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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

#361

Post by m4rtink »

tpm wrote: post #221
notch898a wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American I refuse to believe there is anything in Brno but a gigantic Česká zbrojovka factory.

The current Česká zbrojovka is located in Uhersky Brod, the Brno location is long gone.

Yeah - it used to be a pretty gigantic complex & it is now being re-developed: https://www.novazbrojovka.cz/

It will essentially become a whole new quarter, with housing, office/retail space and new schools. That's how big it was.

BTW, main focus now in Brno is high tech (a lot of electron microscopy), IT (Red Hat, Kiwi, YSOFT, Seznam, Netsuite, Avast, etc.) and lately also space (OHB, SAB Aerospace, etc.).

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

#362

Post by Clubber »

psychlops wrote: post #87
Clubber wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of remote areas that only the USPS will deliver to because they aren't profit motivated.

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.

>I can only hope their lack of profit motivation will make them stop taking money from bulk mailers.

If your objective is to lessen your bulk mail, the FTC recommends this service. I've done it and my bulk mail is significantly less. It takes a few months to notice a difference.

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail

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

#363

Post by theshrike79 »

Gigachad wrote: post #34
codazoda wrote: post #7

I’ve been wondering what the most repairable vehicle might look like, and I guess the USPS already put a lot of brain power into that problem. I presume this is ugly because it’s both purpose built and highly repairable.

The design looks like it would have very good visibility. It's a huge problem with most vans and trucks where you have these huge blind spots in front.

These delivery vans are 100% function over form. They have exact specs on how much the driver has to see of the surrounding area from the driving seat and the car is designed around that.

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

#364

Post by m4rtink »

gffrd wrote: post #158
m4rtink wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - while it seems easy/logical to just swap a normal delivery vehicle for an electric version of it, you don't really have to do that & electric vehicles do come in many more shapes and sizes due to the might higher flexibility and scalability of the electric power system. For example here in Brno, Czech Republic, the entry to the city center is nowadays quite restrictive for regular cars/vans - a lot of it is a…

For some reason I find it really funny that there are Dominos in the Czech Republic …

Not sure if they are anywhere else in Czech Republic, but in Brno they even reside in the magnificent functionalist Palace Moravia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Moravia

As far as I can tell their service is good & pizzas tasty. :)

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

#365

Post by theshrike79 »

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.

Charging management based on electricity price is a solved problem already with multiple solutions. Seems like a no-brainer for an org like USPS to implement.

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

#366

Post by berniedurfee »

photochemsyn wrote: post #82
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…

Implementing a battery-swap system at major truck stops seems plausible. The semi would pull in, its battery pack would be pulled out by a light crane and slotted into a charging unit, and a fresh pack would be installed, no stop-over time needed. I also wonder whether semis on certain well-defined long-haul routes (I-80 etc) could be partially automated, such that the driver could sleep in the back of the cab much o…

Or just swap the whole truck.

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

#367

Post by botro »

psychlops wrote: post #341
scarface74 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Though they're not quite ready to eat, the USPS delivers millions of pounds of live chickens along with a large variety of other animals every year:

https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm

Though your farmers are digital, there is no API for getting live bees.

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

#368

Post by wartijn_ »

vanderZwan wrote: post #213
14 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that is faster than I expected since they are 3 wheeled. Honda stopped producing 3 wheeled trikes because they were far too easy to tip over during cornering and many people died. These things look like they could do the same if not careful. I hope they give employees lots of training.

Yeah the weight distribution looks like it's pretty top-heavy when fully loaded, doesn't it? And it's not like it's a Carver that compensates for all of that whenever you take a turn (sadly), so I'd be very cautious while driving it. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK4wzBYmTIo [1] https://www.carver.earth/en/

It looks like the battery is in the bottom of the vehicle. Since batteries are really heavy I assume the weight distribution won't be too bad.

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

#370

Post by mrsuprawsm »

jonasdegendt wrote: post #320
mcv wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dutch postal service PostNL has a wide variety of vehicles ranging from trucks to bicycles. And as far as I know, bicycles have always been a big part of the last few miles of mail delivery here. https://www.postnl.nl/over-postnl/pers-nieuws/beeldmateriaal...

They have all these vehicles but what's actually being used in practice in the Netherlands for last mile deliveries? I'm in the city center of a large Belgian city and 99% of my deliveries from both BPost and PostNL are still the regular white panel vans, even though both have local sorting centers.

In Rotterdam, PostNL delivers the mail or packages that fit through the letterbox using someone on a bike (they're usually walking their bike, but that's beside the point I guess).

Packages are delivered by a PostNL guy driving a white van (or, more accurately, a subcontractor using their own rented non-PostNL branded van, but wearing a PostNL uniform)

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