The U.S. Postal Service’s $6 billion deal with Oshkosh Defense for the new NGDV mail truck has officially been called into serious question by the Environmental Protection Agency. A letter sent earlier this week complains about the terrible fuel economy of the trucks and strongly urges the Postal Service to “not proceed to a decision.”
The move is a push by the Biden administration to reallocate the projected estimated $11.3 billion replacement cost of the USPS’s fleet toward new and different vehicles that would offer a much better fuel economy and air quality improvement. The letter says the current deal with Oshkosh Defense falls short of that.
At this point you’re probably saying to yourself, “It’s a brand new truck. How bad could the mileage be?” Well, dear reader, it’s dogshit bad.
The EPA claims the Oshkosh replacement vehicle – which will account for one-third of the government’s entire vehicle fleet – only offers a “0.4-mile-per-gallon fuel economy improvement over the agency’s current trucks.” You need to keep in mind that the current fleet is 30 years old. This shit was developed during the Reagan administration, and the new option is barely better. The letter goes on to complain that only 10 percent of the new fleet would be fully electric.
According to The Washington Post, the new, gas powered trucks would only get 8.6 mpg when the vehicle’s air conditioning is running. In the report, electric vehicle experts say industry standard for a gasoline-powered vehicle is between 12 and 14 mpg. In other words, dogshit gas mileage.
For fun, let’s take a look at the EPA gas mileage ratings of a few different cars. If you were to chuck mail out of the bed of a Ram TRX, you’d be doing the environment a favor, because its EPA rating is 12 mpg combined. Say you were a very well-off letter carrier. You could hop in your Bugatti Chiron and fling mail out the window. You’d still be doing better than Oshkosh, because you’d be getting 11 mpg combined. Let’s say you are in love with your 1994 Jeep Wrangler with the 4.0 I6 and three-speed automatic transmission. You’d still manage 14 mpg!
This is all a very long-winded way to say that the new USPS truck is a dismal failure from an environmental standpoint.
But wait, folks, there’s more. The EPA estimates these trucks will use 110 million gallons of fuel annually – which is a whole bunch. They also say the USPS paid Oshkosh $482 million without doing any sort of research or analysis.
So, right now it remains to be seen what the USPS’s next move will be. Good thing the only real loser in all of this is every single American taxpayer – that is unless you’re an Oshkosh Defense executive.