I remember growing up in the 90s/2000s our local UPS vans were all diesel and manual. Anyone know what they were?
I don't remember. Most of the thousands they bought from workhorse were 6.0/4L80e drivetrain. Some lighter trucks with single rear wheels got 5.3's with 4L80e transmission which to my understanding is the only time GM Powertrain put that combo together for a production unit. We did sell some 18k GVW trucks with 8.1's too.
UPS was one of the first big US fleets to recognize the price of diesel fuel was going to be a big driver to the expense of operation and their beancounters came to an interesting conclusion. For their package car fleet, despite the difference in fuel economy and durability of Diesels vs Gas powered engines the cost of diesel would make it ultimately more expensive. They needed proof that the gas engines could have a 200,000+ mile service life without major rebuilds, similar to diesel and still provide reliable service. Even though gas engines might get less fuel economy, the cost of service/maintenance was less and as diesel fuel prices went up the gap would widen to make gas a more obvious choice to save money at the bottom line. They sure nailed that prediction.
I remember them being ruthless prior to buying a batch of trucks every year with Workhorse. Larry had to make multiple trips to view validation testing with engineers from Workhorse, GM powertrain and the body manufacturer. They would beat the piss out of the prototypes that were fully instrumented to capture thousands of data points on the drivetrain, brakes, and suspension. There was never a validation test that passed completely. There was something that was found to be made better. Some of those changes made it to the rest of the Workhorse line, but a lot were just for UPS due to the higher standards they were striving for.
As fleets go they were completely OCD on maintenance, unlike the inconsistent crap we saw from Frito Lay. UPS had Workhorse install automated grease delivery systems on the chassis. Unlike other modern trucks that kept eliminating grease zerks on common items, UPS trucks were old-school. If it had a joint that moved, it had a grease zerk on it and a hose hooked to it to feed grease automatically at specific intervals. UPS was one of the few fleets we allowed to do their own repairs under warranty without going to a dealer. As long as they sent techs to our training they could do it.
Within Workhorse Larry was the main service rep calling on UPS, but come the holidays' everybody in the Workhorse Service dept knew if we had a UPS package car at a dealer of ours we had to get those suckers fixed ASAP or Larry would be calling. They needed every truck on the road. Larry still calls on them for all International trucks, but once Workhorse got out of the game most of the new UPS package cars (package car is a UPS term btw, trucks are the big over-the-road stuff to them) are Freightliner chassis with GM powertrains still.
