Lawsuit Over Ford Powered USPS Mail Trucks Dropped

Though the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been working to transition its ages-old fleet of Grumman Long Life Vehicles (LLV) to the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) built by Oshkosh Defense using a variety of Ford components, that process hasn’t gone terribly smoothly thus far. Aside from being far behind in terms of taking deliveries of those NGDVs, USPS was also facing a lawsuit from a variety of environmental groups and 16 states claiming that its contract with Oshkosh was signed under unlawful circumstances. Now, however, that lawsuit has been dropped.

According to Reuters, that lawsuit has now been dropped, a decision that stems from the Post Office’s decision to buy “mostly EVs” moving forward, rather than 90 percent ICE and 10 percent all-electric NGDVs as originally planned. The California attorney general’s office said that it decided to dismiss the lawsuit “given USPS’s commitment to rebuild its fleet with a majority of electric vehicles.” The Center for Biological Diversity added that USPS “has the funding and is moving forward with an electric vehicle fleet. The new administration would be wise to remember that these new postal trucks are saving money, cutting air pollution, and improving the health of our communities.”

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently stated that USPS has fully complied with environmental rules thus far, and previously added that the Post Office intends to execute a 50/50 ICE and EV purchasing plan in 2025, after which it will purchase nothing but EVs starting in 2026. However, recent rumors have suggested that incoming President Donald Trump intends to cancel the contract between USPS and Oshkosh, which would obviously impact those plans.

As Ford Authority recently reported, USPS has ordered around 5,000 Ford E-Transit vans, but has only received a fraction of them thus far. This is also true of the NGDV, which USPS is slated to purchase many more of in the coming years at a cost of around $10 billion. However, as of last month, the Postal Service had only taken delivery of 93 units, versus the 3,000 that it had previously expected to have in its fleet by now.