New mail truck prototype called electric but more like a Volt

[freebeard]

I'm as libertarian, small government as they come, but in defense of the post office... they at least operate completely on taxes paid only by those who freely choose to utilize the service.

When I go in to buy postal money orders to pay my bills, I occasionally chat with them about a Post Office Bank.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal...#United_States

In the United States, the United States Postal Savings System was established in 1911 under the Act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 814). It was discontinued by the Act of March 28, 1966 (80 Stat. 92).

We can't all be North Dakota:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_North_Dakota

Under state law, the bank is the State of North Dakota doing business as the Bank of North Dakota.[3] The state and its agencies are required to place their funds in the bank, but local governments are not required to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal...#United_States

[Galane]

That truck looks like a GEM Car swallowed a Metro Mite truck. Or it's the hideous offspring of a Grumman LLV and a 1950 Divco.

What's the drag coefficient of a 1950 Divco? Take that design, pump up the size a bit. Styling *done* and actually decent to look at.

The current Postal vehicles could be run through a shop like London Buses used to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFC7QTZc5Do

Scrap the current drivetrains (literally, melt them down to recycle) and adapt something currently in production.

Do any of these proposals / prototypes include an all wheel drive version for rural routes on unpaved roads that don't get plowed unless Bob Farmer does it with his tractor?

The USPS money problems stem a lot from their requirement to massively overfund their employee pension fund. How many billion $ do they have sitting there? Are they expecting every employee to retire with 40 years service and live to 150? If they could just take $1BN to apply to things the service really needs to update...

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Galane

The current Postal vehicles could be run through a shop like London Buses used to.

When i was in the military the Army had three levels of vehicular maintenance. Rear echelon maintenance was basically a frame-up restoration with new paint, every five years or so.



The state of the art for 3D printing is foaming inks. https://3dprint.com/164218/3d-printa...amic-foam-ink/ They should be planning to make new Divco bodies.

[Frank Lee]

Prototypes being evaluated: https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news...mage=AAuwtLc|1

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Interesting to find out Mahindra has presented a prototype. IIRC they have once offered an idle-stop setup which they called "micro-hybrid" for some of their trucks and SUVs in their Indian domestic market.

[Hersbird]

I think the Mihindra one will end up winning most of the contract. They may order some of the electric ones, but the Mihindra will check all of the boxes for the least money. They want to get on the map better in the US and how better than putting one in every neighbourhood, everyday?

As far as 4wd, I sure hope so. We have a few now but they are built poorly ergonomically IMO compared to the standard current LLV. I don't have one on my route and it's pretty bad already. Steep hills, hardpack snow and ice, winding canyon. The bean counters say the $80 each studded tires are no go because they are 30# short on load capacity for a 2800# rear GAWR so we have to use the non studded 30# over rating $275 each LT tires. So we run $70 chains that need repaired or replaced every week or so. You just hope when they break, they don't take out a brake line before you can stop and put on a zip strip to hold up the loose ends. I also would love the electric just for the peace and quite I would get the rest of the year. My current truck sounds like a WW2 German tiger tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXP0QhbBDC8