21–30 of 398 posts
I'm always in disbelief at the sheer volume of waste they deliver. I maybe get one meaningful or useful piece of paper a month, the rest is hundreds of pounds of paper, hauled by thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. How this organisation continues to exist in is current form is mind blowing. Nearly everything it hauls could be emailed. And don't forget the cost to have trash trucks haul the thousands of pounds of was…
"Oddly-shaped mail trucks seem to be a staple of Americana." As a non-American I have always found this amusing. Here in New Zealand Post was until a few years ago delivered by bicycle in cities (SUVs or vans in rural areas). They have since moved towards small electric vehicles called Paxster. Basically large four wheel scooters that can ride on both the road and pavement. https://jobs.nzpost.co.nz/paxster
Based on those vehicles I am guessing NZPost doesn't handle the amount of junk mail and Amazon packages that USPS has to shuffle around.
But no, the NZPost business model (or lack thereof) does not depend on junk mail. Mail is ridiculously expensive, ~50%+ more expensive than the USA, so addressed junk mail is relatively rare, maybe one item per month.
Why have a specific design anyways? In both Sweden and Spain, the cars carrying mail is typically just a normal half-truck (not sure about the correct name) with the post office branding. Here are two examples: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DA5TW8/yellow-correos-spanish-post... - https://st2.depositphotos.com/3982569/5739/i/950/depositphot... Seems to work fine. Packages gets carried in bigger trucks, but still just busi…
US mail trucks have the driver on the right hand side (as opposed to the left), so that they can deliver mail without having to get out of the driver's seat. Which naturally means we can't just reuse trucks made for the UK or other Commonwealth markets because... China or socialism or whatever.
"The requirements dictated the step-in height, the glass height (including the low side glass), the vision angles, the internal height, and the maximum roof height," wrote Kahn in a tweet. "That was all locked in."
Other constraints included the ability to reach the mailbox while in the seated position, and the requirement to see the ground around the vehicle...
If you are curious about the fuel like me -- 10% of the new vehicles will be electric [1]. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/25/22300281/usps-new-mail-tr...
Too bad it’s not higher. But that’s a good start. It’s a clear win for a well-engineered electric drivetrain given the low miles typically traveled per day (BUT high total miles on odometers as they’re made to last decades), typically low speeds, and extensive stop and start. Playing almost entirely to electric’s strengths and the weaknesses of internal combustion. In an ideal world, I’d hope it’d be 50% electric and…
No mention of increased crumple zone, which was probably the entire reason for the redesign in the first place? Sheesh. I assume the article was written entirely based on a press release together with a nice pack of product photos. The previous models were injury/death traps.
I'm always in disbelief at the sheer volume of waste they deliver. I maybe get one meaningful or useful piece of paper a month, the rest is hundreds of pounds of paper, hauled by thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. How this organisation continues to exist in is current form is mind blowing. Nearly everything it hauls could be emailed. And don't forget the cost to have trash trucks haul the thousands of pounds of was…
It's the original "ad supported" business.
No, it's not. Ad-supported newspapers are older than postal mail being largely advertising subsidizing other mail. Older than the US Post Office (and the US, even in North America), too.
Why have a specific design anyways? In both Sweden and Spain, the cars carrying mail is typically just a normal half-truck (not sure about the correct name) with the post office branding. Here are two examples: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DA5TW8/yellow-correos-spanish-post... - https://st2.depositphotos.com/3982569/5739/i/950/depositphot... Seems to work fine. Packages gets carried in bigger trucks, but still just busi…
"Oddly-shaped mail trucks seem to be a staple of Americana." As a non-American I have always found this amusing. Here in New Zealand Post was until a few years ago delivered by bicycle in cities (SUVs or vans in rural areas). They have since moved towards small electric vehicles called Paxster. Basically large four wheel scooters that can ride on both the road and pavement. https://jobs.nzpost.co.nz/paxster
Based on those vehicles I am guessing NZPost doesn't handle the amount of junk mail and Amazon packages that USPS has to shuffle around.