Even after 24 years, Bill Jacob knows the exact date he started at UPS – Jan. 6, 1988. “It’s emblazoned in my head,” he says. “It was a monumental change.”
He was 38 years old at the time, had worked for one company for the past 16 years where he had moved up in the management ranks to take a job as a GSE mechanic – exactly where he’d started out his career – temporarily leaving behind his wife, a 10-year-old and a 4-year-old, plus a nice house in Atlanta, GA, to move into a rented one-bedroom apartment in Louisville, KY.
“I was a journeyman GSE mechanic all over again,” Jacob says.
But what a place to be one. His new employer, UPS, had just started its own airline and established a hub at Louisville International Airport. And in just a few years, Worldport would open – eventually all 5.2 million square feet of it.
If you were going to work your way up again, this was the time and the place.
UPS also believes in promoting from within. And soon enough, the powers that be, including the executive whose job Jacob currently has, recognized this new mechanic could do much more.
William J. Jacob, vice president, airline ground support equipment for UPS Airlines, oversees the acquisition, engineering and maintenance of 32,000 pieces of GSE and has spent 40 years in the GSE industry.
It was that dedication to the GSE industry that earned him our magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Bill was always looking forward with his vision for the GSE industry, especially in the area of environmentally friendly equipment,” said one of his nominators. “As a personal mentor to all new-comers to the world of GSE, he’s shared that vision and had been a leader both within UPS as well as GSE manufacturers around the globe.”
GREEN GSE
UPS plans to cut its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2020. Operating a fleet of 100,000 familiar brown package delivery trucks, UPS already boasts the largest private fleet of alternative-fueled vehicles. The company actually used electric trucks in New York in the 1930s. More recently, UPS has experimented with a number of different technologies for its trucks, including electric, CNG, LNG, propane, electric hybrid and hydraulic hybrid.
UPS Airlines, however, is also the world’s ninth largest airline with 500 airplanes engaged in almost 2,000 flights each day. Jacob, a well-known proponent of green GSE, has made sure that his operations play a big part in the company’s environmental initiatives.
Here’s what he had to say in a 2009 interview with Ground Support Worldwide:
“The last trend has been coming for many years — the need for transportation companies to consider the environment in daily operations. At UPS, we realize the need for more environmentally friendly fuels, more efficient equipment uses and we are exploring new technologies and methods to reduce our impact on the environment. There are challenges associated with such enhancements, including additional costs, but our industry should continue to find solutions to benefit both the environment and business.”
Here are a few highlights we’ve also covered in past issues:
- Repowered more than 90 tugs running for a decade on their original diesel engines with new 2.8-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engines.
- Installed electric GPUs to supply parked aircraft with ground power, eliminating almost 26 mobile, diesel-powered GPUs. (Also, Worldport has backup electric feeds from two substations of the local utility in lieu of diesel-powered generators.)
- Stationed electric cargo loaders at Worldport, including models that regenerate their batteries each time the loader is moved up or down. (Keep in mind, much of the design of the sprawling Worldport allows planes to park closer to the facility, which eliminates, the need for excess powered GSE.)
- Installed two Jet A fuel tanks with internal floating roofs that reduce volatile organic compound emissions.
- Also, repowered more than 100 gasoline-powered tugs stationed in California with lower-emission gasoline engines per state regulations.
Let’s take a look at what Jacob has done lately:
- Biodiesel: UPS installed two biodiesel tanks at Worldport last March to provide customized fuel for about 200 diesel-powered GSE.
One 30,000-gallon ank holds ultra-low sulfur diesel. The other 5,000-gallon tank holds pure biodiesel made in part with the Kentucky soybeans.
The setup allows the company to blend fuel right at the pump ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent.
“Most companies will typically buy biodiesel that’s already been blended directly by their suppliers,” Jacob explains. “But we can blend this as we see fit. We plan to work with our manufacturers to see what different ratios will mean. As long as our warranties are still honored, we’ll go as low as we can.”
Not only does the fuel burn cleaner, but Jacob says biodiesel’s lubricating properties help the equipment last longer than straight diesel.
- Electric Cargo Tractors: Jacob was also working with Corvus Energy and its North American supplier, GTA Aviation, to install the company’s lithium ion battery technology into two cargo tractors.
“Electric definitely has its niche,” Jacob says. “But we haven’t found the right performance with traditional lead acid batteries. We pull heavy loads – as much 32,000 pounds – and for long distances, too – as long as two miles.”
Jacob had already shipped one of the tractors to Corvus for retrofit. He plans to test the equipment at Worldport and see how the lithium ion batteries stand up to the daily hauling. Corvus may have just as much to learn since this will mark the first time its batteries are put to the test in at an all-cargo airport.
- LSI Rule: Finally, Jacob is building on an earlier accomplishment that we noted above in California. While the state’s “low spark ignition” rule required the retrofit, Jacob is implementing it at Worldport, swapping out old Ford 300 cubic-inch gas engines for four-cylinder versions.
“We’re required to do it in California, but we’re doing it in Louisville because we know we can save fuel – as much as 30 percent,” he says. “Plus, the engines produce 85 percent less harmful emissions. So we can save money and it’s the right thing to do for the environment.”
