Delivering more than 40% of the world's mail and reaching every business and residential address in America six days a week requires the dependable, ubiquitous vehicle fleet of the U.S. Postal Service. The world's largest civilian fleet delivers more than 167 billion pieces of mail to more than 150 million addresses, along 230,000 routes, logging 4 million miles a day, with 215,000 postal vehicles, of which more than 44,000 are alternative fuel-capable.
"The Postal Service's fleet of alternative fuel-capable vehicles is the nation's largest green fleet, and uses a variety of alternative fuels including electricity, ethanol, compressed natural gas, liquid propane and bio-diesel," says Dean Granholm, vice president, Delivery and Post Office Operations. "These vehicles allow us to deliver mail in a more environmentally responsible way."
From fiscal year (FY) 2009 to FY 2010, USPS replaced nearly 6,600 older gasoline-powered vehicles with more fuel-efficient vehicles and increased use of alternative fuels in postal vehicles to 2.2 million gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE), a 9% increase.
"Green mail delivery methods helped the Postal Service increase alternative fuel use 133% from an FY 2005 baseline, well ahead of the goal of 10% by 2015," says Thomas Day, chief sustainability officer. "The Postal Service has a long, proud tradition of testing and using more efficient methods of transportation. It's all part of the Postal Service's leaner, greener, smarter, faster sustainability call to action."
A Fleet of Feet and Bicycles Help Keep Fuel Use and Costs Down
As suggested by the recently issued Choose to Walk and Ride a Bike Go Green Forever stamps, USPS delivers mail using nearly 9,000 "fleet of feet" walking routes and nearly 70 bicycle routes.
Add to that 31 propane vehicles, 30 electric step vans, 13 three-wheeled electric vehicles, 5 electric long-life vehicles (LLVs) and 10 mules on one contracted mail delivery route in the Grand Canyon, and these green mail delivery methods help USPS avoid the use of nearly 18,000 gallons of petroleum fuel each day.
With 303 delivery days a year, green mail delivery helps USPS avoid using nearly 5.5 million gallons of petroleum fuel per year, which adds up to millions in savings.
