WASHINGTON — Stolen electric vehicle charging station equipment and office thefts at the U.S. Postal Service are troubling signs for agency watchdogs as the Postal Service begins moving toward electrifying its delivery fleet.
Concern about the thefts and the ability of the Postal Service to protect its assets appears in a new audit report published by the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).
“We found that management controls over the storage of charging stations … were not effective,” according to the OIG. “Specifically, facility management did not employ necessary physical safety measures designed to protect and deter the theft of Postal Service assets.”
Lax safeguards at a facility in Topeka, Kansas, led to two thefts valued at approximately $59,700 for stolen information technology assets such as computer monitors, printers and docking stations, along with $7,700 worth of stolen charging station equipment.
The thefts occurred in 2023 during the initial phase of the agency’s fleet replacement strategy, which includes acquiring 106,000 vehicles with deliveries expected through 2028.
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Andreas
A lot of companies are reporting an extreme increase of theft and based on the magnitude it looks like this is organized. This kind of equipment is very specialized and can not be used everywhere. This is not only a customer theft this is internal within the employees and I am wondering why this is not tackled already earlier. Either companies are not taking this serious enough or it is even within the management which leads me to the organized crime theory. In the end it is the customer has to pay for the damage and has nothing to do with inflation as it is called all the time
Bucky
When someone does not own the asset they are less likely to care about preserving that asset.