11/9/2020 With the presidential election concluded and the end of 2020 fast approaching, the U.S. Postal Service still has not announced a contract for its next-generation mail truck.
The Postal Service is years behind on developing a new mail truck. It had planned to have the program launched by now but has been upended by drawn-out prototype evaluations, COVID-19 pandemic delays and a political battle over the post office’s efficiency and finances.
The deadline for three company teams to provide contract proposals to build the new truck passed in July. And the Postal Service told Trucks.com that it would begin evaluating the proposals and starting negotiations.
“An award(s) is currently planned for the production phase by the end of the calendar year,” the agency said in a statement to Trucks.com.
But a spokeswoman for the agency told Trucks.com this week that there is no new information on how contract talks are proceeding.
The Postal Service has said the contract could be worth more than $6 billion of business to build as many as 180,000 delivery vans. It also is looking at splitting the giant order between multiple parties.
My old LLV has been on the road since 15 March 1988. In two years the truck should be given to Iraq, or some other lucky country for their Postal service.