- While the contract that was recently awarded to Oshkosh Defense came at the end of a five-year search, it still might not be the end of the road.
- Two Democrats from Ohio and one from California want to investigate how Oshkosh was chosen and why only 10 percent of the new mail trucks might be electric.
- The USPS said it would like to increase that 10 percent number, but it needs more money from Congress to make that happen.
The five-year search for a new, electric U.S. Postal Service van might not be completely over just yet. While the USPS made a decision last month to award a $482 million contract to Oshkosh Defense for the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV), questions about the way the company was selected as well as about how the new vehicles will fit into the federal government's push for all-electric vehicles in its fleet leave a few questions unanswered.
The two items are connected, but let's start with the Oshkosh question. The $482 million is just the next crucial step towards designing a NGDV in what could end up being a $6 billion contract over 10 years as Oshkosh delivers somewhere between 50,000 and 165,000 vehicles. That’s a fair amount of money, but Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently told Congress that the USPS might only ask for 10 percent of the NGDVs to be all-electric models. The remaining NGDVs would be gas-powered, like the majority of today’s postal vehicles, but the new models would have low-emission powertrains.
The 10 percent number EV was enough for two Congressional representatives from Ohio, Marcy Kaptur and Tim Ryan, and Jared Huffman from California (all Democrats) to put forward a resolution that calls on Congress to investigate how the Oshkosh contract was awarded. In part, it "urges the United States Postal Service to freeze the recently awarded contract to purchase 165,000 new vehicles until an expedited review is conducted to determine there was no inappropriate political influence" and to ensure the contract is in line with the Paris Climate Accord and President Biden's climate-crisis executive order.
The resolution notes that the USPS currently uses a civilian fleet of more than 200,000 delivery vehicles and that almost 140,000 of them are the classic Grumman Long Life Vehicles (LLVs) that were put into service between 1987 and 1994. People might like the look of these LLVs, but the resolution makes clear they are "aging, fuel inefficient, and carbon emitting.” They were designed to last just 24 years and all are over their limit by now, causing some to catch fire along with other mechanical issues. Since they all need to be replaced, making just 10 percent of the NGDVs electric is not in line with President Biden’s push to electrify the federal vehicle fleet, the representatives said. Workhorse, an electric vehicle startup that was also in the running for the USPS contract, is located in Ohio and could benefit if there’s a shift to more EVs.
The USPS said that it would like to procure more EV delivery trucks, but that it needs more money from Congress to make that happen.
"The challenge remains the Postal Service's billions in annual operating losses, which is why we welcome and are interested in any support from Congress that advances the goal of a Postal Service vehicle fleet with zero emissions, and the necessary infrastructure required to operate it,” the USPS told Trucks.com. "With the right level of support, the majority of the Postal Service's fleet can be electric by the end of the decade.”
Whatever their powertrains, Oshkosh’s first NGDVs could start delivering mail in 2023.