Electric Delivery Vehicles of the Postal Service: USPS Office of Inspector General Report

The United States Postal Service (“USPS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a March 17th report titled:

Electric Delivery Vehicles and the Postal Service (“Report”)

Report RISC-WP-22-003.

OIG states that an objective of the Report is to:

. . . identify opportunities and challenges for the Postal Service in adopting electric delivery vehicles.

USPS is stated to employ 217,000 delivery vehicles to more than 135,000,000 addresses. Further, many of the vehicles are stated to be beyond their intended service life and expensive to operate and maintain. Therefore, USPS awarded a contract to produce and deploy 50,000 to 165,000 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles over 10 years.

Of particular relevance, USPS announced its intention to make at least 10 percent of such vehicles electric – but has not yet decided on the number of electric vehicles in its future fleet.

The OIG Report addresses issues such as:

• Accessibility of using electric vehicles as postal delivery vehicles
• Potential long-term cost savings of a new, electric delivery vehicle compared to a new, gas-powered vehicle
• Benchmark the electric vehicle experiences of other federal agencies, foreign posts, and companies in the logistics and shipping sector

Benefits of adopting electric vehicles into the USPS fleet are stated to include:

• Improves sustainability and environmental impacts
• Mechanically more reliable than gas-powered vehicles (requiring less maintenance)
• Lower energy costs

OIG states that electric vehicle technology is generally capable of meeting USPS needs. However, it also states in part:

. . . Due to the diverse nature of postal delivery routes, however, there are multiple variables that could affect electric vehicle performance on specific routes. These factors include route length (as vehicles must return to a facility to recharge) and temperature (as batteries can suffer from reduced performance in extremely hot or cold climates).

OIG also noted:

• Upfront cost of buying a new electric delivery vehicle is significantly higher than buying a new gasoline-powered vehicle
• Requirement of installation of chargers and related electrical infrastructure

As a result, OIG suggests that USPS consider prioritizing electric vehicle implementation where there is:

. . . the highest likelihood that electric vehicles would achieve cost savings over gasoline-powered vehicles.

Further, OIG notes that having a lower ratio of chargers to vehicles can cut down on upfront costs.

A copy of the OIG Report can be downloaded here.