Any tips for a paper deliver guy?

[northstar2k]

I did an experiment with my seville in a town near me. This might help some. I went over a 4.6 mile loop with 33 stop signs and no traffic lights. I accelerated normally and kep my foot on the accelerator until I needed to sslow for the sign. According to my DIC I got 14.4 mpg. I then went over the same route under the same conditions and accelerated quickly to 25 and then coasted to the sign. This wasn't a jackrabbit start but I wasn't real gentle. Using this method I improved to 18.2 mpg , a 26+% improvement, and it only took me 2:05 longer to cover the 4.6 miles.

[FSUspectra]

Yay, a thread I feel I can contribute to!! :-)

So...I also deliever newspapers. Not quite as many, about 50 during the week and 105 on sunday. I was in a similar predicament. I won't re-write everything, but I posted on cleanmpg.com, here is the thread:
The Commute from Hell - Paper Route!!! - CleanMPG Forums

Anyways, I ended up getting a 125cc scooter and mounted a basket to it. Since you have more papers, I am not sure how much I can help. But I do know I more than halved my gas cost since doing so. And it's a bunch more fun! Don't know if this helped any, just wanted to chime in and second the scooter suggestion. You could probably get a 250 and mount something on the back that covers part of the seat to create a larger basket. A small trailer might be a good idea too.

Good luck!

[MetroMPG]

Hi Brandon -

Did you do the math and getting the scooter worked out in your favour? Or did you just want a scooter?

[FSUspectra]

I did some math, figuring that I would use the scooter 6 days per week at about 31 miles per day for the route, that's 186 miles. The scooter gets about 70mpg, and hypermiling my car yielded about 28mpg on the route. That's about 2.66 gal/wk on the scooter and about 6.64 gal/wk in the car. At $4.30 for premium (scooter manual suggests octane of at least 90), that's $11.44 /wk. The car, with about $4.09 for regular is at $27.16 /wk. That's a difference of about $15.72 /wk. If I were to use the scooter for the route only, with the scooter costing $2100 out the door it would take
about 118 weeks to break even, a little over two years, if gas prices remain the same. It'll pay off sooner if gas keeps going up. But, I use it often around town so that I don't take my car. That's not figured in. The fun factor was a major plus (the cool wind wakes me up at 4am... ) The maintenance on the scooter is much cheaper, and the longevity of my car is improved as well. Not to mention, the scooter came with a full two year warranty from the dealer. If anything happens to it outside regular wear-and-tear, the dealer will repair/replace the parts free of charge.

It may not have been fully worth it for the short term. But now I'm hooked on scooters and will replace it when it is out of commission, whenever that may be. I have heard of people getting 20,000-30,000 miles out of 'em if they are well maintained. I bought it May 7 of this year, and have already put about 1700 miles on it with no trouble whatsoever. It is reliable efficient transportation in a town with not-so-great public transit, distances too far to bike or walk, and a car is too much when it is only me.

Just my 2 cents though. I felt it was all around a good buy, I am happy with it, and don't regret it!

Hope this helps.