New Bill: More Transparency in USPS Truck Accidents

A shocking investigation into the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has revealed a major blind spot that some are calling a safety crisis. The findings uncovered the fact that USPS has, for years, relied on brokers and trucking contractors in an accountability-free environment. That’s because USPS has never required its contractors and subcontractors to report their trucking accidents to authorities.

Sparking major concerns regarding the safety of mail transport vehicles, all of this could soon change, thanks to a new bill making its way through Congress.

Background

Motivating lawmakers to take legislative action, two key events began to shed light on the oversights and lack of transparency surrounding USPS truck accidents:

1. A Wall Street Journal investigation: In March 2023, the WSJ published a groundbreaking report exposing how USPS had been hiring “outside trucking companies at cut-rate prices” while turning its head “the other way when they ran afoul of highway safety rules.”
2. An audit by the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG): In quick response to the WSJ report, federal lawmakers asked the OIG to conduct its own inquiry, auditing the incidence of truck accidents involving USPS contractors. This investigation, launched in 2023, looked at official data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), though the data was incomplete in nature. The findings exposed that USPS “may lack visibility into the safety performance of contractors and subcontractors” and that the agency had minimal screening processes for its contractor drivers.

Additionally, the OIG report discovered that from 2018 to December 2022:

• USPS had 43 contractors fulfilling agreements worth a total of ~$1.34 billion.
• These USPS contractors were involved in at least 373 truck accidents.
• These known crashes caused 89 fatalities.

Details of the Proposed Legislation

Responding to the OIG report, lawmakers proposed a new bill — Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act of 2025 (Act) — on January 28, 2025, seeking to establish all-new requirements for the comprehensive reporting of collisions involving mail carrier contractors.

Introduced by Representatives Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) and James Comer (R-Ky.), this Act aims to enhance transparency, accountability, and safety protocols for USPS. To that end, key provisions of the bill include (and are not limited to):

• Mandatory reporting: USPS employees and contractors must report any traffic crash involving vehicles transporting mail that result in injury or death within three (3) days of the collision.
• Comprehensive database: USPS is required to maintain an internal digital database containing detailed information on mail vehicle crashes, including the date, time, location, and contributing factors associated with each collision.
• Annual public reporting: USPS would be required to produce annual reports, summarizing all mail truck accidents each year, with aggregated statistics and analysis. For optimal transparency, these reports would be made publicly available.
• Enforcement mechanisms: USPS contractors who fail to report truck accidents, injuries, and resulting deaths may face various penalties, including fines or the termination of their USPS contracts.

On March 3, 2025, the House of Representatives passed the bill, moving it to the Senate for further consideration.  

Potential Opposition

While this bill has had early across-the-aisle support from lawmakers, some opposition has bubbled up outside of Congress, particularly with those who it could affect the most — trucking industry players, including the motor carriers, owner-operators, and truckers who hold USPS contracts.

Concerned about new administrative burdens and potential penalties associated with the reporting requirements, some trucking industry opponents have started to push back, arguing that the new mandates could be overly onerous — and that some may suffer unnecessary reputational damage when their truckers and trucks are in wrecks caused by others (i.e., through no fault of their own).

Although this opposition may grow if the bill passes the Senate, there may be few opportunities to truly pump the brakes on it at that point. Plus, fighting new safety rules could backfire and cause the very reputational damage these parties are concerned about.

What’s Next?

The bill is currently being reviewed in the Senate. While it’s difficult to say how long it could remain here, if the bill ultimately gets passed into law, USPS would have 90 days to implement the required regulations.

Regardless, however, the Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act of 2025 signifies a pivotal shift towards greater accountability and a key move to promote safety, trust, and oversight measures that could address critical risks in USPS’s mail transportation network.

While many are eager to see this bill become law, new legislation won’t help those who have been hurt in USPS truck accidents or any other 18-wheeler wrecks. What can help is getting more information about the legal options for justice.