• Trump transition weighs plan to cancel USPS contracts to build large EV fleet
    
    Postal service plans to spend billions on EV chargers and roughly 66,000 new trucks Contract cancellation likely part of sweeping executive order on EVs

Dec 6 (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s transition team is considering canceling the U.S. Postal Service’s contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The move, which could be unveiled in the early days of Trump’s administration that begins on Jan. 20, is in line with Trump’s campaign promises to roll back President Joe Biden’s efforts to decarbonize U.S. transportation to fight climate change – an agenda Trump has said is unnecessary and potentially damaging to the economy.

Reuters has previously reported that Trump is planning to kill a $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases, and plans to roll back Biden’s stricter fuel-efficiency standards.

The sources told Reuters that Trump’s transition team is now reviewing how it can unwind the postal service’s multibillion-dollar contracts, including with Oshkosh (OSK.N), and Ford (F.N) for tens of thousands of battery-driven delivery trucks and charging stations.

Oshkosh shares fell by roughly 5% to 105.65 per share after the Reuters report.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    The existing fleet is past aging out, they are often held together with patch welds and duct tape in my area. Is the plan ride it until the wheels literally fall off, with no replacements in pipeline?

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      No, they will just redirect to gas. They are buying something either way, the money has already been committed. Right now it’s 50/50 ev and gas plan, while slowing increasing the EV percentage as they roll out the chargers.

      Now it sounds like they want to scrap it all, which is unfortunate considering chargers are in process of being built.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Actually yes. They want to privatize it so that they can make money on it. Failure is the goal.

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Yeah but even if that’s the play - could private business even fill the gap? USPS stretches the final miles deep into places not profitable to deliver to. Businesses, doing business stuff, use it to economically have their products available to the rural communities that voted these policies in… it’s all so confusing.

        Is mailing a letter automated space communism? Sheesh.

        • jumjummy@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          And ironically, it’s the flyover deep red parts of the country that are the most rural, and therefore the most unprofitable legs of these delivery services. As with so many other GOP policies, it would mostly impact their supporters.

        • orclev@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          They don’t care if there’s gaps, those people just won’t get mail service. They’re only interested in extracting as much money as they can from the rotting husk of the US economy. They’ve just hollowed out so much of the middle class now that they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel and need to start squeezing the last dregs out of the barely profitable things like the USPS.

          • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            56 minutes ago

            People have this idea that they will just up and dissolve or sell off USPS one day, that won’t happen. It will just slowly fall.

            Private companies want access to mailboxes, that’s all this is about.

            That simple thing will kill USPS, but they don’t care. It immediately kills the sanctity of mail, because now you don’t know if something was tampered with after it arrives in the box, before you get to check it.

            So all congress has to do is allow mailbox access to private companies and refuse to issue any loans or funding and they will be crippled. Slowly having to sell off post office real estate and cutting staff, until the budget is balanced and mail services are abysmal.

            Oh and as an added bonus, it will hamper USPS OIG ability to do any mail fraud type investigations. So that means you can bet there will be scams galore… Imagine if you get like 3 different bills from your power company, they all kind of look legit. You call the number and all 3 say you need to pay them.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          No. Not only can it not fill the gap there isn’t an intent to.

          It’s just, sell off a chunk of the government so someone can make money on a service.

      • ᗪᗩᗰᑎ@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Actually yes. They want to privatize it so that they can make money on it. Failure is the goal.

        Actually yes. They want to privatize it so that they can make money on it further exploit the working class. Failure is the goal.

        Although you’re right, I like to call out what it will do to everyone so it’s more explicit and will hopefully click in people’s minds.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      Why is that a question? How else do you plan to privatize one of the most ubiquitous federal services?

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The plan is to make it so ineffective it can justifiably be privatized entirely and their friends make millions by jacking up rates on a product that by design and necessity has no direct competitors.

    • Stamau123@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 days ago

      It’s like having an enemy agent in the big chair leads to terrible decisions for basic needs…