Vehicle Maintenance Facility Preparedness for Next Generation Delivery Vehicles

BackgroundThe U.S. Postal Service plans to replace and expand its current delivery fleet with a mix of internal combustion engine and battery electric powertrain, purpose-built Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV), and commercial off-the-shelf vehicles. As a result, the Postal Service has initiated several efforts to prepare its Vehicle Maintenance Facilities (VMF) — where the current fleet is serviced and repaired — to maintain NGDVs upon initial deployment in late 2023.What We DidOur objective was to assess the Postal Service’s VMF preparedness plans to maintain the future fleet of NGDVs. For this audit, we engaged a contractor to help us identify VMF preparedness and fleet transition best practices from five domestic and foreign delivery fleets and compared Postal Service practices against them. In addition, we conducted site visits at judgmentally selected VMFs in the Los Angeles, CA; Detroit, MI; Atlanta, GA; Pittsburgh, PA; and Baltimore, MD areas to understand their experiences with prior fleet transitions.