Posted on 02/08/2022 9:05:40 AM PST by rktman
The U.S. Postal Service defended its plan to replace the majority of its delivery vehicles with gas-powered trucks while electrifying some of its fleet.
“Our commitment to an electric fleet remains ambitious given the pressing vehicle and safety needs of our aging fleet as well as our dire financial condition,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement on Sunday. “The proposed action, which we are evaluating under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), includes an initial order plan for 5,000 electric vehicles, and the flexibility to increase the number of electric vehicles introduced should additional funding become available.”
The USPS, which has come under fire for the proposal, said it was working towards the electrification of its delivery fleet “as quickly as resources and infrastructure will allow.” The agency said it was committed to working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress as it moves forward with its fleet replacement.
The EPA sent a scathing letter to the USPS Wednesday over its plan, saying that it represented a lost opportunity to lead on climate policy. The White House said the postal service could be faced with congressional or federal court intervention if the plan wasn’t reconsidered in a separate letter.
“Absent such funding, we must make fiscally responsible decisions that result in the needed introduction of safer and environmentally cleaner vehicles for the men and women who deliver America’s mail,” he continued.
The USPS unveiled a deal with Wisconsin-based automaker Oshkosh to produce its “next generation delivery vehicles” over the course of the next decade in February 2021. The deal called for just 10% of its 165,000-vehicle-fleet to be replaced with electric trucks while the remainder would be replaced with fuel-efficient models.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycallernewsfoundation.org ...
An electric fleet would be pointless if none of the postal stations were set up to charge them.
Poor old USPS. Used as a jobs program for blacks which has resulted in massive inefficiencies, tries to be economical with this purchase.
The USPS has found ev’s wanting and has decided on what will work. Now the left, the woke crowd and the environazis are giving them heck. They are going to force USPS to over pay for tools not well suited for purpose.
And we all will pay for that.
Leftist leaders know what they’re doing. The naive followers don’t.
The irony of a government agency complaining EV’s are too expensive, there are not enough places to charge them, and they are not reliable.
bwahahahahahahaha!!!!
No kidding.
And once this leaves the headlines, and the USPS “compromises” and buys 50% instead of 10% replacements with EV, over the years, the maintenance, unreliability, increased expense of repairs will only show up in “operational budgets” which we will never see, but will wonder why funds allocated for the USPS go up, and up and up.
It is the “over pay for tools not well suited for purpose” as you stated in your post.
But the die will be cast, and as another poster stated, there will be massive money to buy chargers for post office.
I remember when they got rid of the jeeps and got the LLVs.
They were to be ran on CNG. Never did run right. Post Office finally took the CNG fill stations out, and gave everyone a credit card to buy gasoline for the llv. Waste of money.
Ever feel like the forcing of us to become obeying sheep under NWO/communism has really speeded up?
It’s become obvious how the left and some rights are all for it. They can use anything to make us obey if we want to live any kind of life. Virus’, transportation, jobs, food, family gatherings, getting dental work, and so on. You get the drift?
Anything!
Here is the latest on the Post Office vaxx mandate madness:
.gov spends decades weighing the PO down with insane mandates of various kinds, and then wonders why it cannot break even....
The “experts” “never see it coming”.
“And once this leaves the headlines, and the USPS “compromises” and buys 50% instead of 10% replacements with EV, over the years, the maintenance, unreliability, increased expense of repairs “
Thanks for noting that EV’s are more reliable and have lower maintenance costs.
Thanks.
Wasn’t my point, though I think you know that.
I am not anti-EV.
I am anti-government subsidized boondoggle EV.
I guess the first question is: how many miles does a mail car drive each day, at least on average? Obviously the EV mail car wouldn't need as large of a battery as the F-150 Lightning (a pickup) I'm thinking about getting, because mail cars won't carry that much weight. But it has to carry a lot more than, say, the Ford Mach-e is meant to regularly carry and thus needs a higher capacity battery.
So if the average route is 100 miles and the weight carried is 100 pounds, that's sounds do-able for an EV to be cost-effective. But if we're talking about 200 miles per day carrying 500 pounds of mail, 6 days per week (read: lots of large discharges and recharges each day, not just a normal consumer driving an EV like that only a few times per year) then we're probably talking about wearing out the battery and probably the electric motors faster than is cost-effective.
I'm not anti-EV. I said I'm interested in getting one myself. I'm just skeptical in seeing the EV as the ultimate solution in all situations -- especially when the gubment gets involved. And that's not even getting into the yuge demand on power grids if all mail carriers all over the country charged their cars in the evening at the same time.
Maybe EV's would be do-able in zip codes with routes no longer than 50 or 60 miles and in the south so that the home station would have solar panels to charge up solar batteries to put into the cars (at least 75% of the time or so, it doesn't have to be an all or none decision to be effective).
If I was on the USPS' engineering team I'd have to answer those types of questions before I gave the EV idea my thumbs up, and even then only for the post offices EV's would be efficient at. But then, I'm just a dumb programmer, not a smart politician.
There are many places where the USPS delivers the mail, but not as many places where there is service available for electric vehicles. Also, there are places where the mail is delivered, but weather conditions may be unsuitable for use of electric vehicles. And, of course, this calls for more charging stations & more availability of increasingly pricey electrical power sources. This seems to be a a problem even without an increase in EVs. Not hard to understand why USPS might be reluctant to convert over to EVs.
“probably the electric motors faster than is cost-effective.”
Lasts longer and cheaper to overhaul than gasoline engine. UBER drivers are going over 300k with no maintenance.
Why do we need daily delivery of junk mail?
“And that’s not even getting into the yuge demand on power grids if all mail carriers all over the country charged their cars in the evening at the same time.”
We presently have about 20% unused capacity at night.
Is that a national number or your part of Texas?
Again, if I had a role in the decision I'd have to research what it means locally. If the post offices in one are supplied power by a utility that has a lot of unused capacity at night I'd be open to EV carriers there, provided there aren't other roadblocks like really long routes that tax the demand of 75% battery capacity (charging at most to 90% and draining at most to 15% is what I read as the recommended charge levels to make the battery last longer).
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