During an average day, the U.S. Postal Service operates 200,000 vehicles all-over the United States and its territories. About 160,000 of those vehicles are right-hand drive vehicles that have to be replaced, along with an additional 20,000 left hand drive vehicles, by Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV.)
Suppliers hoping to design the NGDVs had until March 6 to send in their ideas, so if you were thinking of sending in a design you missed your shot. If you sent proposal in by the deadline, here's what you should know before your final proposal is due in June.
"The first phase will be for interested suppliers to provide a proposed vehicle that meets the following specifications. The second phase will be the award of a contract for a select few suppliers to build and provide five prototype vehicles. These vehicles will be tested for user acceptability, durability, and conformance to the requirements," the USPS blog post said.
The third phase will of course involve selecting a winning design that will hopefully satisfy mail carriers around the country.
From ordering things online for ourselves to sending things from websites to other people, online shopping is more popular than ever. While this is good news for USPS, it also means they need bigger trucks.
The mail truck would have need to have a total cargo space of 330 to 400 cubic feet, a minimum clear floor space of 72-inches by 108-inches, 76-inches of headroom and a clear bulkhead passage that is at least 30-inches wide.
Here are some other specifications USPS is looking for:
-Right-hand steering, 2-wheel drive, 4-wheel drive option
-Heavy-duty, automatic transmission, traction-control functionality
-Rear and forward wheels align
-18-20 year planned service life
-Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Stand
USPS will start testing prototypes in February 2016 and the will of the contract will be picked in 2017, according to the blog post.
The winning supplier will have to deliver 180,000 trucks over a five to seven year period starting in 2018 at around $25,000-$35,000 per truck.
The winning truck will likely be used for a long time, since the current design has been in use since the late 1980s. Good luck to those out there that sent in proposals.
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