The U.S. Postal Service delivery truck in your neighborhood will look different in the coming years.
The government agency that delivers mail and packages to Americans announced an initial $482 million deal Tuesday with Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense to produce a new generation of postal delivery vehicles the replace the aging but iconic Grumman Long Life Vehicle. The total undertaking is part of a multi-billion-dollar program.
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Over the next 10 years, the purpose-built, right-hand-drive Next Generation Delivery Vehicle will roll onto streets across the country. The postal service plans to purchase 50,000 to 165,000 of the new vehicles.
The first of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles are estimated to hit carrier routes in 2023, postal officials said.
“The vehicles will be equipped with either fuel-efficient internal combustion engines or battery electric powertrains and can be retrofitted to keep pace with advances in electric vehicle technologies,” the agency said in a statement.
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The new vehicles will have air conditioning and heating, improved ergonomics, and some of the most advanced vehicle technology — including 360-degree cameras, advanced braking and traction control, air bags, a front- and rear-collision avoidance system that includes visual, audio warning, and automatic braking. The new trucks were designed to have extra cargo capacity to better handle a growing number of packages from online retail growth.
The existing Grumman and other postal trucks that serve the Levittown area are deployed out of the Bristol, Langhorne, Levittown, and Morrisville post offices.
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The effort to find a replacement for neighborhood postal delivery vehicles started in 2015.
The U.S. Postal Service has 230,000 vehicles of different types.
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