Highway Contract Route Fuel Price Index Program Effectiveness

Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of the March 2017 Highway Contract Route (HCR) baseline fuel price per gallon (ppg) procedural guidance for all HCR contracts awarded or renewed between June 1 and October 1, 2017. The U.S. Postal Service uses supplier-operated HCR to transport mail and equipment between plants, post offices, or other designated points that receive or dispatch mail. In fiscal year (FY) 2017, the Postal Service spent about $597 million on fuel for HCR suppliers, which is about 16 percent of the total contract value of almost $3.7 billion for about 13,500 HCR contracts.