Here's a story that might send angry chills through you: the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) flexfuel experiment is revealing some terrible results.

The Postal Service has been testing out a cleaner vehicle fleet for many years. It is today made up of over 30,000 vehicles like hybrids (pictured) and ones that run on CNG or biodiesel, among many other gasoline alternatives. The USPS is also trying other ways to save fuel, like better delivery routes. As Sustainable Business reports, though, the USPS' flexfuel vehicles not only saw a decreased fuel efficiency of 29 percent, but also ended up forcing the USPS to use 1.5m gallons more gasoline than before. Why? Because the USPS couldn't buy and use E85 everywhere it wanted to and so the flexfuel engines - which were larger than the ones they replaced - were thirsty and burned more fuel. The USPS has declared that it will now only use E85-capable vehicles in places where the biofuel is "competitively priced and conveniently available," a USPS study says (see page 17 of that PDF for easy-to-understand maps of what went wrong here).

[Source: USPS, Sustainable Business via EVWorld]

I'm not entirely sure just how much our editor Sebastian will like this general comparison, but when discussing transportation and energy issues both he and the somewhat controversial environmentalist George Monbiot like to say that despite all of the advances in alternative energy sources, there is simply no substitute for minimizing your vehicle/energy usage. In that vein, the United States Postal Service will be implementing a new digital map system to calculate more efficient delivery routes.

The system is called the Carrier Optimal Routing (COR) solution and was developed by RouteSmart Technologies in partnership with the USPS. In addition to calculating the most efficient routes available, it has the ability to make route adjustments whenever necessary. RouteSmart's optimization algorithms take advantage of NAVTEQ's digital map system. Although the USPS does not reveal a launch date, they say the system will be deployed nationwide.

[Source: NAVTEQ]

General Motors has put another hydrogen vehicle on public streets for testing.

The U.S. Post Office on Wednesday took delivery a GM HydroGen3 fuel cell minivan that will be used on routes in Irvine, California. The Post Office already has a fuel-cell delivery vehicle in Washington D.C. conducting cold-weather tests. Read about the special delivery of the hydrogen vehicle and see more photos after the jump.

Editor's note: to read all of Derrick's coverage of Ecofest, click here.



Overall, the 18th annual Ecofest didn't blow me away, but there were certainly some cars I was glad to see up close and some people I was happy to chat with about the state of alternative-fuel vehicles and the projects they're researching and developing. Most notable were the University of Toronto's Blue Sky Solar Race Car Project, the Vehicle Design Summit's human-solar hybrid and the Bicy-taxis. There were, however, other exhibitors that put up some good displays, but for one reason or another they didn't get the star treatment with their own post.

Toyota came proudly showing their colors with the biggest of all displays. On hand were the Prius, the Camry Hybrid, the Highlander Hybrid, the Lexus RX 400h and GS 450h. Unfortunately, the LS hybrid was no where to be seen.

Ford was the only other major automotive manufacturer present, but their exhibit (if you can call it that) only consisted of a single Escape Hybrid parked to the side of the exhibitor area with flyers under the windshield wipers. No spokesman or representative was available to answer any questions.

Myers brought an NmG that was dressed up in high-end audio equipment by Stereo Upgrade. Back in June, Ray Holan provided AutoblogGreen readers with an in-depth analysis of the NmG which can be found here.

The U.S. Postal Service brought two "clean-air" delivery trucks. A gentleman in a USPS uniform told me that one was ran on CNG while the other was a full electric vehicle. He wasn't able to give me any details on either vehicle, but told me to go to usps.com for additional information. A few searches on the site didn't pull up any stats on either of these particular vehicles, so I'll be sure to check back again and see if I can find anything.

Another interesting vehicle was pieced together by Chip Beam and Larry Shilling, the founders of Beaver Energy. The duo showed an old SUV that had been converted to run off wood chips. You can't miss the behemoth fuel feeding system set up in the rear of the vehicle. I wasn't able to get many details about the truck and they don't yet have a website, but I did get the contact information of both men, so you'll most likely be hearing about them in the near future. Do keep an eye out for a feature on them on Discovery's Science Channel. Mr. Shilling mentioned they'll be airing a segment featuring the vehicle in the next month or so.

There was also a BMW 524td running a vegetable oil tank on display, however, the owner of the vehicle was nowhere to be found.

In all, the most optimistic sign of being able to live in a peak oil future was the general positive reaction I observed from the public's interest in their near-term alternatives to fossil fuels.

You'll find additional pictures of display vehicles by clicking the continue link.

The United State Postal Service announced yesterday that they would be testing an electric hybrid delivery vehicle in the Boston area. The van was converted by Azure Dynamics Incorporated, Boston.

The USPS uses about 125 million gallons of motor fuel a year, Vice President of Engineering Walter O'Torney said at the announcement ceremony. If the hybrid van gets the expected 30 to 50 percent better fuel efficiency and the USPS adds them to their fleet of 200,000 vehicles, the overall decrease in fuel use will be quite great. The USPS already operates about 30,000 alternative fuel vehicles, including CNG, propane, ethanol, biodiesel and electric vehicles. The USPS logo on the Boston hybrid van has been updated to read "We Deliver Clean Air For You." Nice.

[Source: USPS via Green Car Congress]