Amid Criticism that its Initial Order of New Delivery Vehicles, did Not have enough Electric Vehicles (EVs), the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced Thursday, that it would Double its Inital Purchase of EVs from about 5,000 to more than 10,000, out of 50,000, Total New Vehicles.
The News follows a USPS Watchdog Report, which said that although a move to Electric Delivery Vehicles, would come at a Higher Initial Cost than Purchasing Gas-powered Trucks, they would largely be capable of, meeting USPS needs, would be far more Sustainable than Existing Vehicles, and may eventually Save money for the service.
USPS's current Fleet consists of more than 140,000 Delivery Trucks that are, at Newest, 27 years old, and Regularly Require Repair.
However, USPS has announced that its Existing Contract for up to 165,000 New Vehicles will consist of 10% Electric Vehicles, and 90% Gas-powered, a Plan over which Congressional Democrats have sought an Investigation.
Last year, the USPS agreed to build between 50,000 and 165,000 New Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) Mail Trucks, with the Plan to Replace more than 140,000 existing Delivery Trucks, many of which have been on the road for more than 20 years, over the Next Decade.
On March 17th, USPS’s Office of the Inspector General, reported in a Policy Paper, that the Electric Trucks could save the Postal Service Money, “in the long term”, but under most Office of Inspector General (OIG) Projections, it will take the better part of 20 years for USPS to see Cost Savings favorable to Gas Vehicles. If the use of the Current-Gen Vehicles is any indication, Next-Generation Vehicles may well meet that target.
The USPS, began buying the current Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV) Trucks in 1987, with the Last of the about 146,000 Trucks purchased in 1994. The Trucks were originally rated to be on the Road for 24 years. Their Lifespan has been a question before the OIG for more than dozen years now, June 2010, it published a Report entitled “Too Costly to Keep On Truckin?” In a Summary, OIG said that it Cost about $524 million to Fix LLVs in 2009, and that it would Save the Service $342 million to just buy New Trucks, rather than trying to Repair the aging Fleet.
The big Problem with the Next-Gen EVs Fleet, OIG found, isn’t the Vehicles themselves: They tend to be cheaper to maintain and operate than their Predecessors. "Electric vehicles are generally more mechanically reliable than gas-powered vehicles and would require less maintenance," the Report reads. "Energy costs will be lower for electric vehicles, as using electricity to power an electric vehicle is cheaper than using gasoline."
The Issue is in the Initial Vosts: Upfront Cost of buying New Evs "is significantly higher" than those of Gas-powered Vehicles, the Report says, and a significant Investment must go into Installing Electrical Infrastructure and EVs Chargers.
As a Long-Term Strategy, the move is projected as a Cost-Saver, but only after more than a Dozen years of use, and only under Specific Circumstances. OIG’s baseline Model shows No Break-Even point, where Costs of Gas Vehicles and EVs would be Equal, over a 20 year period. The Cost of an EV is Projected to be 11% Higher than Cost of a Gas-powered Vehicle under that Model, with prior Costs then today.
“Our model demonstrates that the total cost of deploying an electric vehicle instead of a gas vehicle over 20 years is closely tied to the length of a delivery route,” said the Report. “The longer the route, the more money saved. If the route is long enough, the cost savings will make up for the higher upfront costs of acquiring an electric vehicle and related charging infrastructure.”
An OIG Projection expects that Electric Vehicles would lead to 8.4% Lower Costs than projected Gas Vehicles, over 20 years, if use was targeted for Longer Routes over 40 miles. But a Break-Even Point wouldn’t come until year 17 of the Fleet Changeover. That Break-EvenPpoint drifts closer when factoring the potential effects of Congressional Subsidies, which OIG says the Post Office is pursuing.
In February 2021, USPS awarded an Initial $482 million Contract with Oshkosh Defense, for the Assembly of 50,000 to 165,000 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, with Non-Union Workers, with the ability to Order more, over 10 years. Last week, House Democrats Submitted a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, urging the Postal Service to make a Larger Commitment to EVs. "The Postal Service failed to abide properly by National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements," the Lawmakers wrote. "Instead, it moved forward with an almost-exclusively fossil fuel powered fleet procurement, which flies in the face of the commitments the United States has made to address the climate crisis and counters the long-term economic interests of your own agency."
"We urge you to reverse this procurement decision and accept immediately the recommendations made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to address the issues with the Postal Service’s vehicle procurement plan," they continued, adding: "The Postal Service is putting itself in economic risk and at a significant competitive disadvantage by spending its money on the technology of the past rather than investing in the technology of the future."
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Defended the Plan last month, saying that the 10% EV Production is the best the Postal Service can do, given the Agency's “dire financial condition.” “Our commitment to an electric fleet remains ambitious given the pressing vehicle and safety needs of our aging fleet as well as our dire financial condition,” DeJoy wrote in a Statement. “The proposed action, which we are evaluating under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), includes an initial order plan for 5,000 electric vehicles, and the flexibility to increase the number of electric vehicles introduced should additional funding become available."
"Absent such funding, we must make fiscally responsible decisions that result in the needed introduction of safer and environmentally cleaner vehicles for the men and women who deliver America’s mail," DeJoy added.
On Thursday, USPS changed Course, announcing that it would Double its ERVs Production to 10,019 Vehicles. “Today’s order demonstrates, as we have said all along, that the Postal Service is fully committed to the inclusion of electric vehicles as a significant part of our delivery fleet even though the investment will cost more than an internal combustion engine vehicle. That said, as we have also stated repeatedly, we must make fiscally prudent decisions in the needed introduction of a new vehicle fleet," DeJoy said in a statement. "We will continue to look for opportunities to increase the electrification of our delivery fleet in a responsible manner, consistent with our operating strategy, the deployment of appropriate infrastructure, and our financial condition, which we expect to continue to improve as we pursue our plan.”
"Since I came on board a year and a half ago, we have continuously evaluated and adjusted our vehicle purchase strategy based on our future network initiatives, ongoing review of BEV application to our operational strategy, and our financial outlook as we undertake our ongoing implementation of the Delivering for America plan," DeJoy said. "Based upon this work and our improving outlook, we have determined that increasing our initial electric vehicle purchase from 5,000 to 10,019 makes good sense from an operational and financial perspective."
"Many of our 190,000 delivery vehicles on the road are more than 30 years old and lack basic safety features which are standard in most vehicles today," he added. "The safety of the men and women of the Postal Service is our number one priority, and they have waited long enough for the NGDV. We owe it to our carriers and the communities we serve to provide safer, more efficient vehicles to fulfill our universal service obligation to deliver to 161 million addresses in all climates and topographies six days per-week.”
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