The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest. They’re tall and ungainly. The windshields are vast. Their hoods resemble a duck bill. Their bumpers are enormous.
“You can tell that (the designers) didn’t have appearance in mind,” postal worker Avis Stonum said.
Odd appearance aside, the first handful of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that rolled onto postal routes in August in Athens are getting rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to cantankerous older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire.
Within a few years of the initial rollout, the fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.
Once fully deployed, they’ll represent one of the most visible signs of the agency’s 10-year, $40 billion transformation led by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who’s also renovating aging facilities, overhauling the processing and transportation network, and instituting other changes.
Initially 10% were supposed to be electric (despite 95% of postal routes being within the electric NGDV’s range).
The EPA and a couple senators got mad and it was increased to 20% electric allocation.
Then CA, NY and DC cities got mad and filed lawsuits, allocation was increased to 50% electric.
Inflation reduction act threw in an extra $3bn and fleet is projected to be 75% electric as of Dec 2022.
Sounds like a lot of work but happy it worked out in the end
Oh, 75% electric now?
I just remember when they were first announced and basically none of them were electric, despite most postal routes being low speed, short distance, and frequent stops. Sounded absolutely stupid and reeked of industry kickbacks and bullshit.
The German postal service designed it’s own delivery truck in 2014 because they were no viable electric delivery trucks available. With a range of just 100km and 48kW because that was enough for most routes.