Clean green US postal service vehicles

The U.S. Postal Service has a lot of vehicles on the road every day through mud and sleet and all that. Their vehicle fleet is one of the largest on the planet. They’ve long had efforts to study alternative fuel vehicles and recently announced a one-for-one replacement of 6,500 vehicles with 1,000 E-85 ethanol-capable and 900 gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles to its delivery fleet. They’re also buying some new efficient four-cylinder vehicles to replace aging vehicles and also contribute to a reduction of their fleet size. These 1900 vehicles will bring their alternate fuel-capable fleet to 43,000 vehicles.

The Postal Service has increased alternative fuel use by 41 percent since 2006, and plans to reduce petroleum use by 20 percent over the next five years. Replacing aging vehicles with more fuel-efficient and alternative fuel-capable vehicles is key to reaching that goal. “This is a unique opportunity for the Postal Service to continue work on our goals for improved fuel economy, greenhouse gas reductions, and on our position as an environmental leader,” said Wayne Corey, manager, Vehicle Operations, who is overseeing the vehicle delivery.

Some other alternative fuel projects include:-

Trial use of the T3 scooter for mail delivery, made by T3 Motion. The T3 is powered by two rechargeable batteries, has zero gas emissions and costs 4 cents a mile to operate.
Testing two fourth generation fuel-cell Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which are delivering mail in Irvine, CA, and in Washington, DC. (note: the CARB program was dissected in an earlier article and deployment of fuel cell vehicles in California results in a huge ZEV credit multiplier)
Using 35 delivery vehicles in Florida that run on propane fuel.
Running 300 vehicles nationwide that are powered by biodiesel fuel.

For more info:

U.S. Postal Service to Receive Alternative Fuel Vehicles; Agency to Participate in Federal Fleet Upgrade Strategy

U.S. Postal Service Turns Over a Green Leaf

U.S. Postal Service “Unplugs”; Postmaster General Kicks Off Year-long Conservation Campaign

Delivering mail goes electric with T3 vehicle

T3 Motion Systems

U.S. Federal Sustainability Network

U.S. Postal Service tests hydrogen Chevy in Irvine

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About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.