USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles

The U.S. Postal Service says it has cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers, who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 to 1994.

The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles. That includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles — and more than 141,000 are the older vehicles, made by federal contractor Grumman.

“The men and women of the U.S. Postal Service have waited long enough for safer, cleaner vehicles,” DeJoy said in a statement.