Washington, DC., USA
“Who could imagine? And, they have their nerve to call it: ‘The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle’?”
“And it’s not even electric!” states architecture critic Christian Narkiewicz-Laine.
“How’s that for far-reaching—visionary?”
“I call it: absolute road pollution.”
After years of delays and deliberations, the U.S. Postal Service has just awarded a 10-year $6b contract to Oshkosh Defense to produce the next mail truck.
The Postal Service said the program would launch “the most dramatic modernization of the USPS fleet in three decades.”
“Dramatic?” “Modernization?”
“How about ‘mediocre’ or ‘retardataire’?” continues Narkiewicz-Laine.
The Postal Service said its efforts to replace the existing mail truck fleet would create vehicle orders that run into the billions of dollars over the next decade.
The new vehicles will be a purpose-built, right-hand-drive vehicle for mail and package delivery.
Currently, the design only allows the vehicle to be equipped with an internal combustion engine.
However, the Postal Service has “asked” Oshkosh to maybe ensure that the electric truck can be retrofitted to keep pace with electric vehicle technology advances.
Oshkosh will assemble 50,000 to 165,000 mail trucks over 10 years.
“The NGDV program expands our capacity for handling more package volume and supports our carriers with cleaner and more efficient technologies, more amenities, and greater comfort and security as they deliver every day on behalf of the American people,” said Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General and USPS Chief Executive.
“That’s just absolute and amazing rubbish when the Postmaster describes his notion of what is a ‘New Generation Delivery Vehicle or NGDV’,” continues Narkiewicz-Laine.”
“Internal combustion engines are not cleaner and more efficient technologies.”
“And what’s wrong with mandating that these vehicles be immediately equipped with a battery-electric powertrain? What is he waiting for the year 3050?”
“In any other country, the government would have tapped the best car designers in their countries, the most up-to-date, ultra-latest technologies they could find to produce the most outstanding, exemplary public design possible.”
“The US Postal Service could have invited America’s foremost, most forward-thinking automobile designer Chris Bangle.”
“No, not here; not in America.”
“This vehicle was not even ‘designed’ by designers, but by some backroom, visionless, paper-pushing bureaucrats more interested in maximizing a profit bottom-line,” summarizes NarkiewiczLaine.
“Postmaster General DeJoy: North Korea would have done a better job.”
The first of the new mail trucks will enter service in 2023.
USPS’s Next Generation Delivery Vehicles
Designers: Oshkosh Defense
Client: United States Post Office Service
