https://www.foxnews.com/auto/new-u-s-postal-service-truck-billion
Am I the only one who saw this and immediately thought of the hammerhead eagle I-thrust from top gear.
I understand a mail truck is utilitarian but some of these things are terrible looking.
I saw a bunch of the prototypes running around at a proving ground a couple years ago.
Definitely form follows function...by a few hundred miles.
Dang, I thought this thread was going to be a suggestion for the $2020 Challenge specialty class.
Out here in rural-ish Texas where congestion is so low that speed limits are... merely one consideration, I've always had a soft spot for the safety of mail drivers being rolling chicanes and usually unable to totally exit the roadway. On top of that their vehicles are probably a safety nightmare compared to regular consumer vehicles. I hope whatever next-gen mail trucks are selected make it really difficult for those drivers to get hurt.
I'm still not sure when we had good looking mail trucks. Nor why we need then to be attractive.
2002maniac said:Dang, I thought this thread was going to be a suggestion for the $2020 Challenge specialty class.
I suggested this awhile ago. It had some steam. But fizzled out.
pimpm3 said:https://www.foxnews.com/auto/new-u-s-postal-service-truck-billion
Am I the only one who saw this and immediately thought of the hammerhead eagle I-thrust from top gear.
I understand a mail truck is utilitarian but some of these things are terrible looking.
That prototype is so odd looking it could be French.
Those are all hideous and there's nothing that could possibly make having to look at one of them worthwhile.
Not even a paycheck?
In reply to Vigo :
Plenty of people who aren't paid by the USPS will be looking at whatever behemoth they select for 20+ years. It qualifies as pollution.
I've always thought that USPS delivery trucks are the perfect situation for an all-electric vehicle.
DWNSHFT said:I've always thought that USPS delivery trucks are the perfect situation for an all-electric vehicle.
That's probably true in a lot of urban/suburban areas, but many miles of postal route are rural and rough and they seem to want a universal type vehicle which means buying for those routes. Around me the destroy the suspension on Cherokees. Oddly the S-10 based square ones seem to last the longest of any of the carriers that deliver to my house. Or it's just that they all match so I can't tell when they swap out. The drivers certainly don't drive like they they have any mechanical sympathy AT ALL.
Mail trucks would be great for electric (are you listening Rivian?) and for some sort of auto pilot. Let the carrier sort mail while the truck trundles on to the next box.
Mail trucks could use electric and may very well choose the bidder that offers an electric version with comparable performance. But the mail goes everywhere they need to service the US public. Not everywhere that is easy or profitable.
So a lot of rural delivering means there will always be a gas or diesel version as the core.
I think given the US energy portfolio the postal vehicle fleet should be made of 50% E85 or natural gas powered. But that would mean higher fleet costs and thus higher stamp costs.
Battery suppliers may cringe at the life cycle cost targets for the program. To afford the warranty on an all electric postal fleet would be daunting. Again if the USPS absorbed the cost risk it creates a higher stamp cost.
All considered. I wish the USPS got some more appropriated tax money to just go as far Electric as they could. It would help the country in the long run.
pimpm3 said:https://www.foxnews.com/auto/new-u-s-postal-service-truck-billion
I'm getting a serious Fiat Multipla vibe from this road tumor.
Plenty of people who aren't paid by the USPS will be looking at whatever behemoth they select for 20+ years. It qualifies as pollution.
I guess so, but half the time when an Amazon contractor pulls into my driveway in a horrendous 20yo full size van that only has a padlock bolted to the doors because they won't stay shut on their own anymore, it looks like im about to be violently abducted. I've never gotten that feeling from the USPS!
Im sure once all the labor disputes about people having rights etc etc are squashed once and for all Amazon will be happy to put all of its not-employees in a fleet of amazon owned vehicles and stop paying them for providing their own. Then once those trucks drive themselves they can further demote those non-employees from driver to package-hander-overer and pay them less for that too. At least the trucks will look better!
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Indeed, a cubist multipla it is.
In reply to mad_machine :
Unfortunately I don't think self driving technology in terms of software logic would work for vehicles that purposely drive into the shoulders of roads or back into no parking spots.
is there a website " Postal trucks of the World "
What does Canada use ? Japan ?
Since Amazon is making 100k of its EV delivery trucks why not just buy those ?
Electric is also not the only method for improving economy of stop-and-go vehicles. One of the easiest systems that can be adapted to almost anything is a hydraulic motor on the driveshaft hooked to an accumulator. When you decel it pressurizes the tank. When you accelerate it uses pressure in the tank to accelerate. It can be a very simple system to implement, and the packaging is a lot easier in commercial stuff than it would be in a regular passenger car. It doesn't replace the combustion engine but it will improve it's efficiency in the areas where it is poor.
In reply to Vigo :
Hey, that's cool. Thanks for that!
Cooter said:I'm still not sure when we had good looking mail trucks.
The DJ-5 isn't a terrible looking mail truck. And Germany got really nice looking Type1/2/3 hybrid mail truck
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