First Postal Service Delivery Van to go Hybrid

It didn't look like this today in Boston! Still raining here.

FIRST MAIL-DELIVERY VAN CONVERTED TO HYBRID
Postal Service demonstrates hybrid-electric technology

BOSTON — For more than 200 years, the U.S. Postal Service has been on the cutting edge in the development of every new mode of transportation in the United States. From the dash of the Pony Express rider, the daring of the early airmail pilot, or the rumble of the postal railway car, the Postal Service has been instrumental in the birth, growth, and development of a variety of transportation industries. And this year is no different.

At a ceremony today at the Boston General Mail facility, the Postal Service launched the first conversion of a mail-delivery van into a hybrid-electric vehicle.

“As an agency that delivers mail to 145 million businesses and households six days a week, drives approximately 1.1 billion miles a year, and consumes more than 125 million gallons of motor fuel annually, we are in a unique position to demonstrate to the public and other businesses the growing viability and positive environmental and energy-savings benefits of alternate-fuel technologies,” said Walter O’Tormey, Vice President, Engineering, U.S. Postal Service. O’Tormey spoke to an audience of nearly 100 industry representatives, environmentalists, and Postal Service employees.