UPS Trucks Across New York State to Get Major Upgrade

We're all familiar with United Parcel Service and their big brown trucks making deliveries to your home. The iconic trucks can be seen any given day across the roads of New York state and far beyond.

The company has roots all the way back 1907, when two teenage entrepreneurs started what would become the world's largest package delivery service, according to ABC. They're so ingrained in our way of life that the UPS Brown fleet and matching uniforms even became a trademarked color.

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Their vehicles first started hitting the roads by 1913, when they were still known as the American Messenger Company. By 1919, they went to the familiar brown, according to ABC. 

But after all these years, their trucks have been missing something.

UPS Trucks to Finally Get Air Conditioning

NBC says that UPS and union leaders have reached a tentative agreement to add air conditioning to their trucks for the very first time. For all these years, drivers kept their doors open to help keep employees cool and for frequent stops.

The Teamsters said in a statement, that the agreement would mandate "UPS equip in-cab air conditioning systems in all larger delivery vehicles, smaller sprinter vans, and all of UPS’ most recognizable brown package cars purchased after January 1, 2024."

See Also: Lower Hudson Valley Police Say Man Tried to Steal Delivery Truck While Fleeing

The statement goes on to say that all "newer non-electric UPS package cars and vans would be installed with exhaust heat shields, further protecting Teamsters from dangerous heat."

Scorching hot summer conditions have long been an issue for drivers, as NBC says that over one hundred UPS drivers have been hospitalized for heat illnesses in recent years. This has not only been a problem in just the South or in the desert, but in areas like New York as well.

In 2020, UPS rolled out their brand new battery-powered, four-wheeled cycles in major cities such as New York to help ease congestion.