First 11 LNG trucks delivered to Fred Meyer

Fred Meyer Stores, a division of The Kroger, received the first 11 heavy-duty trucks that run on liquefied natural gas.

Fred Meyer will receive a total of 40 LNG trucks over the next several months, making it the first in Oregon to deploy a fleet of heavy-duty LNG trucks.

The new LNG trucks will replace 40 diesel trucks currently in use, and will deliver products to Fred Meyer stores as far south as Corvallis, Oregon and as far north as Longview, Washington. Some of the 40 diesel trucks will be used to replace older, less efficient diesel trucks in the fleet.

The trucks will average approximately 175 miles per day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year. They are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 755 metric tons per year, which equates to removing approximately 159 passenger cars from the road annually. The trucks are manufactured at Freightliner’s North Carolina plant.

The fleet will be fueled at a new, private LNG fueling station at Fred Meyer’s Clackamas Distribution Center, which has been designed and engineered by Clean Energy Fuels. Clean Energy will also supply the liquefied natural gas for the fueling station, and once all 40 trucks are active, Clean Energy will supply the approximately one million gallons a year needed to service them.

Kroger has invested $6.5 million in the project and has received a $490,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration via ODOT for the LNG infrastructure. Kroger has applied for $360,000 in grant funding from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to retire nine diesel trucks and completely replace them with LNG trucks.

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Press Release; Image: Clean Energy Fuels