Southern Eagle Distributing, one of the oldest continual Anheuser-Busch distributorships in the U.S., has purchased two propane autogas-fueled Ford F-650 delivery trucks to reduce emissions and fueling costs.

The trucks will be used in Charleston, South Carolina, to deliver over 600 beverage types including beer, soda, energy drinks, juice and water.

The beverage delivery trucks are equipped with Ford's 6.8-liter V-10 engine with a ROUSH CleanTech fuel system. When running propane, the engines are certified to 0.05 grams per brake horsepower-hour for nitrogen oxide. The engine is 75% cleaner than the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard and 99% cleaner than diesel vehicles built before 2007, according to ROUSH.

"Southern Eagle Distributing has adopted propane autogas technology to reduce our overall emissions and create a more environmentally friendly and green fleet," said Jim Henderson, vice president of operations for Southern Eagle Distributing. "We care about and support our local communities and want to impact them positively. A less polluting fleet benefits everyone."

The distributor will also install a propane fueling station with a 1,000-gallon tank its Charleston location. The company is saving more than 40% on fuel compared with current diesel prices and expects to reduce maintenance expenses.

"Fueling onsite is more economical for us than mobile fueling," said Henderson. "The refill station was a low entry cost for us."

Southern Eagle Distributing will test the trucks later this year.

"We are optimistic that the test will be successful," said Henderson "Propane autogas is easy to scale. We'll continue to evaluate our fleet needs into 2019, and I'm hopeful we will be adding more propane units as we replace older units."