With the holiday gift-giving season in full swing, the U.S. Postal Service hopes upgrades to its aging delivery vehicle fleet will boost its delivery times.
Next-Gen Delivery Vehicles Hit the Roads
This is the first holiday season the agency's all-electric next-generation delivery vehicles (NGDV) will be used.
According to the Federal News Network, the vehicles have twice the cargo capacity of the familiar 30-year-old model most widely used by delivery drivers.
Electric NGDVs will be on routes in Athens, Georgia, and Stockton, California.
The Federal News Network reported that USPS officials told reporters in a recent call that a nationwide overhaul of its facilities will allow the agency to handle up to 60 million packages a day this holiday season, which would surpass previous records.
Trouble Ahead for the New Delivery Vehicle Contract?
Donald Trump's transition team is considering scrapping the postal service's contracts to electrify its delivery fleet entirely, according to three sources familiar with the plans, Reuters first reported.
If true, the plans would align with the president-elect's campaign promise to cut climate policies. Trump has said President Joe Biden's efforts to decarbonize the U.S. transportation sector are unnecessary and potentially damaging to the economy, Reuters reported.
In 2021, Biden issued an executive order asking the U.S. government to buy only EVs for the federal fleet by 2035.
While the USPS was exempt from the order, a spokesperson has previously told Government Fleet that the Postal Service hopes to follow the same precedent.
The sources told Reuters that Trump's team is reviewing how it can unwind the agency's contracts, including its NGDV contract with Oshkosh Defense and additional contracts with Ford.
WSPA reported that the initial investment between Oshkosh and the Postal Service came in at $482 million.
The vehicles are being built at the company's South Carolina manufacturing facility. WSPA spoke to South Carolina lawmakers about Reuters' report.
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell called the report 'overblown', saying he doesn't believe jobs at the facility will be lost.
That comes amid a recent report by the Washington Post that Oshkosh had only delivered 93 NGDVs by November, well short of its 3,000 it anticipated having completed by late 2024.
WaPo reported its findings from nearly 21,000 government and internal company records and conversations with over a dozen people familiar with the trucks’ manufacturing and design process.
Its reporting shows that Oshkosh ran into manufacturing delays, with some anonymous sources saying engineers struggled to calibrate the mail trucks’ airbags.
Additionally, sources stated that the vehicles’ body and internal components were unable to contain water leaks to an alarming degree.
The Post also reported that the South Carolina facility can only build one truck per day, far from Oshkosh's hopes that it could build at least 80 vehicles a day by now.
Sources said an official with Oshkosh attempted to inform the Postal Service of the issues but was blocked by corporate superiors.
Oshkosh stated that is is still committed to being a 'strong and reliable partner,' and that it remains on track to meet delivery deadlines according to the Post.
