UPS

UPS has signed a deal to buy up to 150 eVTOL aircraft from Vermont's Beta Technologies, and is expecting to begin using them for time-sensitive zero-emissions deliveries in certain markets in 2024, taking off and landing on-site at UPS depots.

UPS and CVS are pushing ahead with their vision for aerial shipments of medical goods, today announcing a new project that will see drones deployed to carry prescription drugs from a Florida pharmacy to the largest retirement community in the US.

Back in 2016, ORNL developed a 20-kW wireless charger for electric vehicles with a reported 90 percent efficiency. That was for passenger vehicles, and now a system for a medium duty, plug-in hybrid delivery truck has been successfully tested.

After being granted FAA certification for package delivery by drone last year, UPS Flight Forward has now joined forces with German drone maker Wingcopter to get a new breed of vertical takeoff and landing delivery drones into US skies.

Back in 2018, UPS revealed it was working with UK startup Arrival to develop bespoke electric delivery vehicles for small trials. The two are now taking things up a notch, today announcing a new order of 10,000 purpose-built electric vans.

Logistics giant UPS has high hopes for its delivery drones and has today announced a number of new business partners in pursuit of this vision, with massive pharmacy chain CVS among them.

Logistics giant UPS today announced that it has received new permissions from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allow it to fly an unlimited number of drones.

UPS is expressing a keen interest in autonomous heavy haulers, revealing it has spent the last couple of months testing them out along an Arizona highway and has snared a small stake in self-driving startup TuSimple, whose vehicles it used throughout the trials.

The latest party to turn to the Silicon Valley startup Matternet for aerial courier solutions is logistics giant UPS, which will use its drones to ferry medical samples between labs and a hospital in North Carolina. ​

​Package mover UPS is partnering with Thor Trucks to build and test an electric class 6 delivery truck. If all goes well, more medium-duty electric delivery vans from Thor could be added to the global logistics company's existing zero-emissions fleet.​

UK startup Arrival is working with UPS to develop a new mini fleet of electric delivery vehicles. The e-trucks are to be rolled out in London and Paris this year and are reported capable of rolling much farther between charges than other electric service vehicles currently in operation.

UPS has slowly been adding electric vehicles to its fleet of delivery trucks. But a new partnership with EV-builder Workhorse sees it get in on the ground floor, with the pair to build zero-emission plug-in vehicles from scratch at a cost comparable to its conventionally fueled trucks.​​​