1. EachPod
EachPod

Listen: New Postal Trucks Meet Gov’t Standard — by a Single Pound

Author
Eric Sorensen
Published
Mon 14 Feb 2022
Episode Link
None

Early last year, Wisconsin defense contractor Oshkosh Defense secured a multi-billion dollar contract to build the next generation of mail trucks for the U.S. Postal Service.

The program aims to begin replacing the Post Office’s crumbling, 30-year-old vehicle fleet beginning next year, but the Oshkosh effort has come under fire for everything from a relative lack of electrified mail trucks to the bidding process itself.

Now, a new report suggests that the new gas-powered trucks needed some strings to be pulled in order to be considered street-legal at all.

According to a report in Vice, an Environmental Protection Agency review of the process noted that the gas trucks would come in at a total vehicle weight of 8,501 pounds — a figure that combines the truck weight of 5,560 pounds with its estimated payload of 2,941 pounds.

If that seems like an oddly specific cargo weight to you, you’re not alone.

Share to: