FedEx and Environmental Defense: Building a Hybrid Delivery Fleet

In 2000, FedEx Express and Environmental Defense began a collaboration to develop a source of new generation delivery trucks with dramatically improved fuel efficiency and environmental impact. By 2005, prototypes had been developed by Eaton Corporation, which supplied hybrid diesel-electric transmissions, and Freightliner, which integrated the transmissions into the delivery truck chassis. The prototypes had been tested by FedEx, which announced that it intended to buy 75 of the new hybrid trucks. The case describes the process by which the new trucks were specified and developed, and the roles of each of the organizations involved.