For better or worse, the Postal Service will upgrade its old local delivery trucks with a mix of gasoline and electricity. This is a massive acquisition of almost $10 billion. The program includes the acquisition of electric chargers, which require evaluation. The USPS Office of Inspector General took a look and Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked about it with IG assistant Amanda Stafford.
Interview Transcript:
Tom Temin And many pieces in this acquisition. Tell us what you were focusing on in particular here.
Amanda Stafford: As you mentioned, about 66,000 more cars that will be purchased will be battery electric. Thus, in anticipation of their arrival, the postal service focused first on the acquisition of charging stations and the preparation of infrastructure. Procuring, testing and installing the charging stations will ensure that the new cars can be charged and usable as soon as they arrive. Specifically, we looked at contracts similar to charging stations. We sought to ensure that the charging stations met the needs set forth in the contractor’s job. And our purpose was really to determine if Swiss Post was testing and tracking the functionality of the charging stations well. And secondly, to evaluate whether they also offered the best tracking of their storage.
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Tom Temin: Okay. And the contractor, is it the manufacturer of the cars or is it a manufacturer of charging stations, or is it some kind of integrator that makes sure that one is compatible with the other?Because it’s a question.
Amanda Stafford Right? The charging station manufacturers are different than the vehicle manufacturers. The postal service has three charging station suppliers providing different types of chargers, and the vehicles are produced by a different combination of providers. So, they’re not the same. So overall, we really concluded that it was prudent for the Postal Service to elect to test and monitor these commercially available charging stations, and they were going to be deploying up to 41,000 of them throughout the delivery network, and then use first article testing to really verify that they met the requirements laid out in the contract statements to work. While traditionally, you don’t need to do a first Oracle test. It’s not required for something that’s already commercially available. But the Postal Service really wanted to go above and beyond to look at the interoperability and identify any performance issues.
Tom Temin You probably didn’t come with that, but maybe you did. Are they endorsing an conceivable question of cost, of insane complexity?If they have three other types of chargers, and I’m guessing they have other styles of plugs, and I rented an electric car once, I’ll never do it again because a plug has no compatibility in that car and that car doesn’t have compatibility. Not suitable for this outlet. And maybe they just have chaos when they have ten trucks to recharge?But there are only six compatible plugs or whatever I like.
Amanda Stafford You know, that really wasn’t in the scope of this particular audit, but obviously looking at all of the different types and looking at sort of monitoring their performance in the future would be something that would be great oversight for us to continue to keep tabs on.
Tom Temin And when you mentioned first article testing, that’s getting a sample and setting it up and seeing what it does.
Amanda Stafford Exactly, they had a number. Each of the brands equips its other sets and these are also tested in service. We went to one of the sites and were there for testing. Correct.
Tom Temin: Okay, and what are the main parameters on which you make sure those things work?Because it’s probably another configuration of the house where things are more controlled.
Amanda Stafford Right. They were looking at sort of workmanship issues, software issues, hardware issues, really. We found that many of the issues that were found during the testing were all corrected, and they were fully approved by the end of June. But yes, they’re looking at different sort of has the charger physically work? Is it physically working as well as sort of the software issues themselves?
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Tom Temin We’re talking to Amanda Stafford, who is the Deputy Deputy Inspector General of the U. S. Postal Service. U. S. And he found that in this facet of the acquisition, they were pretty smart in writing the first article, testing to make sure certain things worked. paintings, and I suppose, locked into physically powerful use by various people, which is a challenge for any kind of persona. de machinery. But there are some things they want to paint about. You figured it out too.
Amanda Stafford: Yes, so they did a lot of things that went really well. There was some room for improvement. We discovered that the Post Office needed to take a look at the garage control controls for the charging stations located in the curtain distribution center. Specifically, service control failed to take mandatory physical security measures to protect and prevent the theft of Postal Service assets. It’s the location. Thefts have occurred at the place where they are stored and we found that despite previous thefts, some of the most important corrective measures known in the past had not yet been implemented. Once again, in May, there was a failure at the site where this location was located, leading to further losses for the postal service, as well as the theft of some charging station heads and some computer equipment.
Tom Temin Interesting. So, these things are not like a parking meter, where it’s a steel unit that’s in concrete. I mean, nobody steals parking meters and they’re out there all by themselves. These are a little bit more portable than that type of equipment.
Amanda Stafford: I’d say it’s a central distribution center. So that’s where they were essentially going to buy those things and then disperse them and then install them permanently. So I think it’s a prudent resolution to put them in a position and make them available ahead of time. But at the same time, there were security measures, you know, security measures.
Tom Temin: I guess they’re the most sought-after because it’s an expensive component compared to the vehicle, right?I mean, again, I don’t know how much they cost.
Amanda Stafford: I wouldn’t say they’re incredibly expensive and I don’t need to comment on the cause of the theft. I think there have been problems in the past and they are possibly unrelated. But with that said, you know, we were just looking to make sure that this facility was safe.
Tom Temin But they don’t give you the charger with the car, so to speak. It is a separate acquisition.
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Amanda Stafford They’re in a position to make acquisitions, that’s true.
Tom Temin: Okay. So what are your recommendations here?
Amanda Stafford So we only have one recommendation, due to inadequate safeguards, we need the Postal Service to take urgent action to finalize and put into effect the physical security plan for the assets stored at the distribution center for this material.
Tom Temin And by the way, is there a charger compatible with the vehicle?Is that component of procurement or would there be, you know, I don’t know, I’m inventing six chargers for a given postal facility?15 trucks there, they would just be facing the loaders. Or, anyway, maybe all the trucks there at the same time.
Amanda Stafford: Sí. No necessarily want a 1:1 ratio. You don’t want a charger that is compatible with the vehículo. No.
Tom Temin: And how big are those chargers that you can take with you?It’s bigger than a PC charger that you can keep in your pocket.
Amanda Stafford They have various models, so I can’t exactly say. But yes, you would not just carry one off into your pocket for sure. And like I said, they will be taking those chargers and installing them, you know, permanently, physically into the different locations where they’ll have the electric vehicles located.
Tom Temin In the end, they screw them to the wall somehow or fix them in such a way that you can’t get out with them.
Amanda Stafford And that’s part of the explanation for why they had other types of brands and other types of charging stations to be able to support, you know, buildings already exist, so they want to make sure that the charging infrastructure fits the interior. of the barriers of the buildings that they have.
Tom Temin And do we know yet where the Postal Service plans to deploy them? I mean, there are some very large installations that are almost 24 hour operations, you know, like a small city mail center, you know, whereas some rural places or tiny post offices are closed and alone for a lot of the time during the day and would be more, I would say, subject to break in or theft.
Amanda Stafford: I think the Postal Service, as a component of its electrification strategy, has an idea of places that make sense from a remote perspective. You know, all the other variables that were part of the environmental supplement that they created. The idea went into that. But they’re still implementing it. And I’m sure it’s a dynamic procedure that can evolve over time as you evaluate desires and where you want them. This may vary and change.
Tom Temin: And you’re going to take a look at the other parts of the acquisition, at the cars themselves at some point?
Amanda Stafford: That’s right. For long-term jobs, that’s for sure.
Tom Temin is the host of Federal Drive and has been offering insight into federal generation and control issues for more than 30 years.