USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0223-multi-billion-dollar-modernization-of-postal-delivery-vehicle-fleet.htm

by CDSlice • 5 years ago

47 68 5 years ago

about.usps.com

gnicholas• 5 years ago

dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26246116

phnofive• 5 years ago

Sort of - that’s from the contractor, and while largely consistent, it’s good to see both.

uneekname• 5 years ago

Does this mean they'll have all the old trucks up for sale? Who wants to start a food truck with me in an old USPS vehicle

tylerchilds• 5 years ago

just one truck? let's make a fleet. mine's gonna be a mini arcade with three cabinets.

tshaddox• 5 years ago

Would it be street legal to operate a civilian right hand drive vehicle?

trey-jones• 5 years ago

Mail carriers are civilians. My uncle was a rural carrier and had a right hand drive Suburu stationwagon thing that was his personal car, used for work.

tyingq3• 5 years ago

Yes, it is. There's a fairly big "JDM" (Japanese Domestic Market) car interest in the US, and I've seen plenty of them registered, insured and driving here. I think getting them emissions certified since the standards are all different is a bigger hurdle when importing than anything else, and that wouldn't apply here.

Edit: Also, the other direction, you'll see a lot of LHD cars in the UK where American troops are deployed. That's a pretty specific loophole, but I remember getting a lot of confused looks driving around.

SamWhited4• 5 years ago

It's legal, just expensive as all get out to insure I suspect.

justinv• 5 years ago

Yep. You can even buy a Wrangler RHD direct from Jeep today. Go to their builder and find the "WRANGLER UNLIMITED RHD".

ogre_codes2• 5 years ago

Suspect they will destroy them much as they did the older style postal jeeps towards the end. They are not safe and there is a lot of potential liability in selling them. I think they also want to avoid the situation where people drive around in official looking vehicles that are identified as belonging to the post office.

Also, they are too small to make a decent food wagon.

throwaway0a5e5• 5 years ago

potential liability in selling them.

This is a cop-out. Especially when it's the government (notoriously hard to sue) selling. "You couldn't normally sell this stuff to consumers" gets sold on govdeals and ironplanet all the time.

Additionally, the LLVs likely meet applicable NHTSA regulations and FMVSSs for the year they were made and their class of vehicle.

reteltech• 5 years ago

The old mail vans are effectively Chevy S10 pickup chassis with the postal van body on top. Apparently, they are prone to catch on fire randomly.

tonywastaken• 5 years ago

I don't want to start a food truck, but I would like to electrify them and make them into a fleet of leasable UberEats/DoorDash/Prime delivery vehicles

tyingq3• 5 years ago

The proposed new trucks look pretty wonky, like a cartoon: https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images...

burlesona• 5 years ago

Woah. I never knew how much I liked the “old” USPS vans until I saw the new one.

dag11• 5 years ago

I like them purely because it's unbelievably distinctive -- just like the old fleet IMO

badwolf• 5 years ago

+1 to this. Having that iconic look that you can recognize instantly "That's the mail carrier!" - and designed for it's specific function - Outstanding! Just hope they don't randomly catch fire ;)

madrox2• 5 years ago

Not visually appealing at first glance, but the posts I've seen by postal workers are that this thing looks great. The cargo capacity will handle the increase in package delivery, and it's much easier to see around the edges to maneuver up to a mailbox, which reduces the times a carrier has to get out to deliver the mail. The current vans don't even have A/C, and their collision warning system is a plastic pole at the corner.

Form really follows function.

hx2a3• 5 years ago

Looks wonky but I would have preferred to drive one of these. Those two cameras would have been super helpful, plus that blind spot warning for the left side. Those will make a big difference.

Also, these have air conditioning!! What a luxury! The previous ones did not have that. Just a sad little fan that barely did anything.

Postal workers don't care what the vehicles look like, they want practical safety features that help them do their jobs.

AnimalMuppet• 5 years ago

"Maily McMailface".

throwaway0a5e5• 5 years ago

That image doesn't emphasize any of the stuff that the people that will have to work with the vehicle and will be responsible for fleet performance want to know (and by proxy, their bosses, who are authorizing the expense).

