Anheuser-Busch is partnering with Ryder System Inc. to put more than five dozen heavy-duty natural gas vehicles to work in its Houston-based fleet.
Ryder's Scott Perry tells NGT News that the company's long-term lease agreement with Anheuser-Busch includes 66 tandem-axle daycabs from Freightliner that feature the 11.9-liter ISX12 G natural gas engine from Cummins Westport Inc. He notes that Ryder worked with Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. to develop a special 169 DGE compressed natural gas (CNG) storage and fuel system that includes tanks mounted both behind the cab and on the tractor's frame rail.
Anheuser-Busch's NGV initiative in Houston represents a 100% shift to a natural gas fleet. Perry says the CNG tractors will be deployed in the company's fleet over the next few months, and he anticipates that nearly all 66 will be in service by the end of this year. All of the NGVs will operate out of Anheuser-Busch's Houston brewery and travel largely in the Texas Triangle (Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth), and Ryder will maintain the fleet right in Houston.
In terms of fueling, the short-term plan is for the fleet to access CNG at public natural gas stations. But Perry says Anheuser-Busch is ‘finalizing their fuel strategy’ and intends to secure a single CNG source near its Houston facility once the full complement of NGVs is on the road.
