Those familiar mail trucks seen on streets for years will someday be a thing of the past.
The United States Postal Service has plans to modernize its fleet with what it’s calling Next Generation Delivery Vehicles. It’s the most dramatic change to its fleet in three decades, USPS said.
The Postal Service has a 10-year contact with Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense to design and manufacture the new vehicles. The contract is the first part of a multibillion-dollar effort to replace the current fleet, which is one of the world’s largest, with more than 230,000 vehicles in every class.
Many of its current vehicles have been in service for 30 years.
The new vehicles will have air conditioning, 360-degree cameras, air bags, traction control and collision-avoidance systems.
Over the next 10 years, 50,000 to 165,000 vehicles will be delivered.
The Postal Service says the upgrade will reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
“The vehicles will be equipped with either fuel-efficient internal combustion engines or battery electric powertrains and can be retrofitted to keep pace with advances in electric vehicle technologies,” USPS said in a news release Wednesday.
The first new vehicles could appear on routes as soon as 2023.
Read more about the new vehicles at this link.
Cox Media Group
