The world is going wild for electric vehicles, but not the United States Postal Service. The agency said earlier this week it is moving forward with a plan to replace its current mail trucks with a new fleet powered almost entirely by internal combustion engines. The $6 billion contract with defense contractor Oshkosh calls for up to 165,000 mail trucks to be delivered over the next 10 years. The vehicles get between 8.6 and 14.7 miles per gallon.
The decision has been met with frustration by many, including the Environmental Protection Agency, which has repeatedly spoken out about the effects a gasoline-based fleet could have on the environment. But however obvious the EPA and President Joe Biden’s administration believe the detrimental effects of such trucks are, the outcome of any debate over what to purchase was pretty much guaranteed to be the outcome we now have.
The Postal Service’s process to consider such a large purchase began in 2015, at a time when EVs were still considered a niche curiosity. There was no argument that the mail trucks in use then, made by Grumman and known as Long Life Vehicles, were in desperate need of replacement. That need is so much greater today due to many risks most Americans are unaware of. Too many of the LLVs still on the road today have no airbags, no air conditioning, and are increasingly prone to catching fire. They have nothing resembling modern driver safety features.
