By Michelle Costa

The United States Postal Service is feeling the pressure to keep the budget out of trouble. In 2007, transportation cost the Post Office $6.5 billion dollars. That's $500 million more than the year before.

For every penny the price of gas goes up, it costs the Postal Service $8 million. That's a lot of money. I tried to keep up with one mail carrier and trust me, it wasn't easy.

These shoes were made for walking.

"This route is about six miles a day," said Eric Hansen, USPS Mail Carrier.

Eric Hansen's glad he's got a flat route, unlike some of the other 52 mail carriers in Pocatello. And even in the heat, this 13-year veteran's loving his job.

"You deal with it. You drink a lot of water," said Hansen.

Hansen is among the thousands employed by the Postal Service, which has the largest civilian fleet of vehicles in the country: about 200,000 motor vehicles, which means a lot of gas usage and a need to reduce costs.

"We're making our routes more efficient, using our employees more efficiently to see if we can't keep those costs lower," said Bruce Wiese, Pocatello Postmaster.

They're not firing any employees, but by the same token, they're not hiring anyone either, despite the increase of deliveries by a 1.5 million per year.

The Postal Service is trying to make some profit by raising rates, something they can do again next May.

"This year's increase was one penny for 1st class stamps, but at the same time, the price for 2nd ounce stamps went down by a penny," said Wiese.

And, by offering carriers some suggestions.

"Take time to get somewhere, don't drive fast, we have specific parking instructions, we walk a lot," said Wiese.

For Hansen, it's not the gas prices concerning him so much.

"My biggest phobia is being dog bit. For whatever reason, they hate the mailman," said Hansen.

The price of gas is obviously affecting everyone, including us at Local News 8. Being a reporter, we need to drive all the time. So, maybe I should trade in my shoes for some more comfortable ones.

The Post Office does have the ability to buy in bulk so they can get gasoline and diesel fuel at a discount. But, these costs are causing them to reduce costs and change use patterns to reduce the need for fuel.