ACT Expo announced the winners of its 2023 ACT Expo Fleet Awards, highlighting innovators that are taking their sustainability journey to the next level.
The ACT Expo Fleet Awards recognize fleets and individuals leading the transition to near-zero and zero-emission transportation. The winners have shown true leadership in sustainable transportation, demonstrating a commitment to improving the air quality in their communities and successfully transitioning to cleaner technologies within their fleet operations. A diverse set of organizations from across North America were honored in multiple award categories.
This year’s ACT Expo Fleet Award winners include:
- Leading Off-Road Fleet: Sunbelt Rentals | Sunbelt Rentals has made significant commitments to invest and deploy zero-emission off-road construction equipment. In 2022, Sunbelt Rentals made significant investments in their fleet of zero-emission rental products including electric telehandlers, electric skidsteers, electric excavators, solar light towers, energy storage solutions, battery compaction products and more. In addition to being the largest investor in Ford Lightnings, they have also expanded their fleet through the addition of electric class 8 haulers. Sunbelt Rentals’ demonstrated commitment to offering zero-emission equipment has led to their fleet being named the 2023 ACT Expo Leading Off-Road Fleet award winner.
- Leading School Fleet: Lower Merion School District | Lower Merion School District has run a CNG school bus fleet in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1998. It currently operates 59 RNG school buses, substantially lowering its carbon footprint. The diesel portion of the fleet, a total of 46 buses, has made use of B10 biodiesel. The district also assisted the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, the Delaware Valley Planning Authority, and the federal Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program on how to operate a CNG fleet, one of the many reasons why Lower Merion School District was presented with the 2023 ACT Expo Leading School Fleet award
- Transit and Mobility Award: Montgomery County, Maryland | Montgomery County, Maryland’s Brookville Bus Depot houses a 150 plus transit bus fleet while maintaining a total fleet of 3,400 vehicles to include preventive maintenance/repair shops, welding shops, a body shop, and parts warehouses. Working with Alphastruxure, via a private / public partnership (P3), the team worked on the development and construction of a 6.5 MW microgrid, enabling the eventual electrification of the entire depot bus fleet. This transit microgrid project will help the County achieve its ambitious net-zero goals by cutting more than 160,000 tons of CO2 over its lifetime. This ambitious project and the fleet’s aggressive emission-reduction goals have made Montgomery County, Maryland this year’s ACT Expo Transit and Mobility award winner.
- Leading Private Fleet: Manhattan Beer Distributors | In the late 1990s, Manhattan Beer Distributors began building its low-emission fleet, which now includes more than 230 medium- and heavy-duty CNG trucks, as well as five Volvo VNR Class-8 Electric tractors. In addition, MBD has installed CNG filling stations at three of its five facilities and three Level-3 dual DC fast chargers at its Bronx facility. In 2023, Manhattan Beer Distributors will expand its electric fleet with the addition of an electric yardhorse and 2 additional electric tractors. Manhattan Beer Distributors’ commitment to the community at large is one of the many reasons it was named the winner of the 2023 ACT Expo Leading Private Fleet award.
- Leading Airport Fleet: Kansas City International Airport | The Kansas City Aviation Department was an early adopter of compressed natural gas technology in 1997 when it incorporated CNG vehicles into its Kansas City International Airport parking shuttle bus fleet, complete with a fueling station. In 2017, it was the first U.S. airport operator to use all-electric buses when the addition of four BYD buses to its fleet, three more in 2020 and seven more with an expected delivery date of March 2024. These efforts have led to a fleet of nearly 30 electric and CNG vehicles supporting airport operations. All the airport’s electric vehicles are powered by 100% renewable energy, making the Kansas City International Airport this year’s ACT Expo Leading Airport Fleet award winner.
- Leading Public Fleet: New York City Fleet | New York City’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) operates the City’s fleet and is considered the largest alternative fuel fleet in the U.S. with 20,000 vehicles utilizing biofuels, solar, and electric energy, including more than 4,100 battery-electric vehicles — with 1,600 more on order, and 1,500 chargers, and 1,000 more planned by 2024. DCAS is currently exceeding originally set electrification goals, including buying electric sedans, SUVs, pick-ups, vans, trucks and sweepers, and introducing the nation’s largest program of electric police cars. Through its Clean Fleet Plan, New York City is on the trajectory to reduce fleet emissions by 50% by 2025. For its ongoing and innovative deployment of clean vehicles, the DCAS’ Fleet Management team is the winner of the 2023 ACT Expo Leading Public Fleet award.
- Leading Carrier: Performance Team Logistics LLC | Performance Team has made meaningful progress toward Maersk’s global decarbonization goals, ordering 126 Volvo VNR Electric trucks in March 2022. As of December 2022, Performance Team has 38 Volvo VNR Electric trucks in operation, including 16 at its Santa Fe Springs, California distribution center and 22 at its Commerce, California distribution center. Its California-based fleet operates 215 trucks, which Performance Team intends to fully transition from diesel to battery-electric trucks, as well as creating new charging infrastructure to support its battery-electric fleet. These efforts towards creating a zero-emission commercial vehicle fleet led the presentation of the 2023 Act Expo Leading Carrier award.
- In It for the Long-Haul Award: NFI | NFI’s fleet of battery-electric tractors has achieved more than 1.5 million miles of operation since launching in 2020, more than any other commercial carrier in the U.S., and continues to operate the largest fleet of heavy-duty BETs in the country. By 2023, NFI’s Southern California drayage fleet will become the nation’s first 100% zero-emission drayage fleet by adding 100 additional BETs to its operations through the JETSI project, grants, and its own investments. NFI will also operate the first 100% zero-emission freight logistics facility in the U.S., including zero-emission vehicles and onsite renewable electricity. These initiatives helped establish NFI as the 2023 In It for the Long-Haul Award winner.
The list of award winners can be viewed on the ACT Expo site.
“The acceleration of the advanced clean transportation market will only work if we have both buyers and sellers making equal commitments to invest in clean fuels and technologies,” said Erik Neandross, CEO at Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), the nation’s leading clean transportation consulting firm and host of the ACT Expo. “With billions of dollars of investment happening on the supplier side of the equation, we commend and recognize the fleet end users who have stepped up in a big way to help advance the industry’s collective efforts to make these markets economically and environmentally sustainable.”
