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U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

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Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#341

Post by psychlops »

scarface74 wrote: post #98
psychlops wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nation should subsidize package delivery to remote locations? I'm sure there is a good reason why, but I can't think of an example. I can only hope their lack of profit motivation will make them stop taking money from bulk mailers.

Yeah, who needs farmers. Food is so overrated.

To the best of my knowledge the USPS doesn't deliver food. Farmers are quite digital and even though remote, many use PO Boxes for their junk mail which could easily be done by an alternative service.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#342

Post by ckdarby »

raphaelj wrote: post #273

What would be the impact of such fleets on electricity production management? As these charge overnight, I'm guessing USPS could easily program them to charge when the electricity is the cheapest (i.e. overproduced), or skip charges when the remaining range is enough and electricity expensive.

Large scale power management like this can help smooth out the supply and demand fluctuations.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#343

Post by psychlops »

hot_gril wrote: post #129
psychlops wrote: post #63

There is so little need for a post office any more except as a junk mail delivery system. I'd rather see phase out plans.

It's also for anything government-related, like voting. Pretty important to have.

Agreed. I'd counter that much (all?) of it should be online.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#344

Post by Symbiote »

diordiderot wrote: post #255
defrost wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Daimler Truck, one of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, has unveiled its first heavy-duty, battery-electric truck – the Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul – with a new e-axle and a range of 500kms. https://thedriven.io/2022/09/20/daimler-unveils-its-first-el... Electric truck maker Janus has debuted the first battery-powered prime mover in Australia and has plans to set up battery swap stations up and…

500kms isn't really long haul in the US though

> Drivers must not exceed 4.5 hours of driving without taking a 45-minute break and a standard day of driving for a HGV driver is considered to be 9 hours long.

The speed limit for this vehicle will be either 80km/h or 100km/h, I'm not sure how they decide, but with some good logistics for a rapid charge part-way through that's not far off.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#345

Post by acdha »

rmccue wrote: post #283
Brybry wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in the states the cost in lives might be significant if we did that. If you look at USPS annual reports to congress they have ~27k motor vehicle accidents a year with a fleet of ~236k vehicles (~216k delivery).[1] So possibly 10%+ of their vehicles are involved in accidents each year. If we look at occupant fatality rates for vans (what usps currently use) they're one of the safest vehicle types.[2] Meanwhile…

It sounds like there could be selection bias in those numbers, so I’m not sure that can be extrapolated. I’d expect that the percentage of vans driven by professional drivers is relatively high, compared to motorcycles.

Motorcycles in particular famously have a curve where older people buy them after not riding for a while. I remember seeing a chart showing crashes as a function of recent driver experience and it was IIRC the first 2-3 years which had the highest fatality rate by a surprising margin.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#346

Post by dsfyu404ed »

gwbas1c wrote: post #92
akira2501 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> electricity prices per mile of transport per ton were about 25% that of fossil fuel prices per mile of transport per ton In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet. > They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well Reduced cap…

> In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet. You charge the mail trucks overnight, when they aren't being driven. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a postman out in the evening or nighttime. I also don't know about you, but I don't stan…

>You have to go out of your way to get to the gas station, go up to the pump, pay for it, and then get back on your way. It always takes me 5-10 minutes to get gas.

Almost everybody consuming a "your local post office" volume of fuel has a tank and pump to dispense with on site.

That said, consumer shipping has enough regularity that it lends itself well to electrification and electrifying any given class of vehicle in that industry should pencil out a little sooner than the equivalent vehicle in general.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#347

Post by Symbiote »

nine_k wrote: post #318
diordiderot wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US used to be littered with railroad. Density isn't a problem Here is a map from 189X[0] Auto supremacy was and still is a choice. [0] https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/api/...

The US is still littered with railroads, and rail carries a large amount of cargo. It's still not not as dense as UK, Germany, or Netherlands, and cannot be, outside areas like North-East. What makes sense around places like NYC, Chicago, or Seattle, may not work equally well in Nebraska. Building a road and running trucks on it is just more affordable. Also, rail is optimized to have ridiculously high throughput at…

On the European rail networks with good passenger service — not the high speed lines, but conventional lines — the tracks are good enough to support fast freight trains carrying parcels and so on. That also means they can run during the day without disrupting passenger trains.

Perishable food and parcels are commonly carried by rail, although there is still a lot by road.

Container trains in Britain can travel at 75mph on such tracks. That's faster than a truck is allowed to drive (60mph).

Checking my numbers, I found this [1] which is interesting:

> There are many other examples where people are utilising rail in new ways. For example - hot slab steel shipped from the furnace to arrive warm enough to be rolled into sheets.

http://freightfilter.com/uk-rail-freight-guide/

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#348

Post by dsfyu404ed »

globular-toast wrote: post #276
rootusrootus wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the owner of two EVs, with neighbors that have various EVs and hybrids, I am actually kinda miffed at the new regulations. For a typical appliance car like a Corolla, Camry, or similar, the engine is all but inaudible unless the car is stationary. Once it is past walking speed tires quickly become what you hear. This need to make EVs loud sucks because I was really looking forward to a quieter environment. But no.…

Noise pollution just isn't taken seriously yet. Manufacturers are free to implement as much noise as they like. Think about the cumulative effect of completely pointless stuff like the Windows startup sound or Apple device locked sound. Cars are some of the worst offenders, of course. They always have been. But they've become a lot worse and apparently EVs are only going to continue that trend, apparently. I've notic…

> Manufacturers are free to implement as much noise as they like.

No. They are not. Nor have they been since at least the 1990s (probably longer)

There are standards for "drive-by noise" as measured at various speeds, distances and throttle positions and these standards have been in places and constantly been revised (to be more comprehensive) over time.

I'm unfamiliar with the specific FMVSS #s but I am familiar with the engineering shenanigans that have been implemented to meet them.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#349

Post by sbradford26 »

xeromal wrote: post #111
rootusrootus wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that in real life HVAC accounts for half or more of the total consumption on a typical stop-n-go route.

and postal trucks don't even have HVAC. At least the ICE ones. They get a lowsy fan

Yeah that is a major perk of the new postal trucks both EV and ICE is that they will finally get Air conditioning and an adequate heating system. The LLV had no AC which led to many issues in hot climates, and the heater was not large enough to heat the cabin well with the window open all the time.

Re: U.S. Postal Service starts nationwide electric vehicle fleet, buying 9,250 EVs

#350

Post by smileysteve »

b112 wrote: post #203
gwbas1c wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet. You charge the mail trucks overnight, when they aren't being driven. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a postman out in the evening or nighttime. I also don't know about you, but I don't stan…

You have to go out of your way to get to the gas station, go up to the pump, pay for it, and then get back on your way. It always takes me 5-10 minutes to get gas. Wow. Gas stations are everywhere, conveniently located, and always on route to some place or another. The mental gymnastics employed, to try to make this seem arduous, does not make for a compelling argument.

Conveniently, gas stations also have small commercial electric, and in some localities are partnering with utilities to provide high speed charging. (solves the street parking and no high amp service issues)

Gas stations also have large flat roofs that some are putting solar panels on top of.

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