What's my maintenance costs and times gonna look like?

Will it be ergonomic to get in and out all the time?

Can this vehicle pull out into traffic easily?

Is this vehicle gonna be a fatiguing pain to drive?

The features list almost raises more questions than answers. Half the tech they highlighted comes with a very high risk of being worse than the manual solution it's replacing if the tech is not up to par. Nobody wants to wait for the automatic door to close to put it in gear.

Edit: So why is this opinion so unwelcome here, because I'm not on the "more tech more better" bandwagon or something of actual substance?

justicezyx• 5 years ago

Isn't the driver seat on the wrong side?

US should be on the left side right? The figure shows right side...

eatingCake• 5 years ago

This way the driver can put mail in suburban mailboxes without leaving the seat (while driving on the right side of the road).

jhiesey• 5 years ago

Current US mail trucks are right hand drive so the driver can deliver to curbside mailboxes without getting out.

nawgz• 5 years ago

You are right that US drivers usually have the steering column on the left side

However, postal drivers get out of their vehicle all the time, and often on roads not meant to have vehicles pull over. Therefore them getting out from the right hand side prevents them from having to exit into traffic.

fnord77• 5 years ago

thought the government was mandating EVs? Is this some corrupt Louis DeJoy deal?

spullara• 5 years ago

"The vehicles will be equipped with either fuel-efficient internal combustion engines or battery electric powertrains and can be retrofitted to keep pace with advances in electric vehicle technologies. The initial investment includes plant tooling and build-out for the U.S. manufacturing facility where final vehicle assembly will occur."

WoahNoun• 5 years ago

Yes this violates the EV EO and will likely be overturned before any vehicles are delivered. Biden just nominated 3 new members to the postal board; meaning DeJoy is on the way out sooner rather than later.

missedthecue• 5 years ago

According to Wired, the EO likely has little weight to it, and is essentially symbolic.

https://www.wired.com/story/biden-wants-government-run-evs-n...

ogre_codes2• 5 years ago

I think Biden’s order only applies to government owned vehicles and the PO is a weird quasi-in-between entity. Not really private, not really government.

dengsauve• 5 years ago

I don't understand why USPS would contract out designing a new vehicle instead of buying American SUVs built for Europe - all the amenities of a modern SUV, plenty of parts and mechanics to repair them, and they'll have been built by a real car company, not some "Tactical Vehicle Manufacturer". Best of all, they'll have that right-hand-drive that Postal workers love so much.

We can't even do something as simple as upgrading the post office vehicles without bringing in defense contractors. Give me a break. Put that money towards a company of peace, or at least the company that will cost USPS the least.

supergarfield• 5 years ago

American SUVs built for Europe
they'll have that right-hand-drive that Postal workers love so much.

Maybe you know, but the vast majority of Europe is right-hand-traffic, left-hand-drive like the US. AFAIK only the UK and Ireland are left-hand-traffic in Europe.

throwaway0a5e5• 5 years ago

Are you going to complain that fishing boats have Raytheon radars?

Oshkosh makes tons of industry specific truck bodies. That's one of their business lines. Same for Grumman before them.

Despite what the internet commenters seeking validation for their decision to purchase a 3yo Tacoma at 2k over MSRP will have you believe, the edge between vehicle manufacturers is quite small to the point where USPS contracting somebody, anybody to build them a bunch of purpose built vehicles will likely be cheaper in the long run than slapping a bunch of shelves in a RHD Transit Connect.

And this is coming from someone who thinks most commercial fleets are over-equipped for regulatory compliance reasons and that the broader economy would be better off if that didn't happen.

ska2• 5 years ago

Building off an existing platform makes some sense, but modern SUVs are a set of design trade offs that probably aren't great for much other than their target market: suburban homes doing school runs, work commutes and occasional grocery runs on good roads, while maintaining occasional use functionality to pick up heavier/bulkier objects.

They don't make much sense as a commercial vehicle designed to get in and out of all day and load and unload. So your car manufacture would make a bunch of modifications, and at that point you are right back where you started.

