Rural mail carrier
 

A person in my family delivers mail with an 08 jeep wrangler and obviously gets terrible gas mileage. Any tips to reduce gas consumption on a route especially stop and go-mail box to mail box?

The amount of money being spent on fuel on a mail route in that vehicle must be near worst-case scenario. I wonder if doing the math might show that getting a more efficient vehicle would be the best way to go.

Speaking of which, I saw a Toyota Prius on a mail route for the first time just this week. A vehicle with regenerative braking + electric assist + idle stop/engine off coasting is pretty ideal for that type of use.

Not saying that specifically getting a Prius makes economic sense. But I'd definitely get your relative to crunch the numbers and see what does make sense.

Mail Carrier = constant distance, route, speed requirement and thus is an EXCELLENT electric vehicle candidate!

Use a scooter ?

Having done several rural routes over several years as a subcontractor, it is of PRIME IMPORTANCE to maximize fuel economy- that is, if the point of driving the route is to make money moreso than waste your time. (Gotta just shake my head at the local pizza delivery genius' that deliver in their mud trucks. There is no hope for humanity is there. :( )

I've done these routes through MN winters, on rural roads (paved and gravel and dirt) and I can say without question that 4WD or AWD is NOT NEEDED (might need it if you have mountains tho'). For the low traction times you will want good tread and the heavy vehicle weight bias on the driving wheels though i.e. fwd= weight forward, throw as much of the load on the front seat and floor as you can; rwd= weight back, keep as much of the load in the back seat as you can.

The route can be completed much, much faster when your arm hanging out the window is at the same height as the boxes. Having to reach down from a tall vehicle really, really slows things down- you might even have to make complete stops.

Narrow vehicles rule!!!! When I used a Super Beetle I could deliver out of both sides of the car down deadheads, then cruise without stopping on the way out. Yeah baby! :thumbup:

I wouldn't even use a cosmetically "nice" vehicle for route work- it's tough on 'em. You want the lightest weight possible, with only the carrying capacity needed to get through the route. It's easier on brakes and fuel econo and maneuverability that way.

P.S. Four cylinders or even less is what you want. SERIOUSLY.

Rural mail routes, with houses miles aparts, would be best done in a gas car. I'd suggest an older import wagon, like a Civic or Tercel, because they are bombproof and good for short hops. A hybrid, while a gas saver, would worsen the environmental impact. The electric drive would be used a lot, but maintenance costs would be worse in the long run.

I think the fleets of Prius city taxis disprove the "more maintenance" theory.

That may be but I wouldn't buy a Prius for route duty unless it was dirt cheap and/or the route was all on paved roads.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...6_245901_n.jpg


For longer routes they use tiny vans with the steering wheel on the wrong side, which i assume are diesel.

How many miles a day is it?

guessing replacing the auto is not likely to happen.

sounds like it may be like are area, where its up to the person delivering the mail to use there personal auto to cover the long miles. and the USPS pays per box delivered to or per mile or something else.....

being major stop and go, shorter narrow tires with high pressers will help with the non stop powering up to speed, stopping and then repeating on and on and.........

every one in my area that delivers mail goes thru sevral sets of the life time brake pads a year.......:eek::eek::eek::eek:
so yea its really worst case on mpg.
driving down hill as much as possible will help as well, but i do under stand in most all cases there's homes on bolth sides of the road....
so doing the down hill first and the up hill after fluids have heated up will help, but not very much....

shutting off the A\C will help, probably about a 1/2ish mpg or so.




spent a term in the city with my trooper and went to a little 225/75/15 passenger car tire, helped with driving at speeds around 20 to 40.

but with the 4.55 diffs she did not like going over 55 mph with the smaller tires, rpms where extra high and i had around a 1mpg loss at 55, the higher rpms with the diesel was more the big issue....
i just stuck to 45mph and under roads the hole time.:thumbup:

Hmmm this gives me something to think about.

My ex-wife and my daughter are both rural carriers.
They both have those jeeps, simply because they were available with right hand drive.
The P.O. pays them by the mile for the use of a personal vehicle.
The cost of fuel and maintenance is considered by the P.O. in determining the rate they pay. The rate is the same for every carrier in the U.S. So-- an efficient car gives the carrier more money in pocket and the jeeps are about and even trade off.

50-60 miles on rural roads that still have ice on them now and the ditches are muddy in the spring (they trap a lot of the mail carrier vehicles).

What would be a good vehicle to switch to that you could drive while sitting on the right side & get good mpg?

there's very few.

Heeps
subes


ive seen half cuts, not cheep at all like 4 or 5K and you can get all thats needed to swap to right hand drive.
as well as a over seas diesel :cool:



the laws on bringing a hole running/diving auto in to the usa that was not sold hear, will blow your mind....
starts with a 25% import tax
it just goes down hill from there FAST....

I have heard many importing JDM stuff, like R-type Civics etc. Maybe used such might be possibility, of course one with lesser motor swapped or completely another model of such import?

Only 25% of tax? We pay 23% from every day items, cars can be a lot more tax can reach almost to price you pay from car, even if imported from another EU country, cars imported from US are roughly 200% taxed from my memory.

Even new Camaro Convertible with AT costs around 90 000 euros here, that is almost 120 000 US dollars.

I think that imports there are not really expensive, it just feels like so as they are taxed bit more than originally sold there models, compared to many other countries even taxed price will be relatively low what I have heard.

That said, still relative additional cost might be hard to justify when compared to fuel savings, in such job car is just something consumable which need to be replaced relatively often, also it is a tool which costs should be kept at minimum.

Brake pads etc might cost quite a bit for some less common models, so it would be good to put all estimated costs on paper and do the comparing of models. Manual transmission would be rather annoying in such driving too.

Here post guys use small Volkswagen diesels with manual transmissions, I wonder how many clutches they go in a year, also their left leg must be rather more developed than right one :D

Small a/t car like a '82 Skylark makes a perfect delivery vehicle- easy to drive from the passenger side with no mods at all.

Student pedal and hand throttle, what else one would require? ;)

Don't even need that. The little car had a nice bench seat, column shift, 4 cyl, and could easily be driven from the passenger side with no mods whatsoever.

this is why im looking at getting an engine thats not in a auto....:eek::eek:

Importation and Certification FAQ's Directory--All Vehicles


hears the part on RHD autos....
its more or less a lot of legal beagle talk.....:rolleyes:

For rural mail routes with widely spaced houses, older import wagons like the Civic or Tercel, known for durability and suitability for short trips, may be the most practical choice due to the extensive use of a gas car. While hybrids save gas, they might worsen environmental impact, given frequent short trips. The electric drive's constant use would offset savings, and maintenance costs would likely accumulate in the long term.