The future is now! Or, at least it is for UPS and its latest announcement. The company recently revealed its latest and greatest fleet of delivery vehicles: A new line of purpose-built, all-electric, compact delivery vans for urban deliveries in London and Paris.
This marks a significant step forward toward reducing the carbon footprint of major entities operating large fleets of motor vehicles in the private sector, in conjunction with major automakers pledging to do the same.
In 2017, both governments of the United Kingdom and France made promises to ban all fossil-fueled vehicles from some of its major cities by 2040 for London, and 2030 for Paris, to curb climate-changing carbon emissions. This, of course, put pressure on anyone who depends on a motor vehicle in these major metropolitan and global cities, requiring many to adapt to these new regulations by ramping efforts to roll out all-electric vehicles.
For UPS, its solution for dealing with deliveries in London and Paris without depending on fossil fuels are these new all-electric zero-tailpipe emissions delivery vans. They are built by a company called Arrival, the first commercial automaker in Europe to manufacturer all-electric vehicles specifically for the application and specifications of UPS delivery vehicles.
“UPS is working with Arrival here in the U.K. because their smart electric vehicles are helping to reduce dependency on fossil fuel. This is a pioneering collaboration that helps UPS develop new ways to reduce our emissions,” Luke Wake, UPS’ international director for automotive engineering in the advanced technology group, said in a statement.
These new fully electric delivery vehicles produce zero tailpipe emissions, are specifically designed to be lightweight, and serve up a full driving range of more than 150 miles. That currently bests the driving ranges of other all-electric delivery vehicles currently active on the road.
UPS’ new vehicles aren’t fully autonomous, which is still quite some time away. So they still need to be driven by a human behind the wheel. Nonetheless, UPS’ new EV delivery vehicles are also catered to care for the delivery drivers throughout their shifts.
For instance, Arrival’s UPS delivery vans come standard with the company’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, which exist to improve driver safety and reduce fatigue while on the job. It also comes equipped with a ton of wireless connectivity features so that fleet managers can keep better track of delivery vehicles. This data could then be used to better understand, log, and manage the logistics of all the deliveries and its drivers. This helps improve operating efficiency, which could optimize delivery routes for faster and more dependable delivery times.
UPS says the new fleet of all-electric delivery vans will be active before the end of 2018. The company also said that it is continuing to explore all-electric delivery vehicle fleet options in other major cities, such as New York.
