Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

#31

Post by seanmcdirmid »

slimsag wrote: post #29
rdl wrote: post #23

I put in a preorder for the Workhorse W-15 pickup at CES (I'd been following them for a year). $1k fully-refundable, same as Model 3. http://workhorse.com/pickup/ 80 mile electric-only range is great, and it gets electric incentives (federal and more importantly for me, exempt from 40% import duty to Puerto Rico). The great thing as a pickup truck is it works as a stationary power source for tools, either from batter…

I didn't see this mentioned on their site anywhere / had to Google it. The truck is $52,000.. I can't imagine picking that over a Tundra for $31,120.

Incentives + taxes. I didn't know Puerto Rico normally had a 40% tax on vehicles! Kind of like how a Tesla Model S is economical in Norway given the taxes on the alternatives.

Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

#32

Post by omgwtfbyobbq »

zappo2938 wrote: post #22
the-dude wrote: post #5

In The Netherlands, DHL uses bikes : http://www.dhl.com/en/press/releases/releases_2014/express/d... I absolutely hate DHL as a recipient in NL, but this is pretty cool. They have other green vehicles too ( gas, electric ).

I rode my push bike from Portland to Cheyenne, WY. I figure I burnt 10,000 calories a day.The environmental cost of logistics of growing and shipping that many human consumable calories probably drastically out weighs that of burning gas in a car to travel that distance. Maybe someone can do the math.

It depends on what those calories are. If you're eating inexpensive veggies/fruits/starches/grains, you're probably around 200-300mpg equivalent on a bike. If you're eating steaks, then you're probably pretty close to a car.

https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/11/mpg-of-a-human/

Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

#33

Post by sschueller »

the-dude wrote: post #5

In The Netherlands, DHL uses bikes : http://www.dhl.com/en/press/releases/releases_2014/express/d... I absolutely hate DHL as a recipient in NL, but this is pretty cool. They have other green vehicles too ( gas, electric ).

The Swiss Postal service has a similar fleet of vehicles ranging from hybrid, gas and electric.

https://www.post.ch/-/media/post/ueber-uns/medienmitteilunge...

https://www.post.ch/de/ueber-uns/unternehmen/medien/medienmi...

Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

#35

Post by rdl »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #31
slimsag wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see this mentioned on their site anywhere / had to Google it. The truck is $52,000.. I can't imagine picking that over a Tundra for $31,120.

Incentives + taxes. I didn't know Puerto Rico normally had a 40% tax on vehicles! Kind of like how a Tesla Model S is economical in Norway given the taxes on the alternatives.

The Puerto Rico tax is...weird. It goes up highly progressively on value (I think 40% over 40k), it seems to be different for importer/dealer vs. individual, etc., but the 2015 electric exemption is nice.

(But, in exchange via act 20+22: zero capital gains (LT/ST), zero tax on dividends, and consulting/services/export revenue are taxed at 0-4% -- all guaranteed through at least 2035. Seems to be becoming quite the hub for traders and cryptocurrency people, plus some saas/consultancy types, which becomes interesting to me for network effect reasons.)

Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

#36

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rdl wrote: post #35
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incentives + taxes. I didn't know Puerto Rico normally had a 40% tax on vehicles! Kind of like how a Tesla Model S is economical in Norway given the taxes on the alternatives.

The Puerto Rico tax is...weird. It goes up highly progressively on value (I think 40% over 40k), it seems to be different for importer/dealer vs. individual, etc., but the 2015 electric exemption is nice. (But, in exchange via act 20+22: zero capital gains (LT/ST), zero tax on dividends, and consulting/services/export revenue are taxed at 0-4% -- all guaranteed through at least 2035. Seems to be becoming quite the hu…

> (But, in exchange via act 20+22: zero capital gains (LT/ST), zero tax on dividends, and consulting/services/export revenue are taxed at 0-4% -- all guaranteed through at least 2035. Seems to be becoming quite the hub for traders and cryptocurrency people, plus some saas/consultancy types, which becomes interesting to me for network effect reasons.)

And in exchange for that, Puerto Rico is broke. But that is not a topic for here and now :)

Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

#37

Post by Armisael16 »

omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #32
zappo2938 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rode my push bike from Portland to Cheyenne, WY. I figure I burnt 10,000 calories a day.The environmental cost of logistics of growing and shipping that many human consumable calories probably drastically out weighs that of burning gas in a car to travel that distance. Maybe someone can do the math.

It depends on what those calories are. If you're eating inexpensive veggies/fruits/starches/grains, you're probably around 200-300mpg equivalent on a bike. If you're eating steaks, then you're probably pretty close to a car. https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/11/mpg-of-a-human/

You're doing a lot worse than that if you're hauling mail around.

The numbers also get a lot worse once you consider the energy cost of shipping your food to you (as both your article and the person you were responding to noted).

Re: UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks

#38

Post by rdl »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #36
rdl wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Puerto Rico tax is...weird. It goes up highly progressively on value (I think 40% over 40k), it seems to be different for importer/dealer vs. individual, etc., but the 2015 electric exemption is nice. (But, in exchange via act 20+22: zero capital gains (LT/ST), zero tax on dividends, and consulting/services/export revenue are taxed at 0-4% -- all guaranteed through at least 2035. Seems to be becoming quite the hu…

> (But, in exchange via act 20+22: zero capital gains (LT/ST), zero tax on dividends, and consulting/services/export revenue are taxed at 0-4% -- all guaranteed through at least 2035. Seems to be becoming quite the hub for traders and cryptocurrency people, plus some saas/consultancy types, which becomes interesting to me for network effect reasons.) And in exchange for that, Puerto Rico is broke. But that is not a t…

I think it's in the other direction of causality "Puerto Rico was broke, so they passed all these incentives in 2006 and enhanced them in 2017".

But it does create a lot of perverse incentives; it's a better deal for me to move to PR and do stuff than for a PR-born kid to go to HS on-island, college in the US, and then return to PR to run a business. There is almost an argument for constitutionality/equal protection.

Post reply on HN