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UPS
UPS, the package delivery company, is test driving a new, lightweight diesel-powered truck to use on its high-mileage routes.
UPS, the package-delivery company well known for its brown trucks and the brown uniforms worn by its employees, is testing next-generation delivery trucks that are a shade greener.
The prototype trucks from Utilimaster / Isuzu have composite body panels that make the trucks about 1,000 pounds lighter than the comparable P70 diesel package car on the road, which should result in fuel savings.
The trucks are powered by a four-cylinder diesel engine and should achieve a 40 percent increase in fuel efficiency. The company wants to deploy them on high-mileage routes to take advantage of the fuel savings.
UPS has put five of the trucks on the road at various locations around the country to see how they perform in a variety of road and climate conditions from the rough back roads of Nebraska to the desert heat of Arizona. The test will run until December.
The prototype truck does have less cargo space compared to the P70, but this could actually make it more suited to narrow city streets, the company notes in a video of the innaugural test drive below.
Test drive of the new UPS Composite Car
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
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How much? I bet UPS will raise rates to pay for the trucks and pocket the fuel savings. They will benefit and we will pay for it. Just like smart electric meters. Electric companies got utility commissions to okay charging the user for the meters and the electric company will rake in the savings from firing all the meter readers. Why didn't electric companies foot the cost and then recoup it?
What?
Sooner or later, any fleet of trucks will be replaced, from age alone. And as a UPS customer, yes you will pay for that. Greater fuel economy by whatever means, will be positively reflected in the company's bottom line.
Is this a surprise?
40% is a good savings, be interesting to see the results.
I wonder what the USPS said if they got the opportunity at this. It on my monitor looks bigger than their trucks and would hopefully fit in with the governments change over to more efficient vehicles. Just like corporate people, I don't want to pay more if they're get the efficiency to charge less.
OK, now when will they put AC in the things? The poor guys are in early stages of Heat Exhaustion during the summer in Houston....
That guy in the picture has a mustache and he works for UPS? I was told by an employee of UPS that all UPS drivers MUST be clean shaven.
Anyway, any thing to reduce emissions and the cost of doing business should be a welcomed. Inch by inch.
If you watch the video and read the captions, you will see that he is not actually a driver, but the VP of Fleet Engineering. Probably have different dress codes at that level. No brown uniform kind of gives it away as well.
This is long over due for the nations corporations in general.
lets hope this trend keeps up.