New York Grocer Replacing Diesel Fleet with CNG Vehicles

Tops Friendly Markets, which operates and services 162 full-service grocery stores in northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and western Vermont, is switching its fleet of delivery trucks to compressed natural gas. The new CNG vehicle fleet is expected to cut fuel costs by 50% and reduce its output of greenhouse gas emissions by 3, 138 annually.

Tops will receive the new environmentally-friendly vehicle fleet in 2015, replacing all 55 diesel-powered trucks currently in use. Maintenance of the CNG vehicles is covered under the full-service lease the company signed with the fleet management company who owns the vehicles. The six-and-a-half-year lease will cost the grocer a total of $16 million–$14 million for the fleet vehicles, and $2 million for a fueling station.

According to Ron Ferri, senior vice president of distribution and logistics at Tops Friendly Markets, “At Tops Friendly Markets, our priorities are to have a reliable fleet of well-maintained vehicles to ensure our stores receive deliveries on time.”