Mack Defense has been awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to supply the full range of Mack-branded products to federal agencies for a variety of applications. The one-year contract, which runs to January 2021, includes two additional GSA-optioned one-year extensions, which could push the contract through 2022.
Mack Defense of Allentown, Pennsylvania, is a division of Mack Trucks, whose world headquarters is in Greensboro.
“With this contract in place, fleet managers in more than 300 federal agencies have a one-stop shop where they can select commercial Mack vehicles and parts to address their needs,” said Nicole Zelno, Mack Defense senior manager, contracts and bid/orders. “We look forward to working with the GSA to fulfill our contract with durable, reliable Mack trucks, all of which are assembled here in the USA.”
The GSA is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA acquires and supplies products and communications for U.S. government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops government-wide, cost-minimizing policies and other management tasks.
Mack Defense has been a GSA contract holder since 2015 and has supplied various federal government agencies with Mack Trucks products as part of these contracts.
I'm on the fence about this: on one side, yeah, Mack has been around a long time and has a history of providing vehicles to the U.S. government; on the other side, they're owned by Volvo, which is not a U.S. company. Personally, I think the U.S. government should ONLY purchase vehicles from U.S. based companies that also have their factories in the U.S.
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but as long as your equipment and resources are manufactured domestically, you don't have to worry about them suddenly becoming your enemy or saying "we don't like you anymore", and cutting your supply.