Efficiency and Safety of Lift Gates

The Postal Service owns and operates a fleet of over 227,000 vehicles. The Postal Service has 7- and 11-ton cargo vans that Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) drivers use to transport mail between facilities and to load/unload mail from cargo vans. In September 2017, the Postal Service began replacing 7- and 11-ton cargo vans and adding new lift gates. A lift gate is a piece of equipment on the rear of a cargo van that helps load/unload mail transport equipment (MTE) containing mail. When the Postal Service replaced the older cargo vans, transportation managers could choose between a tuck under lift gate (84 inches wide by 50 inches long) or rail lift gate (89 inches wide by 54 inches long). Tuck under lift gates tuck beneath the cargo van while rail lift gates fold against the back of the cargo van when not in use. The Postal Service purchased 1,167 tuck under lift gates and 446 rail lift gates on the 7- and 11-ton cargo vans for an estimated total cost of $6.5 million. Our objective was to evaluate the efficiency and safety of lift gates used on U.S. Postal Service cargo vans.