5.9-liter, six-cylinder Cummins B Gas Plus that produces 195 to 230 hp (145 to 172 kW) with a torque range of 420 to 500 lb-ft (569 to 678 Nm).
Range is an estimated 250 miles. The trucks are expected to reduce emissions by 20% and improve fuel economy by 10% compared to the cleanest diesel engines available today. The Cummins B Gas Plus engines meet EPA emissions standards for 2010.
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.
UPS operates the transportation industry’s largest private fleet of alternative fuel vehicles. This latest 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. The company’s “green fleet” has logged 143 million miles since 2000.
UPS uses about 100,000 P-600 and P-800 customized delivery trucks.
Since 2000, UPS has managed to modify/upgrade 1629 units (or 1.6%) of their fleet to reduce pollution and fuel consumtion.
UPS should be praised for their effort, but at that rate (1.6% in 8 years) it will take another 500 years to upgrade the other 98.4% of their fleet.
Shouldn't the cadence be accellerated?
Posted by: Harvey D | 27 March 2008 at 01:34 PM
range of 250mi
wonder what the mpge is, no mention here of the fuel tank size
Posted by: marc | 27 March 2008 at 03:57 PM
Posted by: DS | 27 March 2008 at 04:00 PM
Larger, richer cities should legislate for low pollution goods carriage for all delivery trucks. This should be written in terms of NOX / ton delivered (or whatever) and be technology neutral.
With today's technologies, it would probably favor hybrid (of some flavor) or CNG, but who knows what is down the road.
And say that from 2012, all local delivery vehicles bought for use in the cities must adhere to this.
You can't expect the market to lower pollution, you have to legislate for it.
If you write the laws properly and specify what you want to achieve, rather than how to achieve it, you can do it most cheaply and quickly, rather as if you let the market do it.
Posted by: mahonj | 27 March 2008 at 05:10 PM
CNG engine emit only 20% less poltion than diesel, I thought it was cleaner than that, I think that NOx ae probably 1/5 of diesel. Maybe I had the wrong number in mind
Posted by: Treehugger | 27 March 2008 at 07:13 PM
Treehugger,
The key word is "the cleanest diesel available today." By that, they mean very strict SCR NOx control and DPF (particulate filter), both are expensive technologies that will make "clean diesel" a lot more expensive than CNG engine. Furthermore, diesel fuel in the USA almost hit $4/gallon. A double whammy for future diesel fleet operators. Economically, CNG engines will increasingly replace diesel just on economic ground alone.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 27 March 2008 at 08:34 PM
At some point, the life-cycle cost of these engines and their fuel become more than for a Newton.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 28 March 2008 at 07:54 AM
@ Engineer-Poet -
one day, you may be right - but not yet, at least not everywhere. If you were, UPS would have chosen pure EV trucks over the CNG alternative.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | 28 March 2008 at 08:13 AM
If they continue to replace their fleet with these, it will help. They could use a smaller displacement engine with a turbo to take advantage of the higher octane.
They should upgrade lots of vehicle used like this. The shuttle fleet at airports runing CNG turbo hybrids would clean up a lot of the air that passengers breath waiting for the buses.
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