Bimbo Bakeries, Nestlé Waters Debut Delivery Trucks Fueled By Propane

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As part of the ongoing effort to make their fleets more sustainable, as well as more efficient, Bimbo Bakeries USA and Nestlé Waters have announced that they will be making deliveries in trucks fueled by clean-burning, domestically produced propane autogas. Both companies made the announcement at the NTEA Work Truck Show earlier this month.

In January, Bimbo Bakeries purchased 84 brand new Ford F-59 trucks, all equipped with this ROUSH CleanTech propane fuel technology. The three lucky cities that get to test them out are Chicago (which received 30 trucks), Denver (27 trucks), and Washington D.C. (27 trucks). Each one of those vehicles is estimated to cut carbon dioxide emissions by around 192,000 pounds compared to traditional gasoline. That's equivalent to 16.1 million fewer pounds over the lifetime of the fleet.

Bimbo also installed on-site fueling stations at each of these three locations, to completely eliminate the need to refuel at a traditional service station. The company is now paying about $1.30 per gallon of propane autogas instead of $1.80 for a gallon of diesel. As a result, Bimbo expects to see a drastic reduction in both fuel and maintenance costs.

Nestlé Waters has been using 30 propane-fueled trucks since 2014 and, according to the ROUSH CleanTech website, they recently purchased 155 more. Nestlé has ordered these new Ford F-650s (pictured above) to be upfitted with side-load beverage bays and equipped with the same alternative fuel technology as Bimbo's trucks.

If all goes well with their new vehicles, Nestlé has said that they will move to an all-propane fleet. They predict that 85 percent of their trucks will run on the fuel within the next four years.

Started in 2010 by NASCAR team owner and Ford company man Jack Roush, ROUSH CleanTech is a division of ROUSH Enterprises aimed at developing, manufacturing, and installing alternative fuel systems in a wide variety of Ford commercial vehicles.

 

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