According to the Office of Inspector General: The Postal Service has an acquisition strategy that has not been fully developed or implemented. The short-term plan developed in 2011 included acquiring 25,000 vehicles costing about $500 million to meet operational needs and replace some of the aging fleet. The long-term plan included purchasing the next generation of delivery vehicles beginning in FY 2017; however, this plan lacked details such as vehicle requirements, specifications, and green technology features. Despite 3 years of effort, the Postal Service has not approved or fully funded either plan.

In January 2014, the Postal Service received approval to purchase 3,509 vehicles to meet a contractual rural carrier vehicle commitment as a stop gap measure. The Postal Service will redeploy LLVs to rural routes by December 31, 2014 (FY 2015).

Additional requests are being considered in FY 2014 for more than 400 mixed collection and delivery vehicles (2-ton vehicles) needed to comply with California Air Resource Board (CARB) truck emissions regulations and to meet the increased need due to package delivery growth in the New York and Triboro districts.

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USPS posted  a notice on the Federal Business Opportunities website seeking suppliers for 400-500 Intermediate Walk Through Body Delivery Trucks.

USPS awarded a contract worth  $27,971,542.55 (on September 26, 2014) to longtime supplier Utilimaster Corporation located in  Bristol, Indiana.  According to the solicitation notice USPS  anticipated purchasing between 400-500 Intermediate Walk Through Body Delivery Trucks.

Deployment sites

USPS also awarded another contract worth $69,120,282.00 for  to Chrysler Group LLC for 3509 Carrier Route Vehicles

According to the solicitation via Federal Business Opportunities: This specification covers new, commercially available two·wheel drive carrier route vehicles, having 450 kg (1000 pounds) cargo + passenger minimum capacity. These vehicles will be used on multi-stop delivery, relay, collection, and parcel post routes.

Unless otherwise specified, the accessories and convenience items and devices fumished for each vehicle shall include, but not be limited to:
electric power point (a cigar lighter may be used as the power point), standard gauge package, dome light(s), fresh air type high capacity heater with dual defroster, dual sun visors, armrests, dual windshield wipers and waSher, signal lights, inside rearview mirror, dual outside rearview mirrors, power windows, Intermittent wipers, tilt steering wheel, and an electric hom. If available from the manufacturer, an OEM driver and passenger air bag supplemental restraint system shall be provided. Camera and Monitor System. see list of deployment sites

Last month (September USPS posted a Request-For-Information (RFI) notice looking for solutions on replacing the frame of Long Life Vehicles (see USPS’s latest solution for aging Long Life Vehicles–keep body, replace frame). As the OIG pointed out recently USPS is running out of time to replace its aging fleet. The $100 million price tag for the vehicles above is a drop in the bucket compared to  amount needed overall. It should be interesting to find out just how much the next round of vehicles will cost.