“This is not your grandmother's postal service anymore,” James Boxrud, USPS communications specialist, said during a June 11 tour of a mail facility in Golden.
In 2023, USPS committed to a $40 billion investment to modernize the postal service. As of 2025, $18.9 billion of that budget has been spent transforming carrier annexes across the country into high-tech sorting and delivery centers, which can cover more ground more quickly. There are also plans to invest in over 100,000 new vehicles as part of the $40 billion commitment, which has resulted in plenty of improved mail trucks in Colorado.
The USPS serves over 2.6 million addresses in Colorado and has over 10,340 employees in the state. Over the years, the American Postal Workers Union has regularly called out USPS heads for a lack of training, understaffing, poor working conditions and other problems they’d like to see fixed.
The $40 million in improvements is targeted toward improving employee morale by modernizing workplaces, according to USPS.
“Prior to the initiation of our investment strategy, our facilities and vehicles were in a state of significant disrepair,” USPS district manager for Colorado and Wyoming Doug Smith said. “This posed a serious challenge to our dedicated workforce, who, despite their unwavering dedication to our mission, were grappling with conditions that fell short of acceptable standards.”
In Golden, the USPS sorting and distribution facility at 1100 Johnson Road now has a modernized package sorting machine called a Small Delivery Unit Sorting machine. According to USPS, the new machine doesn’t require employees to constantly bend over to pick up packages, a common complaint among employees who suffer chronic use injuries.
The SDUS machine at the Golden sorting and delivery center is more ergonomic for workers.
Catie Cheshire
According to Nicole Newton, a strategic project manager for the USPS, the Golden carrier annex used to serve 58 mail routes prior to the 2023 designation as a sorting and delivery center. Now it serves 88 routes, amounting to approximately 105,000 customers and 52,000 daily deliveries.
Using the SDUS machine, the Golden facility can process up to 5,000 packages in a single hour. Newton says the goal is to hit around 4,500 to 4,800 packages an hour. Before the advent of the machine, employees operating manually could only process 2,100 parcels per hour, she adds.
That increased capacity allows USPS to offer a service that guarantees businesses can reach local customers within a single day, according to district sales manager Vanessa Graves.
Money also went toward improved break rooms and bathrooms in Golden. The investments are being funded through a loan from the federal government, according to Boxrud, who said that a specific dollar amount on the spending in Colorado is not available.
New-Look Mail Trucks Coming to Colorado
In addition to the Golden facility upgrades, the USPS is working to replace traditional mail trucks, which have been around since 1987, according to fleet operations specialist TJ McGuire. “They have been workhorses for us, but no longer effectively meet our needs, a sentiment I know is shared by many of our letter carriers who drive them every day,” McGuire said. “We are currently deploying thousands of new delivery vehicles of various styles and configurations, which will improve our fleet's efficiency and reliability.”
In total, the USPS will deploy over 106,000 new vehicles in the next five years, including over 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles (NGDVs). Those vehicles have been made fun of on social media for their silly appearance, which some have compared to a platypus or duck. However, their appearance is based on feedback from mail carriers, who wanted more visibility from the driver's seat and more comfort built into the design.
The NGDVs have automatic braking systems, blind spot warnings and 360 degree cameras for safety. All vehicles have air conditioning, cup holders and adjustable seats so drivers of different heights can access mailboxes easily. The NGDVs also have double the capacity of the traditional mail trucks and taller roofs, so letter carriers taller than 6'4 can move comfortably inside.
“This increased cargo capacity will reduce inefficient transportation, enhance our delivery capabilities and eliminate the need for many second trips to deliver high-volume packages,” McGuire said. “Despite being larger, these new vehicles are more fuel efficient and are expected to have lower maintenance costs.”
Colorado now has 34 NGDVs on the streets and received the first all-wheel drive postal service vehicles in the nation; the other models are all rear-wheel drive only. Colorado also has seventeen E-Transit vans, all-electric delivery vehicles with plenty of space and attention to human comforts.
Newton, Graves and communications team member Zachary Laux, all of whom started off as mail carriers, say they wish they could have had one of the new vehicles when they were driving their routes. According to Graves, getting a vehicle with a radio and air conditioning used to be a coveted perk. Now, all mail carriers will have those features, and more.
“You can really tell that they designed this with the carriers in mind,” Laux says.
Mail carriers typically divide their shifts into six phases, spending around one hour of an eight-hour shift loading up then six to seven hours delivering. The new trucks have six shelves, so Laux thinks they will be really convenient to organize.
Colorado has also received over 800 Metris vans and over 950 ProMaster vans, which are part of the $40 billion investment.
“The optimizations we've made across Colorado and the nation are putting the postal service on a positive trajectory and enabling us to create a high-performing, financially stable organization capable of serving the American people for generations to come,” Boxrud said.
