EPA, UPS Team Up for Green Brown Trucks

Shipping giant UPS has teamed up with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to put more eco-friendly delivery trucks on the road.

This story from CNN says UPS will order some new vehicles that uses technology developed by the feds, namely, a hydraulic hybrid system:

The Environmental Protection Agency holds many of the patents on the innovative technology, which was developed in an EPA fuel-emissions lab in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the help of engineers from Eaton Corp., which designs hydraulics systems.

"This vehicle to my right may look like a brown package truck that you'd see every day in your neighborhood," said UPS Chief Operating Officer David Abney, standing beside a prototype of the hybrid truck at a news conference Monday. "But underneath the hood is a whole different kind of technology."

The trucks combine a diesel engine with a unique hydraulic propulsion system that replaces the conventional drivetrain and transmission. Using hydraulic pumps and storage tanks, the vehicle captures and stores energy the way a battery does on an electric hybrid car.

The motor converts pressure from the hydraulic fluid into rotating power for the wheels and uses stored energy to accelerate the vehicle, thereby recovering more than 70 percent of the energy normally wasted during braking.

The article goes on to say that the design is perfect for the stop-and-start driving UPS does in cities. The first truck will hit the road in Minneapolis soon after the first of the year.

Reaching out: as the audience diversifies, MTV networks scores points at connecting with its many segments.(MTV Networks: targeting the multicultural customer)(Music Television)

Multichannel News September 20, 2004 MULTICULTURAL MARKETING. CABLE OPERATORS HAVE HEARD ABOUT IT FOR DECADES BUT IT’S ONLY IN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS THAT MOST HAVE REALIZED IT HOLDS THE KEY TO A BIG PART OF THEIR FUTURE SUBSCRIBER GROWTH As the U.S. population continues towards a much more diverse mix of racial, ethnic and social backgrounds, cable companies must work harder than ever to reach out to important segments of their audience. Most know the first step in accomplishing that goal: offer programming that grabs viewers and connects with them each time they tune in.

All of this adds up to growing demand for shows that can pull off that vital connection, and that’s a trend that bodes well for MTV Networks.

Known since its early days as a company that stays tuned to its viewers’ every whim, MTVN has been honing its skills at serving the needs of increasingly diverse audience segments. website keenan and kel

Hence, the growing viewership at VH1 includes a sizable complement of African Americans, who didn’t used to consider the network an entertainment option, but now routinely do. Ditto MTV2, where a hip approach to hip hop fans has helped produce the highest ratings in the network’s history.

MTVN’s multicultural roots go way back. At the flagship network, pioneering shows like Real World have included racially diverse casts since their creation two decades ago, while Nickelodeon’s first original series, Clarissa Explains It All, smashed the long-held axiom that boys wouldn’t watch a show built around a female main character.

Today, the diversification continues and the audience has taken notice. A recent Horowitz Urban Market study singled out MTV as the top brand among Hispanic young people, while a Beta Research survey found the same group of viewers ranks MTV Espanol and VH Uno first and second among their favorite Spanish language digital networks.

VH1 Soul, another digital channel, has cultivated a unique audience of upscale, high income African Americans, while MTV Jams puts a 24-hour-a-day spotlight on one of the most influential contemporary music genres: hip hop.

At Nickelodeon, groundbreaking bilingual series Dora the Explorer entertains while teaching little kids Spanish words. Its digital spinoff, Nicktoons, will add a Spanish language riced next month while another digital sibling, The N, has wrapped production on Miracle’s Boys, a five-part drama about a young man who gives up a scholarship to MI’I” to come home to Harlem and raise his two brothers after the death of their mother. see here keenan and kel

Executives at MTV Networks have long attributed their ability to stay steeped in popular currents to their constant trolling for different points of view and a workforce that mirrors the audience at large. Company chairman Judy McGrath, in an interview earlier this year, described her approach this way: “It’s not about getting advice from the most powerful people. It’s about finding the person with the next idea for The Apprentice or The Osbournes and making sure that person has nay phone number.” MTVN’s penchant for diverse casts, evident in shows ranging from Nickelodeon’s Keenan and Kel to MTV’s Pimp My Ride, MTV2’s Sucker Free Sundays, and VH l’s Hip Hop Honors, make its portfolio of networks an attractive option for cable operators segmenting their marketing to different sectors of an increasingly multiethnic audience.

It’s an approach that hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Jenny Alonzo, president of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications, singled out the company as an industry leader last year during an interview with Multichannel News. “MTV [Networks] is very forward thinking and they have been for many years,” Alonzo said. “They have a great story to tell, not just on air, but also off-air within their ranks and within their corporate offices. I think they represent diversity at every level–not just color diversity–but gender, sexual orientation, etc. They really do understand the value of having a team that represents our people.”