A Hillsboro woman claims the United States Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t powerful enough to make it up her gravel road, raising concerns about how she’ll be receiving her mail.
Donna Hiatt, 63, said she’s lived on Cedar Rock Road off Hwy. BB in unincorporated Hillsboro since 1999, and not once has USPS struggled so mightily to make it up her steep road.
Her mail carrier used to drive a van but now uses USPS’s Oshkosh Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) to deliver the mail. Since the switch, Hiatt said her mail has been delivered infrequently. She said the four other homeowners on her road are experiencing the same issue.
“You thought that they would have purchased better vehicles for Jefferson County, knowing the hilly country that we have,” Hiatt said. “The post office, they gave me excuse after excuse, and finally they gave my neighbor the excuse, ‘We can’t make it here because the vehicles are on such a low engine; it’s just a smaller engine, and you can’t make the hill with it.’”
The USPS proposed to the homeowners on Cedar Rock Road to move their mailboxes to Hwy. BB, which would ensure the mail delivery vehicle wouldn’t get stuck on the gravel road. Hiatt said this solution wouldn’t work for her.
Hwy. BB is a dangerous place to stop to collect their mail, said Hiatt; she and her husband, James, 70, both have physical disabilities that make it difficult, if not impossible, to walk down their gravel road.
“There’s no way,” Hiatt said. “My husband has Parkinson’s and a very bad heart. I’ve got very deformed feet, and I can’t walk down that gravel road.”
Hiatt acknowledged that her road is pretty steep but said Amazon and UPS trucks don’t seem to have any issues managing it.
“We’ve never, never had issues with our mail before,” she said. “I just hope they (USPS) can give us an answer.”
Roland Evans has lived on Cedar Rock Road for more than 30 years. He said USPS also proposed making changes to their road so that the vehicles can deliver the mail safely at each house. He said paving the road would cost thousands of dollars out of the neighbors’ pockets.
Evans said he had concerns with the solution of putting their mailboxes on Hwy. BB, too.
“I was making a right turn off of BB one day, and a guy slammed me, pushed me all the way over into the ditch,” he said. “If they forced me to move those boxes to BB, I’m not pulling up with a car out there.”
Evans emphasized that, while the road is gravel, it’s well-maintained.
“I’m sure there are more roads in Jefferson County that are in a lot worse shape than mine, and I know there must be more people than just me that this is happening to,” he said.
Teri Crocker, postmaster of the Hillsboro Post Office, said she could not comment on the record about the situation at Cedar Rock Road. She was able to say that there are 11 mail routes out of her post office, with all routes now using the new vehicles. She said mail carriers have used the new model for a few months, adding that the carriers are having a harder time driving on country and gravel roads.
“They don’t have the get-up-and-go that the old vehicles had,” Crocker said.
Crocker said there are mixed thoughts on the vehicles among her mail carriers. The carriers who drive city routes say they like the vehicles, Crocker said, but the rural carriers are less enthused.
USPS began rolling out its new delivery fleet in June 2024, with the federal government spending $9.6 billion on the upgrade. The fleet includes a total of 106,000 new vehicles, with 45,000 being battery-electric and 21,000 commercial off-the-shelf battery-electric. The remaining vehicles in the new fleet use a turbocharged 2-liter four-cylinder engine from Ford, with front- or all-wheel drive.
USPS is also upgrading infrastructure at its facilities to add charging stations for 14,000 zero-emission electric vehicles.
“The new vehicles offer better visibility, ergonomic seating, air conditioning, safety features and user-friendly operations, along with increased cargo capacity to allow more packages to be carried per trip, boosting environmental and operating efficiency,” the USPS stated in a Dec. 29, 2025, release.
Tara Jarrett, a regional strategic communications specialist for USPS, said delivery resumed Monday on Cedar Rock Road.
“It is important to note that the delivery points in question are located on a private road,” Jarrett said. “In accordance with postal regulations, rural delivery service may be withdrawn when private roads are not properly maintained and passable.”
Jarrett said the NGDVs replace USPS’ Long-Live Vehicles (LLVs), many of which have been in service for more than 30 years.
“Before being deployed on routes throughout the country, the NGDVs underwent several months of testing,” she said. “The tests exposed the vehicles to various terrains and environments to evaluate their performance (e.g., durability, emissions, and exposure to extreme temperatures, etc.).”
According to former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in a 2024 news release, the new vehicles enhance safety for employees and improve mail delivery times.
“Our team deserves the best equipment as they work to serve 167 million addresses across the nation,” he said.
Aside from comments on the quirky “duckbill” design of the NGDV, car review websites praise the vehicle’s spacious package storage area and enormous panoramic windshield to allow for better visibility.