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Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

nytimes.com

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Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#141

Post by EasyMark »

garciansmith wrote: post #7

I've read so much knocking their appearance, which is so confusing to me. It's ultimately function over form in this case; who cares if you don't like how it looks? I can only dream that the visibility and safety of having features like such a low hood and large bumpers would be incorporated into other vehicles (i.e., every SUV ever).

But it's okay to call them ugly. People get used to a certain look of things and then you introduce something that look like what an 8 year old would draw (this mail truck, Musk's cybertruck) and you'll get some flack. It's utterly meaningless in the end, and just bar talk. If these are reliable and make the postal workers' lives better I'm all for it, but they are imo ugly as sin.

Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#142

Post by mulmen »

xnx wrote: post #10

I don't mind the appearance if it serves a function, but what's the function? An electric truck wouldn't need a traditional engine compartment.

To have easy side entry the front wheels need to be in front of the driver. So you need something to cover the front suspension and hold up lights. Try drawing a flat nose version of this vehicle that maintains the same ease of access.

Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#143

Post by mulmen »

ggreer wrote: post #86
chomp wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How in the world is a mail carrier going to deliver mail in a huge esprinter, you going to have them open their door and climb out at every mailbox?

My point was that a much more capable vehicle could be purchased for a similar price. Depending on the use case, of course other commercial vehicles would make more sense. The smaller versions of the Ford Transit are a popular option among non-US postal services. And if US Postal Service was willing to buy foreign vehicles, they could have even smaller and cheaper options. (Though they'd have to deal with EPA and NHT…

> non-US postal services

What postal services are those? Are you sure you aren't confusing the USPS with a parcel service?

Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#144

Post by mulmen »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #88
saltminer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One key difference between USPS and UPS/Fedex is that USPS does not do freight, and they do a lot more lightweight items (i.e. letters), so cargo capacity is much less of a concern. The fact that junk mail is so common actually reduces the need for cargo capacity since their routes tend to be made long not because of physical volume/distance so much as dwell time (that is, if someone is using EDDM[0] to target a neig…

> Given that they are in residential areas (and thus, in proximity of kids playing outside) far more often than UPS/Fedex... That isn't the case at all in my experience. In any neighborhood I've ever lived in, you see at least one van from each organization come through daily. And if anything, UPS and FedEx come through more than once per day sometimes, whereas USPS doesn't. Per your earlier point about freight I can…

> That isn't the case at all in my experience. In any neighborhood I've ever lived in, you see at least one van from each organization come through daily. And if anything, UPS and FedEx come through more than once per day sometimes, whereas USPS doesn't.

USPS doesn't deliver freight, UPS does. So yeah, you are going to see both in a residential setting but you won't see any USPS trucks making freight deliveries in an industrial area. UPS has to support that use case, USPS doesn't.

Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#146

Post by laurencerowe »

yencabulator wrote: post #133
laurencerowe wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The European equivalents to the Dodge Ram Van are the smaller Transit Custom or VW Transporter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Transit_Custom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Transporter The equivalent US trucks mostly used by FedEx and UPS are much squarer than the European designed Transit or Sprinter vans that are now replacing them. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FedEx_Express_truck....

Ram Promaster is a rebranded Fiat Ducato. The European equivalent of it is thus a Fiat Ducato. UPS uses plenty of Promasters.

The Fiat Ducati / Ram Promaster is another Transit / Sprinter class van but the linked image with the “traditional design” in the post I responded to was of an older, smaller Dodge Ram Van.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Ram_Van

I was trying to point out that the Transit/Sprinter/Ducati class vans are replacing the larger and far more boxy FedEx and UPS vans like this:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UPS_package_car.jp...

Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#147

Post by euroderf »

garciansmith wrote: post #7

I've read so much knocking their appearance, which is so confusing to me. It's ultimately function over form in this case; who cares if you don't like how it looks? I can only dream that the visibility and safety of having features like such a low hood and large bumpers would be incorporated into other vehicles (i.e., every SUV ever).

For an institution that was the origin of the term "going postal", it's a wonderfully human-oriented design.

Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#148

Post by tantalor »

PrismCrystal wrote: post #107
tantalor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"No wireless? Less space than a Nomad? Lame" Seriously though, the iTunes integration and cross platform compatibility kind of sucked. It would have been much more useful if you could just mount it like a hard drive without special library management software. The click wheel was cool.

> It would have been much more useful if you could just mount it like a hard drive without special library management software. When I got my first iPod in 2006, I immediately put Rockbox on it, where the iPod indeed mounted like a hard drive and files (including all my .oggs, remember those?) could be dropped right onto the device. Never used Apple’s own UI even once. I still miss the iPod. It let you really immerse…

You can still mod a used iPod, one of my coworkers has a few and they are really neat. Go for it!

Re: Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck

#150

Post by tim333 »

klik99 wrote: post #26
garciansmith wrote: post #7

I've read so much knocking their appearance, which is so confusing to me. It's ultimately function over form in this case; who cares if you don't like how it looks? I can only dream that the visibility and safety of having features like such a low hood and large bumpers would be incorporated into other vehicles (i.e., every SUV ever).

Probably in the minority, but I actually like the look of them. I find so many modern car designs indistinguishable from each other. Cars such a narrow range of design that's considered "good aesthetics" that everything looks so uniform.

Yeah I think the kids would like it. It's a bit reminicent of Postman Pat's van https://content.instructables.com/FRX/AYCQ/JASJWQW4/FRXAYCQJ...
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