Frito-Lay is adding 1,200 fuel-efficient Sprinter delivery vehicles to its fleet, and 300 new compressed natural gas delivery trucks are now on the road for UPS.

For Frito-Lay, the addition of the trucks is part of an effort to convert 10 percent of the snack company's transportation unit to more eco-friendly alternatives. The Sprinters get 17 MPG, which is more than 50 percent better than the miles per gallon achieved by conventional vehicles in the firm's delivery fleet.

The new trucks are expected to hit the streets starting next month. Areas receiving large shares of the purchase include the company's New York-Northeast region, which will get 200 trucks; California, 165 and Texas, 116.

The company said its other efforts to improve its fleet's environmental performance include use of better aerodynamics, lighter weight materials and advanced technology, and a focus on best practices for driver behavior. Frito-Lay also said it has been a member of the Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay program since 2005. The EPA program is intended to help businesses save fuel, cut transportation costs and help the environment by identifying products and services to reduce fleet-related emissions.

PepsiCo, Frito-Lay's parent firm, has a goal of reducing fuel consumption by 25 percent and water and energy use each by 20 percent by 2015.

One of the UPS CNG delivery vehicles.

At UPS, the rollout of the new 300 CNG trucks brings the firm's green fleet to 1,819 units, which the delivery company says is the largest private fleet of alternative fuel vehicles in its industry.

The CNG truck deployment, begun last month, sent 100 trucks to Oklahoma City, 63 to San Ramon, Calif., 46 to Atlanta, 43 to Denver, 21 to Sacramento, 18 to Ontario, Calif., and nine to Los Angeles. UPS ordered the vehicles last spring and already has 800 CNG trucks in use around the world.

According to the company, its CNG trucks are expected to yield an emissions reduction that is 20 percent greater than that of the cleanest diesel engines now on the market.

The firm's other green vehicles, which have logged 144 million miles since 2000, run on liquefied natural gas, propane, electricity or hybrid electric power. In October, the company announced that it had purchased seven hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicles, an industry first. The delivery of two HHVs is expected soon with the deployment of the remainder occurring later in the year.

UPS's green transportation efforts are part of a broader program. The firm is listed in the Dow Jones and FTSE4Good Sustainability Indexes.