The tractors will be the first of their kind in Staples’ third-party dedicated operations and will replace 10 diesel tractors currently used by Ryder in the fleet. The trucks are part of the $38.7 million Ryder/San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) project.
The project is a public/private partnership between the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the California Energy Commission, the Southern California Assn. of Governments Clean Cities Coalition, and Ryder. It includes the purchase of 202 natural gas vehicles, the upgrades to three Ryder maintenance facilities to support natural gas use, and the construction of two fueling stations.
The CNG tractors will be used to transport inventory to Staples stores in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and the Inland Empire, and will be serviced out of Ryder’s maintenance facilities in Southern California, Ryder said.
“Improving the efficiency of our transportation fleet is an important part of our strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy conservation in our operations,” said Mark Day, senior manager of carrier management at Staples. “Leveraging the environmental and cost-saving benefits of natural gas vehicles is one example of the kind of sustainable choices that we are making to reduce our operational impacts. We believe that by partnering with Ryder in this type of initiative, we can do our part to help protect the environment and save money at the same time.”
