ATLANTA- UPS has deployed 245 new delivery trucks powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) to cities in Colorado and California over the past month.

The new CNG trucks have been deployed to Denver (140) and to four cities in California: San Ramon (18), Fresno (16), West Los Angeles (59), and Ontario (12), as part of the company's continued effort to reduce its emissions from the use of fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel and lower its carbon footprint.  

UPS began deploying alternative fuel vehicles in the 1930s with a fleet of electric trucks that operated in New York City. Today, UPS operates one of the largest private fleets of alternative fuel vehicles in its industry - more than 1,900 in total with these additions. Since 2000, the company's "green fleet" has traveled more than 165 million miles.

"The greening of our fleet demonstrates the effectiveness of harnessing multiple technologies and applying the right vehicles to areas where they will provide the best advantage," said Bob Stoffel, UPS senior vice president of supply chain, strategy, engineering and sustainability. "Compressed natural gas continues to be a sustainable technology for UPS' fleet because natural gas is cost effective, clean-burning, and abundant."

UPS, a member of the EPA Climate Leaders, first deployed CNG-powered delivery trucks in the 1980s. At the time, UPS purchased traditional gas- or diesel-driven vehicles and converted them to run on compressed gas. The 245 trucks deployed over the past month were built from scratch as CNG vehicles. They join more than 900 CNG vehicles already in use by UPS worldwide.

The CNG truck bodies are identical externally to the signature-brown trucks that comprise the UPS fleet. Marked with decals as CNG vehicles, the trucks are expected to yield a 15 percent emissions reduction over the cleanest diesel engines available in the market today.

For its alternative fuel fleet, UPS has deployed CNG, liquefied natural gas, propane, electric and hybrid electric vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Brazil, Chile, Korea, and the United Kingdom.