Package Car Of The Day: May 3, 2012

Today's car of the day comes from juantoo3's collection and is Corporate Express Promotional Marketing's 1980 Grumman Olson P-500.

United Parcel Service, Inc., typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the world.
UPS is well known for its brown trucks, internally known as package cars (hence the company nickname "Brown"). UPS also operates its own airline based in Louisville, Kentucky.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: UPS

Stubbier than the Action version, but I lack both vehicles in my collection.  Something I would very much like to correct (especially the Action!)

The UPS package car (or van) is a major symbol of the U.S. business world, with its iconic status referenced in an early-2000s ad campaign following UPS' sponsorship of Dale Jarrett in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: the ads were about how the company would prefer to race the truck over a stock car despite the futility of doing so, as "people love the truck".

The classic UPS package car is built on a General Motors or Ford chassis, has a manual transmission, manual steering, and no radio or air conditioning. The older ones are easily recognizable due to their round headlights and turn signals set onto a sculpted fiberglass hood. These are either Grumman Olson or Union City Body P-500, P-600, or P-800 step vans (a recent redesign changed the look, replacing the round turn signals with ovoid LED ones). The cars lack manufacturer's name or badges.

Newer package cars in North America have either a Freightliner Trucks or Navistar International chassis; automatic transmissions and power steering are slowly appearing in package cars. UPS also operates Mercedes-Benz Sprinter box vans (occasionally with Dodge badges) as well as Dodge Grand Caravan minivans.

UPS has ordered Modec electric vans for its UK and German fleets. Energy costs play a huge part in the potential profitability of package delivery companies like UPS, DHL and FedEx.

When UPS ground vehicles reach the end of their useful service life and are no longer roadworthy (typically 20–25 years or more, but generally when the body's structural integrity is compromised), they are almost always stripped of reusable parts, repainted in household paint to cover up the trademark, and then sent to the scrapyard to be crushed and broken up. The only exception to this policy is when a package car is repainted white for internal use, usually at a large hub. Prior to scrapping, UPS trucks and trailers are assigned an ADA (Automotive Destruction Authorization) number and must be crushed under supervision of UPS Automotive personnel, which records the vehicle's destruction, as UPS does not re-sell any of its ground vehicles.

When using non-proprietary vehicles such as Ford E-Series vans, Dodge Caravans, or Mercedes-Benz Sprinters, UPS will often remove the vehicle badging as to not provide free advertising to the manufacturer.