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USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

about.usps.com

51–60 of 72 posts

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#51
post #5

Does this mean they'll have all the old trucks up for sale? Who wants to start a food truck with me in an old USPS vehicle

Would it be street legal to operate a civilian right hand drive vehicle?

Yep. You can even buy a Wrangler RHD direct from Jeep today. Go to their builder and find the "WRANGLER UNLIMITED RHD".

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#52
post #8

The proposed new trucks look pretty wonky, like a cartoon: https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images...

Isn't the driver seat on the wrong side? US should be on the left side right? The figure shows right side...

You are right that US drivers usually have the steering column on the left side

However, postal drivers get out of their vehicle all the time, and often on roads not meant to have vehicles pull over. Therefore them getting out from the right hand side prevents them from having to exit into traffic.

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#53
Of defense contractors, Oshkosh is one of my favorite and makes amazing vehicles. I think the USPS will get a reliable and durable platform from them. As far as electrification, they have experience with that in the HEMTT and could upgrade the platform as the USPS dictates. They also have autonomous vehicle experience so there is a lot of longevity to the partnership. So as far as government boondoggles can go, this sounds ok to me.

I have an Oshkosh P19, an aircraft/structural fire truck. The thing is unstoppable with a fully locked drive train on demand and great construction quality. They also fixed a bunch of issues in the FMTV that were inherited from BAE Systems. The MTVR, JLTV, and HET are all well regarded AFAIK.

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#54
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already can get hyper local weather data: every airport (and there are a lot of small airports in the U.S.) and tons of public buildings have weather stations on them. I guarantee you can get weather data within a few miles easily. As to everything else: no, that would be creepy and the post office shouldn't do it. They don't need to become profitable or do off-mission things just to please the people that think i…

I said the same below but it applies here too: Google already drives around a fleet of vehicles to collect this data. Wouldn't it be better for them to give all that money to the postal service to subsidize mail delivery while also getting cars off the road? And I'm talking about truly hyperlocal data. When I load up Weather Underground or Purple Air, there are a bunch of sensors near me, but the closest is one mile…

There aren't that many cars that it would get off the road and it's not on mission and outside the realm of their expertise, so no, it's not a good way for them to make money which they shouldn't be doing anyways.

This weather data wouldn't be as useful as you think it would be. You'd be getting data only taken once per day more or less at the same time. You're much better using the airstrip a mile away that has a sensor that takes readings every 10 minutes or whatever.

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#55
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI the "S10 with a funny body on it" you were driving does not weigh 500lb or 1000lb. Those are load ratings (very conservative ones).

Really? That's not what they told me when I worked there. They were such flimsy vehicles, so what I was told sounded reasonable.

The Grumman LLV postal vehicle weighs 2,700lbs:

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

The "ton" truck rating persists, but it's mostly outdated. The F-150 is a "half-ton" truck, despite having a rated payload capacity that's often closer to 1 ton. I drive a "1 ton" truck that can haul over 2 tons ...

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#56
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI the "S10 with a funny body on it" you were driving does not weigh 500lb or 1000lb. Those are load ratings (very conservative ones).

Really? That's not what they told me when I worked there. They were such flimsy vehicles, so what I was told sounded reasonable.

For comparison 500 lb is a medium sized motorcycle.

Those are load ratings. 1/2 ton is still a standard small pickup parlance, but a a true load rating that probably hasn't been true since the 70s or 80s. Back before then it was a good idea of what you could haul (as opposed to a "full sized" 1-ton)

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#57
post #53

Of defense contractors, Oshkosh is one of my favorite and makes amazing vehicles. I think the USPS will get a reliable and durable platform from them. As far as electrification, they have experience with that in the HEMTT and could upgrade the platform as the USPS dictates. They also have autonomous vehicle experience so there is a lot of longevity to the partnership. So as far as government boondoggles can go, this…

> I have an Oshkosh P19, an aircraft/structural fire truck

Cool! What do you use that for?

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#58
post #53

Of defense contractors, Oshkosh is one of my favorite and makes amazing vehicles. I think the USPS will get a reliable and durable platform from them. As far as electrification, they have experience with that in the HEMTT and could upgrade the platform as the USPS dictates. They also have autonomous vehicle experience so there is a lot of longevity to the partnership. So as far as government boondoggles can go, this…

Oshkosh? B'gosh!

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#59
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be street legal to operate a civilian right hand drive vehicle?

Yes, it is. There's a fairly big "JDM" (Japanese Domestic Market) car interest in the US, and I've seen plenty of them registered, insured and driving here. I think getting them emissions certified since the standards are all different is a bigger hurdle when importing than anything else, and that wouldn't apply here. Edit: Also, the other direction, you'll see a lot of LHD cars in the UK where American troops are de…

It's not really a loophole is it? European drivers are welcome to drive LHD cars into UK via boats/channel tunnel just as we can take British cars to the rest of Europe, American troops just happen to be a significant group who take advantage of it being completely legal.

As to the confused looks, I would hazard a guess (having lived near a US base in the past, now not but still see EU cars every day) that they were over your choice of make/model (e.g. a Chevy of a type that no Brits buy), rather than driver side. Maybe I'm wrong and lots of people give weird looks because of the driver side, but personally I've definitely stood staring at cars that looked weird to me and were clearly US imports, but if I see a car that's common in the UK it's not that interesting noticing when there's a foreign version on the road here.

edit: oh and number plates too. American style is obviously much less common than even most old European country styles, yet alone the more standardised versions of the past couple of decades. So even if the model of car is the same, seeing an EU plate you think "they probably drove it from mainland Europe" which is pretty common for holidays, work, or just people relocating and keeping their car, whereas seeing a US plate makes you wonder who cared enough to ship it all the way here.

Re: USPS Awards Contract to Modernize Postal Delivery Vehicle Fleet

#60
post #59
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is. There's a fairly big "JDM" (Japanese Domestic Market) car interest in the US, and I've seen plenty of them registered, insured and driving here. I think getting them emissions certified since the standards are all different is a bigger hurdle when importing than anything else, and that wouldn't apply here. Edit: Also, the other direction, you'll see a lot of LHD cars in the UK where American troops are de…

It's not really a loophole is it? European drivers are welcome to drive LHD cars into UK via boats/channel tunnel just as we can take British cars to the rest of Europe, American troops just happen to be a significant group who take advantage of it being completely legal. As to the confused looks, I would hazard a guess (having lived near a US base in the past, now not but still see EU cars every day) that they were…

I guess I used "loophole" because the whole program is a loophole. Typically exempts you from inspections, no international drivers license needed, you buy coupons that relieve the fuel tax, we use weird number plates as you mention (not the ones from home, but military off-duty plates). I had an old LHD Opel Rekord from Germany when I was in the UK, like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Rekord#/media/File:Opel_R...
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