How electric vehicles could cut USPS losses while creating jobs

The USPS boasts the world's largest civilian fleet of vehicles, but probably the world's worst mileage

Electric vehicles are all the rage at the moment, particularly in policy circles, but the biggest win for the technology in the United States would be to get the Postal Service driving electric delivery trucks.

The USPS is the largest single user of gasoline in the country, and one of the largest in the world, with the world’s largest civilian vehicle fleet. Yet its 146,000 Grumman Long Life Vehicle Mail Carriers provide the kind of fuel consumption that make Hummers look like the green option.

On a good day, we’re talking 10 miles per gallon, with the Postal Service estimating that it is using about 728 million gallons of gasoline to deliver the mail each year.

Switching these vehicles to electric motors could see the equivalent fuel consumption (taking into account the electricity, since no fuel would be required) of up to 100 miles per gallon would be a major cost saver for the financially troubled Postal Service.

Trials

The USPS has been flirting with electric vehicles for more than 100 years, running trials for the technology every time there’s been any kind of energy crisis.

Initially, back in the 1890s, it decided that gasoline vehicles would be preferable because they wouldn’t need time to recharge.

Trials in the 1970s and 1980s fizzled out with cheap gas and a lack of interest in a broader adoption, while a trial of 500 Ford electric vehicles just after the turn of the Millennium came to an abrupt end when Ford canceled its electric vehicle development program in 2002. Funnily enough, now electric vehicles are back in favor, Ford is now returning to the electric vehicle game with promises of an electric Ford Transit Connect and Focus in 2011, as well as other models to come. It may have missed the boat regarding the USPS, though.

After recommendations from regulators last year, the Postal Service is now running trials of possible technologies to convert its current fleet to electric drivetrains.

As Post&Parcel reports, the year-long trial is looking at technology including that provided by AC Propulsion, Bright Automotive, Quantum Fuels and ZAP Automotive.

Mass adoption

While the USPS is also taking a tentative look at other technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cells, and has a 44,000-strong fleet of ethanol-powered vehicles in California, the possibilities for electric vehicles are improving.

They will be helped by the adoption of electric vehicle technology by mass production manufacturers like Nissan, Chevrolet, Ford itself, Honda and other manufacturers following suit.

And, the installation of a nationwide network of public charging facilities, such as through The EV Project and ChargePoint America programs, would also appear to favor USPS electric vehicles.

The way the USPS uses its delivery vehicles would appear to be extremely well-suited to today’s electric vehicle technology, with the trucks averaging less than 40 miles per day, spending every night sitting unused for long enough for an electric version to be recharged without even requiring special fast-charging technology.

Congress

Ford canceled the last major trial of USPS electric delivery trucks

Hopes are that the current USPS electric vehicle trials will lead to a contract or contracts being issued to convert a significant number of USPS trucks to electric power.

However, it is up to Congress whether this ever happens.

A House bill was introduced at the end of 2009 calling for $2 billion to be put into electrifying the USPS fleet. New York Congressman Jose Serrano proposed buying 20,000 electric vehicles, though his “e-Drive” bill has not progressed far.

The Postal Service could go even further than that in cutting its own costs – and spurring on the electric vehicle industry within the US – by an even wider adoption, to replace the Grumman LLVs, which were originally introduced as far back as the 1980s. Perhaps replacing its aging vehicle fleet could mean avoiding other cost-cutting moves like a major downsizing of the postal workforce.

Switching the whole USPS fleet to electric would mean thousands of jobs created in America’s electric vehicle sector, and would give this country’s electric vehicle companies a huge head start in the global race to capture market share as the technology spreads.

The question is whether Congress will recognize this.

The trouble, as with any clean energy project, is the upfront costs that would be needed to convert the USPS fleet. The costs would come down with bulk orders, but we’re still looking at $25,000 to $40,000 per vehicle to convert the existing Grumman LLVs to electric power.

President Obama has said, following this month’s mid-term elections, that he believes there is firm bipartisan support within Congress for promoting the wider adoption of electric vehicles.

There is also bipartisan support for the Postal Service to do something about its $6 billion in annual losses.

Will Congress join up the dots, linking the desire to promote electric vehicle technology with the desperate need to stem the losses in the Postal Service?