Postal Service financials improve, but big losses continue

[Omaha Steve]

14. The USPS tried to end Saturday delivery, US Congress wouldn't allow it

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0206/USPS-ends-Saturday-letter-delivery.-How-much-fuel-will-it-save

So how much money can it expect to save by scrapping Saturday delivery? Overall, the Postal Service expects to save $2 billion a year out of an annual operating budget of more than $70 billion. A big part of that saving presumably is labor costs. Another savings is fuel.

The Postal Service owns and operates the world's largest civilian vehicle fleet with more than 213,000 cars, trucks, and vans that travel 1.2 billion miles each year. In fiscal year 2010, USPS vehicles consumed about 146 million gasoline gallon equivalents (GGE), or about 700 GGE if you include contract vehicles. The cost of fueling and maintaining USPS vehicles runs about $1 billion a year.