Meanwhile, in Switzerland, the Post somehow makes do with electric Renault Kangoos. I suppose when you do not have a forever war machine to feed, you can buy your post trucks from car companies...
Oshkosh makes lots of vehicles and some civilian kit like fire trucks, air compressors, etc. They saw the opportunity and designed a van to fulfill the specs. Granted, bidding on government projects is likely in their comfort zone, but I would assume they won fair and square unless there was reason to believe otherwise.
The other two finalists weren't major car companies either, at least not in the US. Workhorse is a very small firm with just over 100 employees total, and Karsan is Turkish company I don't know much about.
The Renault Kangoo is probably too small for emerging USPS needs, though the existing postal vehicles are almost as small as the Renault. The USPS's core business is shifting to package delivery, instead of letter mail. E-commerce has changed the mix. They're the preferred shipping carrier for packages in the US, being generally less expensive than UPS, which is in turn less expensive than FedEx. Packages are bulky.
Also, I think it's irrational for outsiders (e.g. you and I and anyone not involved in the decision) to have strong opinions about the vehicle the USPS selects as the result of its contract and bidding process, much less make some sort of political inference from it. Most things aren't political. Mail delivery van procurement is rarely going to present a genuine opportunity for political insight beyond the usual mundane government procurement issues.
The Sig 510, adopted in 1957, uses the same charging handle as the rifle they adopted in 1889.
Here’s the bold assembly for the Schmidt-Rubin 1889 or 1896/11: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hqEAAOSwT~9WhutS/s-l300.jpg
Here’s the bolt handle on the Schmidt-Rubin K-31: https://www.gunpartscorp.com/pub/products/997460.jpg
Here’s the charging handle on the Sig 510: http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab269/Combloc/SIG%20510-7...
The part you grip is interchangeable :)
Smaller countries than Switzerland have domestic arms industries, but that doesn't mean they use military-grade trucks from them for postal services.
Considering the extreme punishment these vehicles take, i think the investment is probably worth it. I remember reading about how much money they spent on these Grumman vehicles decades ago and being appalled. But here we are 20 years later and they are still using those same trucks.
The USPS is an order of magnitude larger than the swiss postal service. At some point it usually becomes just as cost effective to order a fleet of custom vehicles rather than off the shelf ones.
We spend all day here talking about scalability, but then we start talking about public policy and people get amnesia.