Earthjustice Responds to Potential Trump Threat to Postal Service’s Electric Mail Truck Fleet

Amid reports from Reuters that an incoming Trump administration plans to issue an executive order unravelling the contract for USPS’s popular new fleet of electric mail trucks, Earthjustice issued the following statement:

“A president simply doesn’t have this kind of unilateral power. The funds to electrify mail trucks have been allocated under law by Congress, and the Postal Service is an independent agency. Not only would this be an unlawful breach of power, but it also undermines regulatory certainty for the American manufacturers who have contracts in place to build the country’s electric mail trucks,” said Adrian Martinez, deputy managing attorney on Earthjustice’s Right To Zero campaign. “Does Trump really want to put auto workers in places like South Carolina and Missouri out of work over this?”

The Postal Service is using $3 billion in funds allocated by Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act to begin electrifying its mail delivery fleet. A 10-year contract was signed with Oshkosh in March of 2021, with the initial order for 50,000 vehicles placed in 2022, and production launched in 2023. Oshkosh built a factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina that employs roughly a thousand auto workers to build the new USPS fleet. Ford is also manufacturing electric mail delivery trucks for the Postal Service at its Kansas City, Missouri factory.

Electric United States Postal Service trucks on display at the Postal Service Headquarters on December 20, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)

Electric mail trucks are now delivering mail in Georgia and Colorado, and receiving an enthusiastic response from letter carriers and the American public for their safety features, efficiency, and comfort. Of the 106,000 mail trucks USPS plans to purchase in the next few years, 75% of 60,000 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles will be electric models, and 46% or more of 46,000 commercial off-the-shelf mail trucks will be electric models.

USPS’s peers in package and mail delivery are also electrifying their delivery fleets. Amazon has deployed over 20,000 electric delivery vans built by Rivian at a factory in Illinois. Fedex employs 7,136 electric vehicles in its fleet. Delivery vans and trucks are especially prime for electrification, as they travel short distances each day, they tend to idle as they traverse streets, and they park at night in centralized locations, making charging them easy.

Electrifying the full USPS fleet would prevent the U.S. from burning 135 million gallons of combustion fuel every year, delivering cleaner air in every neighborhood across the country.