UPS Goes Green
By: Katrina Irwin
Updated: February 21, 2012
"It's much quieter and actually it's an attention getter," says Karl Pratt the Site Manager at UPS in Rochester. This truck is a hybrid electric vehicle. Estimates are, in one year it will save 452 gallons of fuel.
"We use them on urban areas because again it has a braking system which helps us recharge the batteries so stop and go traffic helps that battery re-charge itself throughout the day."
This is the first truck like this in the Rochester area but the hope is, the idea will catch on."
"It says right on the side of it hybrid electric and I was talking to the driver today and every day 1-2 people ask him to explain how does this work? do you like it? you don't even here it coming it's so quiet," adds Pratt.
Across the company, UPS has put 130 new hybrid electric trucks on the roads over the last several months. They are experimenting with other types of alternative fuels too.
"This is the wave of the future, says Pratt. This is what we are looking to do. We are working with the EPA and some other private industry groups testing alternate fuels."
Rochester isn't the only upstate city to get one of these trucks. Syracuse, Buffalo, and Albany are also testing them out.
