Delivering the Future: a Balanced Approach
Five-Day Delivery is Part of the Solution

Chapter 4 - How five-day delivery would work

A greener Postal Service

Reducing one day of street delivery will reduce delivery vehicle fuel use, postal mail transport vehicle fuel use, and facility energy use.

Analysis of the proposed plan shows a potential annual reduction of between 315,000 and 503,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is equivalent to eliminating the annual GHG emissions of between 60,000 and 96,000 gasoline-powered passenger cars. This also represents 3-5 percent of the Postal Service’s 2007 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its facilities, owned vehicles and contract transportation, which totaled 11.2 million metric tons.

According to the analysis, nearly all of the GHG reductions will be due to the fuel saved by reducing the miles driven across rural and city routes, postal vehicle service routes, and highway contract routes. Additional minor savings are possible due to reduced energy use at large facilities.

Appendix B provides a summary of estimated GHG reductions.