Ever notice all of those Post Office mini-trucks cruising their routes?
Bet you have since the USPS is often reported to operate the largest fleet of vehicles in the country (maybe the world).
Assume that each those vehicles is on the road 6 to 8 hours per day; probably covering 76 to 100 miles per day. That’s 24,000 to 36,000 miles per year (2 or 3 times an average family vehicle); At a charitable 15 MPG — that’s about 2000 gallons of gas per year.
At a Prius-like 45 MPG, that number goes down to about 650 gallons annually — 1,350 gallons less per year. Multiply that times the number of vehicles in the fleet (thousands), and we’re talking MILLIONS of gallons of gas.
Rather than coaxing consumers to buy hybrids one at a time, why not convert the entire USPS fleet in one fell swoop?
More broadly, why not legislate that all government vehicles be hybrids, flex-fuel, or some other energy saving alternative. Makes sense to me.
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Side note: According to Phrases.org “fell swoop” means “suddenly; in a single action”. They say that Shakespeare either coined the phrase, or gave it circulation, in Macbeth, 1605:
MACDUFF: [on hearing that his family and servants have all been killed]
All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
The Homa Files 
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