The United States Postal Service's plan to replace its entire fleet of more than 200,000 mail trucks at once doesn't make any sense, lawmakers said Thursday.
During a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, representatives from the government and the private sector testified and said the vehicles do need to be replaced. But a smarter, more cost-effective solution would be to do so over time, according to The Daily Caller.
The "Long Life Vehicles," or LLVs, currently in use have an operational lifespan of 24 years and are lasting an average of 23 years. The aging fleet is in dire need of replacing.
The USPS is seeking proposals from companies to build the next version of the LLVs, called "Next Generation Delivery Vehicles" (NGDVs), at a cost of between $25,000 and $35,000 each. The total cost would lie somewhere between $4.5 billion and $6.3 billion, reports The Daily Caller.
The problem, however, is there might not be enough money for the Postal Service to buy the vehicles. And even if the agency were to buy a new fleet, they would need replacing in another quarter century. With mail service becoming old-fashioned and outdated, some think the high cost of replacing the entire fleet would not be financially smart.
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Replacing ONE doesn't make sense. Doing away with USPS and their workers DOES make sense. Remove their pensions too.
ReplyDeleteUSPS can only survive at the expense of the private sector by going after the parcel business. The current vehicles just aren't big enough.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to believe that the entire fleet was all bought in 1992.
ReplyDeleteAll at once.
Prove that.
It would never have happened.
The USPS wastes more money each and everyday.
ReplyDeleteIf they actually had people who had demonstrated managerial experience instead of just moving certain people around then perhaps, just perhaps things might start turning around for them.
Some of the delivery people are so lazy, they literally go door to door with stop and go driving to place mail in mailboxes, when they could turn the vehicle off and walk the block or two to deliver mail. They are always on cell phones and seldom check to be certain they are delivery the mail to the correct addresses. The actual offices are just as bad. I recently had to go into the office and it was like a party day. There was laughing and eating in the anterior room and people were trying to talk over all the noise. When the lines got long, none of the party goers bothered to come out and help the front desk staff. One lady at passports was busy eating at her desk in front of a line of customers. That place is in shambles. The new postmaster acts like she is in another world and doesn't want to hear or fix problems. What a mess of things since she has been there.
I think private industry could do a much better job than the USPS could only dream about. The people, the management are not capable.