The United States Postal Service is now one of the businesses that are hurting due to high gas prices. 

Donnie Mumford has been delivering the mail for nearly two decades and this year he's doing a lot more of the delivering on foot. "I do the whole block before I move the vehicle, that's a gas saver right there."
 
Operating the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the country, the post office is able to buy discounted fuel for its more than 200,000 trucks. Even when the price of gas goes up just one cent, it costs the post office $8 million.

"Last year we spent $1.7 billion dollars for gasoline and diesel. It is gonna go up by about $600 million dollars this year, so this fuel increase has really put some pressure on us," said Pat Donahoe, a USPS Deputy Postmaster General.

While some of their competitors have already raised prices to make up the difference, its not that simple for the post office, they'd have to get regulatory approval to do it, and they say they'd rather not do that, because the price of stamps just went up. So instead the post office is focusing on being more efficient.

"One manager said they actually realigned routes so carriers don't make left turns as frequently so as not to idle the vehicle as frequently," said Luvenia Hyson.

The post office is also using GPS systems to plot more fuel efficient delivery routes. Where possible, they're adding walking and bicycle routes. Though some of the work starts before the mail leaves the Brentwood Station, certain delivery runs are happening later so more mail can be crammed into the trucks reducing the number of vehicles needed on the road.

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