Could the United States Postal Service soon replace the familiar vehicles used to deliver mail throughout the country? The Wall Street Journal reports that this organization is pursuing a possible plan to phase in around 180,000 new trucks to take over from the older vehicles that have been in use for more than 20 years. As the source describes, this shows the way that an agency's infrastructural needs can change as their services evolve.
Part of the reason for this overhaul is the woeful fuel inefficiency of many of the older trucks, which cost the USPS more than $539 million last year alone. It has also set aside an additional $400 million in its budget over last year's to try and improve its fleet. It has instituted a Request for Information to seek out proposals for replacing the trucks on its official website.
Another reason for the new trucks is that the USPS has increasingly shifted to processing heavier packages rather than typical lightweight standard mail. CBS San Francisco spoke to Gus Ruiz from the postal service on the need to respond to new trends in mail delivery with superior vehicles.
"Those trucks were largely designed to deliver letter class mail. Yeah, it can accommodate some parcels, but not the kind of parcels we're seeing today where we're looking at a 12-percent increase," he said. He referred favorably to the vehicles used by UPS as well, saying that "If you look at those trucks they have shelves on them and they have them in order of the stops they're going to make and they use direct routing."
As older trucks are replaced and agencies suddenly need to update their fleets, the brand name and logo need to be just as easy to identify. Truck decals help maintain the same image no matter which model an organization needs to adopt.