Now if you were suggesting buy a bunch of whatever some other country had developed for the same purpose, you might be onto something.

toast0• 5 years ago

They're planning to buy like 100,000 of these. May as well do the work to get what you actually want when you're buying that many.

jedberg5• 5 years ago

I hope they plan to design them as rolling data platforms. Postal trucks are ideal for collecting hyperlocal data. The 360 camera is a good start, assuming it can record. Imagine getting a completely up to date Street View every day. Imagine getting hyperlocal weather data every day.

And more importantly, that same data collected over time. Being able to monitor the daily changes in weather or traffic or erosion.

With the right contracts in place, it might even be profitable for them to go off route just to collect data.

nottorp• 5 years ago

I suppose google and facebook selling your data is not enough for you...

jedberg5• 5 years ago

Google already drives around a fleet of vehicles to collect this data. Wouldn't it be better for them to give all that money to the postal service to subsidize mail delivery while also getting cars off the road?

SamWhited4• 5 years ago

We already can get hyper local weather data: every airport (and there are a lot of small airports in the U.S.) and tons of public buildings have weather stations on them. I guarantee you can get weather data within a few miles easily.

As to everything else: no, that would be creepy and the post office shouldn't do it. They don't need to become profitable or do off-mission things just to please the people that think it should be run like a business for some reason even though the whole point of the post office is to actually go everywhere (even where it wouldn't be profitable for FedEx et al to go) and be cheap (ie. not to be run like a business, to be run like a public service, which is what it is).

jedberg5• 5 years ago

I said the same below but it applies here too: Google already drives around a fleet of vehicles to collect this data. Wouldn't it be better for them to give all that money to the postal service to subsidize mail delivery while also getting cars off the road?

And I'm talking about truly hyperlocal data. When I load up Weather Underground or Purple Air, there are a bunch of sensors near me, but the closest is one mile away. I know the route of my postal carrier. He starts his day less than one mile and stays within one mile of my house his entire day. I'd love to have daily temp and air pollution readings from sensors that are near my house all day.

hx2a3• 5 years ago

I'm a former postal worker (summer job in the 90's) and I drove some of those postal trucks. I drove the "half ton" and "quarter ton" trucks. Those are the small or very small delivery trucks you would typically see in residential neighborhoods.

Those things were named after their actual weight and made of aluminum. Obviously driving around in a 500 or 1000 pound vehicle when every other car weighs considerably more is anxiety producing. Plus the driver seat is inverted compared to every other US vehicle, so my visibility to the left side and rear was poor. Plus other drivers can't be expected to know or understand that my ability to see them is different from what is typical of other drivers. Plus if the vehicle was damaged in any way, I would be fired, even if it was clearly not my fault.

Fun times! And great memories. What a unique summer job to have while in college.

throwaway0a5e5• 5 years ago

FYI the "S10 with a funny body on it" you were driving does not weigh 500lb or 1000lb. Those are load ratings (very conservative ones).

hx2a3• 5 years ago

Really? That's not what they told me when I worked there. They were such flimsy vehicles, so what I was told sounded reasonable.

bluedino• 5 years ago

Why wouldn’t they just used a customized Ford Transit or something?

throwaway0a5e5• 5 years ago

Because when you're buying a "major car OEMs are happy to sell this number" number of vehicles you can afford to get exactly what you want and the resultant few % reduction in operating cost over the following decade or two will more than make up for the increased cost up front.

Also odds are this thing will be a mish-mash of GM or Ford parts bin with just the body and body specific stuff being different (like the LLV, or that handicapped van AM general used to make). So they may very well be buying a "customized Ford Transit" where it just so happens the body is also custom.

jimboyoungblood• 5 years ago

Apparently they're being built by a company called Oshkosh Defense because... delivering mail is just like combat?

eganist• 5 years ago

The current-gen mail vehicle is called the LLV - literally the Grumman Long Life Vehicle - and the mileage these things have taken on speaks well to the name.

USPS tends to order these things with the expectation that they'll last forever (400k+ miles) with relatively little upkeep. Most cars out today, even if they get to e.g. 200k miles, will probably have taken on some pretty major repairs.

History:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_DJ ('55-'84)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV ('87-'94, still used today)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Delivery_Vehic... ('23 onward)

USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

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