USPS, the independent agency that provides postal service in the United States, is going electric. The postal service, which delivers 1.6 million mail every day, has teamed up with Coaster Cycles for its electric cargo bike delivery service.
USPS is Testing its E-Bikes
Several European countries were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of switching away from gas-powered mail trucks, and with USPS' delivery, van ordering scandal in April, using e-bikes for its deliveries is a smart move.
According to Electrek, e-bikes are designed to carry heavy cargo, and they can be modified for different types of commercial e-cargo bike applications.
The small easy-to-maneuver e-cargo bikes look more like a van than a bike. They can better facilitate mail delivery in urban areas that traditional USPS trucks can't access.
The cargo box is located in the rear, and it has 72 cubic feet of space for packages and mail. It can also hold up to 400 lbs. or 181 kg of cargo.
Despite its smaller size, each battery for the e-cargo bike can operate for 100 km or 62 miles before needing a recharge. It has a hydraulic disc brake that can help stop it safely even with all of the weight on.
The e-cargo bike can run for four hours maximum, and the 500 Wh battery can be swapped at any time with a fully charged one to extend its life.
The bike is equipped with a rear view mirror so the driver can see above the cargo box, and the cockpit has a camera to make it easier for the driver to reverse.
USPS is currently testing the e-cargo bikes. Christopher Jackson, the director of city delivery, told The Postal Record that everything is running smoothly so far. Jackson added that he is hopeful that the postal service will explore more eco-friendly options.
The expected allotted budget for this switch to electric cargo bikes is $2.98 billion, and the postal service is said to order 50,000 of them.
USPS Delivery Controversy
On Apr. 28, several states and labor groups filed lawsuits against the postal service. The lawsuits claim that USPS failed to do environmental assessments before signing a deal with Oshkosh Defense Corp. for 165,000 gas-powered Next Generation Delivery Vehicles or NGDVs.
The controversial deal costs billions of dollars. The original plan was for 10% of the ordered NGDVs to be electric, though USPS increased the percentage to 20% in their initial order of the vehicles.
The lawsuits filed rehash a lot of the recent arguments against this decision, mainly focusing on the postal services' failure to do the much-needed environmental assessments, according to The Verge.
The lawsuits, which were filed by the Northern District of California and the Southern District of New York, argue that the assessment was undertaken after the contract was announced but that the evaluation was deficient in considering the climate impacts and air quality of the plan.
The Northern District of California and the Southern District of New York also pointed out that USPS did not even consider other alternatives to the NGDVs.
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Written by Sophie Webster
