AT&T to Ryder Driven to Natural Gas Vehicles as Oil Soars

For AT&T Inc., the decision to introduce natural gas vehicles to the company’s fleet in 2008 proved well-timed, as the price gap between gas and diesel soared to an all-time high that summer.

The largest U.S. phone carrier began discussing a move away from higher-priced gasoline and diesel cars and vans the year before hurricanes Ike and Gustav disrupted energy output from the Gulf of Mexico. Now AT&T has 5,200 natural gas vans on the road, or about 7 percent of its fleet, as part of a plan to spend $350 million to replace about 8,000 gasoline-powered service vehicles over five years.