While the rise in electronic communication has drastically reduced the amount of mail being sent, online shopping has caused a great increase in the amount of packages being sent. Moving all of those boxes and parcels from place to place takes an awful lot of fuel. Fortunately, the three main services that deliver our mail, United Parcel Service, FedEx, and the United States Postal Service, are doing their part to green up their act.

Before we get into what innovations they are making, let’s take a look at the impact each of these companies has on the planet in first place.

• UPS has 94,542 vehicles in their fleet and the 8th largest airline in the world
• UPS employs around 427,700 people
• UPS delivers over 15 million parcels every day
• UPS has over 17,000 authorized outlets
• UPS spends about $2.1 billion on fuel a year
• FedEx operates over 70,000 vehicles
• FedEx has around 275,000 employees
• FedEx delivers over 7 million packages to 220 countries a day
• USPS has the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world with over 220,000 vehicles
• USPS travels over 1.2 billion miles a year
• Though the USPS had over 900,000 full and part time employees in 2000, that number  had dwindled to about 618,000 by 2009
• USPS (formerly the Post Office Department) had 77,000 post offices in 1900. Today, there are around 34,000

That’s a lot of fuel, a lot of vehicles, and a lot of jobs. Unfortunately, as technology changes and the economic climate changes, a lot of those jobs are being lost. According to Postmaster John Potter, the current recession has resulted in a drop of 30 billion pieces of mail from 2007 to 2009. However, the economy’s not the only thing affecting the amount of mail going out.

The USPS, an independent federal agency, is the only delivery service to reach every address in the nation, over 149 homes, businesses, and post offices. Because the service is not paid for by taxes, they are reliant upon the sale of their products and services to pay the bills. Unfortunately, over the last few decades, much of this profit has been found through the delivery of absurd amounts of junk mail and catalogs. With the onset of the Direct Marketing Association and “Do Not Solicit” lists, millions of trees have been saved, but it hasn’t done much for the USPS revenue.

Nevertheless, the USPS continues to make great strides in their energy efficiency and embracing of alternative vehicles. Since having one of the first all-electric vehicles manufactured by the Winston Company in 1899, the USPS switched to gasoline powered vehicles like everyone else when they hit the market, but they seem to be finding their way back to their energy conscious roots.

The T3

The USPS is testing three-wheeled vehicles called T3′s for use in Florida, California, Texas, and Arizona. They are powered by two rechargeable modules, have a 40 mile range, 450 pound load capacity, 12 mph maximum speed, zero tailpipe emissions, and cost about 4 cents a mile to operate. They are also testing all-electric two-ton step Solectria CitiVans with a 40 mile range and top speed of 60 mph for use in New York City and the Azure Dynamics’ Balance Hybrid Electric two-ton step van in Long Island.

“USPS is the only federal agency with a dedicated Office of Sustainability,” said Scott Harrison, CEO of Azure Dynamics. “The organization has demonstrated its strong commitment to sustainability by publicly stating its goal of decreasing petroleum usage by 20% over the next five years while also lessening its environmental impact. Our Azure Balance Hybrid Electric can be instrumental in helping USPS achieve these goals.”

In addition to having the largest civilian vehicle fleet, the USPS also operates the largest civilian fleet of alternative fuel-capable vehicles with about 43,000 of them capable of burning E85, and they are experimenting with hydrogen vehicles as well.

Solectria CitiVans

On top of their alternative fuel initiatives, the USPS prints their postage stamps with soy ink, use biodegradable adhesives, and make their envelopes, postcards, stamp booklets, and packaging materials from recycled materials

But don’t count out the other two delivery systems just yet. Both UPS and FedEx use recycled materials in their packing materials, and are putting a lot of effort into lessening their footprint over the millions of miles they travel to deliver our stuff.

Last year, Newsweek named UPS and FedEx as two of the 500 greenest large corporations in America, 85 and 93 respectively (Hewlett Packard, upon which I am happily typing, is #1 overall, if you were wondering).

Newsweek says that UPS “has multiple programs in place to reduce GHG emissions from its facilities, ground fleet, and aircraft; 93% of the company’s packaging contains recycled materials; offers various ‘green’ services to help customers reduce their environmental footprint,” and of FedEx, Newsweek states, “While its climate change reporting and initiatives are not as aggressive or longstanding as those of its peers, has recently increased its reporting on GHG emissions, established reduction goals, and taken steps to upgrade the fuel efficiency of its airplanes and delivery vehicles.”

UPS has invested around $15 million to deploy 1500 alternative-fuel vehicles powered by natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, fuel cell, electric, hybrid-electric, and hydraulic hybrid electric.

Beginning later this month, FedEx is adding four electric delivery trucks capable of 100 miles to a charge to its Los Angeles fleet of 600. They added 10 Modec electric trucks to their London routes last year. FedEx operates 630 EPA-certified low emission vehicles, 240 alternative-fuel vans, and 325 hybrid vehicles. Since initiating these technologies, they have saved 34 million gallons of vehicle fuel. That’s 750 million pounds of CO2 emissions. FedEx Express Vice President John Formisano says the company plans to “improve the fuel efficiency of our fleet 20% by 2020. We know we’re a large carbon user. Any transportation company is. We know that we’re going to use carbon to deliver people’s packages. We just want to do it in a more efficient manner.”

For more information on the green initiatives of your delivery companies, visit USPS, UPS, and FedEx.

Sources:

US Postal Service: Delivering Sustainability?, From Stagecoach to Electric T3s and CitiVans: U.S. Postal Service Delivering Green, Your packages: Delivered by electric trucks, An Overview of Environmental Initiatives at US Logistic Companies, Eco-friendly delivery choices

Steve McAllister

In addition to serving as Managing Editor and contributor to Modern Hippie Mag, Steve McAllister is an actor, musician, accomplished author and filmmaker. His most recent novel, The McAllister Code is available as an e-book at www.themcallistercode.com. Find Steve on Twitter, @InkenSoul. Read his reviews and articles here.

Steve McAllister  (360 Posts)

Steve McAllister, Modern Hippie Mag's resident Lifestyle Guru, describes himself as a Renaissance Man. An author, filmmaker, songwriter, and perpetual artistic experimenter, he has recently re-released his second book The Rucksack Letters into paperback to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the journey. His latest book, a comical foray into philosophical science fiction, is How to Survive an Estralarian Mind Meld. His latest artistic project is The Labyrinth of the Unbroken Path. .