The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) plans to solicit a national contract for leasing and renting vehicles for mail service delivery for its carrier delivery operations. The USPS stated it's interested in leasing, with the option to buy, minivans, cargo vans, and high-roof cargo vans for a maximum of three years. Examples of required vehicle types would include the Ford Transit, Transit Connect, Transit full-size van (the flex fuel model), F-Series trucks, the Ram ProMaster, the Chevrolet Express cargo van, and the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500-3500, USPS stated.

The USPS said it plans to set up the leases as closed-end leases and that USPS wants the option to upfit the vehicles and pay for upfitting at the start of the lease term. Vehicles must leased or rented for a period longer than 90 days must be white, according to USPS, the cargo area must be lit, and each vehicle would require a rubber mat that covers the interior floor of each vehicle.

Although the need for these vehicle types is limited, according to USPS, as its fleet ages, the agency expects the number of leases to increase. The USPS stated it’s offering the contract due to a lack of funds to purchase new equipment.