Next time a FedEx delivery truck rolls by, check its side panel for a green logo. It might be one of 28 hybrid-electric trucks now being rolled out by the global delivery service in Orange County.

The company is sending 92 of the trucks to California as part of a worldwide push to increase its fleet of cleaner-burning vehicles, said Mitch Jackson, director of environmental affairs and sustainability.

“We’re not only trying to make our operations more efficient, we’re trying to find ways to transform transportation,” Jackson said. “We feel electrification of a significant portion of surface transportation is the way to go.”

The hybrid diesel trucks are 42 percent more fuel efficient than conventional diesel, the fuel used by most delivery trucks, he said. The new additions will mean a total of 264 hybrid electrics in FedEx’s fleet of about 30,000 medium-duty delivery trucks worldwide. 

 While FedEx deployed some gasoline-electric hybrids last year in Southern California, these will be the first to run on diesel.

The company converted trucks that had been driven between 300,000 and 500,000 miles, Jackson said. The diesel engines will always be running, but at lower speeds on idle only; the electric motor will handle acceleration.

Globally, he said, “it’s like taking 279 cars off the road every year.”

FedEx hopes to push other businesses to convert their fleets to hybrid electrics, Jackson said.

“Right now, by and large, hybrids are being produced in fairly low volumes,” he said. “The price premiums are higher for them than they would be if they were a widely available product. That’s what we are striving for.”

(Photo courtesy FedEx.)

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