FedEx Express said Monday it has purchased 1,900 lightweight, composite-body Reach vehicles from Spartan Motors, a division of Utilimaster.
The vans will join the 400 Reach vehicles already in service, giving FedEx Express the largest lightweight, composite-body vehicle fleet in the industry, with approximately 2,300 vehicles.
The Reach van, with its 4-cylinder, 3.0-liter Isuzu diesel engine, demonstrates a 35% fuel efficiency improvement over traditional vehicles in FedEx Express’ fleet, the company said.
The lower-weight body design, along with the engine, allows every Reach to significantly reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions compared with conventional walk-in vans.
Parent company FedEx Corp. set the U.S. transportation industry’s first fuel efficiency goal in 2008 with a commitment to improve the overall fuel efficiency of the FedEx Express vehicle fleet 20% by 2020, compared with its 2005 performance.
In March of this year, FedEx Express surpassed that goal with a more than 22% cumulative improvement in fuel economy for its vehicles and set a revised goal to improve the fuel efficiency of its vehicle fleet 30% by 2020, the company said.
FedEx Corp. is ranked No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
