Hasn't UPS had all electric trucks in Manhattan for a while now?
Not everywhere....There's a diesel UPS truck parked and idling across the street from me in midtown right now...
UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
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Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#52They can't get UPS WorldShip to print a label properly (after decades of development). I certainly wouldn't want to ride in any vehicle they designed.
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#53Fantastic. We shipped 17 tons with UPS in the last year, each shipment utilized their carbon neutral shipping option. I'm glad to see the last mile is getting a bit greener and hopefully more efficient.
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#54Germany’s Post Office built and used ~2,000 custom-built electric delivery trucks in 2016 and deployed ~10.000 per year since 2017. UPS’s 50 seems very low for 2018 in comparison. One article about them: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-24/even-germ... They are called StreetScooter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StreetScooter
I can't help but notice that the StreetScooter is significantly smaller than a typical UPS truck. It looks in the size range of a Ford Transit Connect, while most UPS trucks are Utilimaster curb vans that are something like 25' in length. I suspect that the balance of vehicle size and mileage might make this kind of adoption rather difficult for UPS - I live in a city, but not a very dense one, where I'm pretty confident that UPS trucks can regularly clock a couple of hundred miles per day.
Incidentally this city is also in the process of adopting a fleet of battery-electric transit buses, but it's been a very rough process for the same sorts of reasons - very large vehicles that run very long routes in this relatively far-flung city. The buses failure in testing to deliver the promised 270 mile range has been a major issue with them, as the roughly 200 they're able to do isn't sufficient to complete their planned schedule.
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
They destroy them for brand protection. See this comment: http://hankstruckforum.com/htforum/index.php?PHPSESSID=1e65b... I once saw a heavy wrecker flatbed in the late 00's hauling three ex-ups trucks with standard shift to the scrap yard. They were hastily painted white with a roller to hide the UPS color and logo but you could still see the logo through the shoddy paint job and brown patches along the edges.
>They destroy them for brand protection. See this comment: Comment has some sound reasoning why they feel that way. Curious though, why do you post/take that commen on a forum that was copied from an unnamed forum as fact?
It's a (supposed) copy of a newspaper article.
I searched for the original publication and can't find it.
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Biogas can be generated by fermenting sewage. All buses in Stockholm run on it, it burns extremely clean and is carbon-neutral since it utilizes carbon already in the present carbon cycle.
All yeast strains produce some amount of hydrogen sulfide during fermentation as a by-product of sulfate processing. [1] You can barely call that biogas "burns extremely clean" with hydrogen sulfide in them, can you? [1]: https://beerandbrewing.com/off-flavor-of-the-week-sulfur/
Sorry, bad choice words. The work is not done by a yeast so perhaps it’s not technically fermenting. The work is done by a type of bacteria called archea. As far as I know the only byproduct Upon burning biogas is CO2 and water vapor.
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#57When EVs advertize 100 mile range, that means in the best conditions. Heavy loads would reduce that. Cold weather itself can make your range worse, and additionally any kind of heating or AC will reduce range further. I recently purchased an EV with a "100 mile range," and it so far hasn't achieved higher than a 70 mile range, given the cold weather, even with 100% charge, no climate control, and no real load. Turn o…
I wonder if their estimates are taking into account the type of work the truck will be doing.
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#58A bit of an aside, but you have to wonder how much electricity they could save on air conditioning by painting their trucks white instead of brown. Perhaps they don't use any AC at all, which means their delivery drivers are stuck in that solar oven all day. I know they now at least paint the tops of their trucks white.
Edit: Fixed typo.
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#59Though UPS is slow in the race it is very good strategy to tackle the problem. Most UPS or USPS vehicles need only 100-150 miles range, they can charge overnight. No need to wait for a crazy vehicle which has 500 mile range
Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks
#60A bit of an aside, but you have to wonder how much electricity they could save on air conditioning by painting their trucks white instead of brown. Perhaps they don't use any AC at all, which means their delivery drivers are stuck in that solar oven all day. I know they now at least paint the tops of their trucks white. Edit: Fixed typo.
Given that the cab is usually left completely open, and that the cargo area isn't enclosed when it's in use, I'm not sure it makes sense to use aircon in a delivery vehicle,