ATLANTA, GA — United Parcel Service has rolled out 245 new compressed natural gas trucks in Colorado and California, boosting the company's green fleet to more than 1,900 vehicles worldwide.
The firm's announcement today follows deployment of 300 CNG delivery trucks about a year ago. UPS had more than 900 CNG trucks on the road before taking delivery of the latest vehicles.
The new trucks were parceled out to Denver, which received 140 vehicles, and four cities in California -- West Los Angeles, received 59; San Ramon in the San Francisco Bay Area, 18; Fresno, 16; and Ontario in Southern California, 12.
With an array of propane, electric, electric hybrid, CNG, liquefied natural gas, hydraulic hybrid and zero emissions vehicles, UPS has one of the largest private alternative fuel fleets in the industry. The company's green fleet has logged more than 165 million miles since 2000.
The firm notes that its first electric vehicles were deployed in the 1930s in New York City.
More recent milestones in the company's green fleet history include the order of seven hydraulic hybrid vehicles in October 2008, an industry first. The company also has researched use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In December, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a report on its 12-month evaluation of vehicle performance by six UPS hybrid electric vans that are powered by an Eaton Corp. electric hybrid propulsion system.
Performance of the vehicles, first generation hybrid diesel step delivery vans, was compared to that of six standard diesel delivery trucks. The fuel economy of the HEVs bested that of the standard vehicles by 28.9 percent, researchers found. 
The deployment of several different kinds of vehicles, research and performance testing are key components of what UPS calls its "rolling laboratory" approach to growth of its green fleet.
UPS provides more details about its alternative fuel vehicles, environmental initiatives and corporate responsibility at its website.
Images courtesy of UPS.