Nurse's online petition demands UPS add air conditioning to trucks

A nurse has collected more than 234,000 signatures on a petition that urges Sandy Springs-based UPS to install air conditioning on delivery trucks.

"To look at a driver, you would never know the conditions that they suffer," Theresa Klenk told Channel 2's Rikki Klaus.

Klenk described on videochat from New Jersey how temperatures soar during the summer inside UPS trucks, like the ones her husband has driven for more than a dozen years.

The nurse remembers how she felt in 2016, when he landed in the emergency room with kidney failure.

"(I was) incredibly scared and very disappointed that UPS could or would allow this to happen to their employees," she said.

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Klenk had hoped UPS would respond by installing air conditioning in its vehicles. But it didn't. So, Klenk recently created a change-dot-org petition, demanding AC.

"(It's) to provide these drivers and their families relief, to keep them safe and to be able to come home at night," she explained.

In a statement, a spokesman for the company wrote:

As you may know, UPS's package delivery vehicles make frequent stops and the entry doors and rear doors are frequently opened and closed throughout the day, making air conditioning ineffective. Thousands of our other vehicles do have AC units – including the tractor-trailer trucks that do not make frequent stops or have doors continually open. 
 
We provide water and ice in all facilities for employees and we have fans in many of our vehicles. We monitor local area temperatures and inform our drivers every morning of the forecast temperatures in their area and to be aware of their own condition.
 
We know that with issues related to our people's health, safety and wellness, personal awareness is the key. We raise awareness of issues surrounding the hot weather months through education. We have a proactive program called, "Cool Solutions," which focuses on hydration along with nutrition and proper sleep BEFORE working in hotter temperatures. We provide heat illness and injury prevention training to all operations management and drivers annually. We have morning meetings with drivers all year round.  In the summer they are reminded of the signs of heat illness and the steps to take to avoid it, and what to do if they become ill. They know this information through our daily and seasonal communications.  We also have similar communications for cold weather months in cold climates.

Out of curiosity, we checked with competitor FedEx to see if that's the case for them, as well. A spokeswoman told us all of their delivery trucks have AC.

Klenk thinks the drawback for UPS is the cost.

“The expense should not matter. We’re talking about people’s lives.”

Cox Media Group