Brown Goes Green: UPS adds 50 new HEV trucks to delivery fleet

Filed under: Diesel, Green Culture, Hybrid

Click image for small photo gallery of the new UPS HEV truck

What can brown do for you? It can be more environmentally responsible when its trucks roll up to your doorstep to deliver that Rockford Files Season 2 box set you’ve been anxiously awaiting. The package delivery company has just added 50 brand-new HEV delivery trucks to its fleet. Coming in two sizes from either Workhorse Custom Chassis or Freightliner, the new trucks will look just like the other big brown vans, but graphics on the bodywork will clearly identify them as being hybrid electric vehicles.

The hybrid system comes from Eaton, and it combines a downsized clean diesel engine, a Lithium Ion battery pack and an electric motor/generator to increase the new trucks fuel economy by a whopping 44 percent over a traditional diesel-powered van. UPS also states that the 50 new trucks could help eliminate 457 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the course of the year. If you’re in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston or Phoenix, you have a shot at seeing one of the vans, as that’s where they’ve been put into service. UPS is not shy about testing alternative-fuel vehicles in its fleet. Last year the company made headlines when it put a hydraulic hybrid delivery truck into service.

Gallery: UPS HEV delivery truck