Federal Express and UPS Fuel Cell & Hybrid Vehicles

As advanced technology vehicles are proving their value in new car showrooms, the commercial world is also examining what high efficiency, low emission vehicles can do for them. A timely example comes by way of FedEx Express, which is operating 20 hybrid medium-duty delivery trucks in four American cities and additionally testing GM’s HydroGen3 fuel cell vehicle for package deliveries in Japan. Competitor United Parcel Service, the world’s largest package delivery company, has also introduced fuel cell DaimlerChrysler F-Cell vehicles and Sprinter delivery vans into its delivery fleet. UPS has a considerable history with alternative fuel vehicles and operates over a thousand compressed natural gas vehicles, the largest private alternative fuel fleet in the nation. Introducing fuel cell vehicles into UPS delivery operations is a natural follow-on.

These activities mesh well with the plans of the major automakers that are pressing forward with their initial fuel cell demonstration programs. It began with Honda and its placement of the FCX fuel cell vehicle with the City of Los Angeles and with Toyota and its lease of fuel cell vehicles to several University of California campuses. Now others are coming into play. If the goal is to prove to skeptics that fuel cell and hybrid vehicles are real, that they can drive and function in ways we all consider normal, then all you have to do is place them in service and detail them with high-profile identities like “FedEx” or “UPS” to gain maximum exposure. It will build from there, a step at a time.