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[NEW2elec]

We have a mix of Jeep and Grumman with Jeeps in the more rural and mountainous areas.  Although I have some regular Jeep Wrangler green or brown civilian models that do some deliveries but that's mostly just in my area.

I see your point with packages but Amazon has it's own fleet of big sprinter vans here and so I very rarely get a package by USPS.
The shipping rates for any package of size is just too high with the USPS.  UPS or FedEx gives a much better price for bigger heavy packages.

One thing I have to disagree on would be the labor issue.  They have big maintenance centers that do major overhauls removing the whole engine and transmission on a regular basis.  If when the time comes to overhaul the engine they just drop in an EV unit it's no worse time or labor wise.  No need to try to convert them all at once.

It doesn't really matter though they will buy all new vehicles and just raise taxes to cover it no biggie. 

[Crissa]

Most rural carriers no longer even use the USPS vehicle, opting for private vehicles or light trucks and vans for their greater capabilities.

The Arcimoto Deliverator would be perfect for most of the short-route uses, maybe swap the front seat with something that rotates on command and a wider roof panel for rain protection.

Still need something enclosed for the really rural routes and inclement climate crowd.

-Crissa

[Curt]

USPS has 231,000 vehicles. If 200,000 of them became electric, that's 3x more than GM has sold in Chevy Bolts since 2017, and could be considered high volume.

Being a high volume vehicle, it would make sense they were purpose-built for competing with UPS and Fedex. They'd have efficient stop/in/out/go driver ergonomics, totally keyless with automatic parking brake, large LCD panel screen with tactical delivery information, easy package storage/retrieval/scanning, etc.

The average postal route is 25 miles with 500-700 stops. The vehicle should easily get >= 2.5 mi/kWh, so the entire battery pack could be just 30 kWh ($4000). All vehicles plugged in at the end of the day with computerized round-robin EVSE sharing. Then natural gas vehicles for anything longer range.

Unfortunately the USPS is a bureaucratic dinosaur with little regards to efficiency or customer service, so forget the whole thing. Maybe in 2040.

[Crissa]

USPS delivers primarily envelope sized things and makes more stops per mile than anyone else.  That's why they use smaller vehicles.

It's not that the USPS is a bureaucratic dinosaur (although it is) it's that Republicans in Congress have put onerous requirements on everything they do.

Even the shoes that USPS employees use must be of certified and approved US manufacture.  They're not bad shoes, but you're not allowed to mail order them, nor does the Post Offices have their own supply.  And that's just a small sample of the bizarre things Congress has required of them.

-Crissa

[Richard230]

USPS delivers primarily envelope sized things and makes more stops per mile than anyone else.  That's why they use smaller vehicles.

It's not that the USPS is a bureaucratic dinosaur (although it is) it's that Republicans in Congress have put onerous requirements on everything they do.

Even the shoes that USPS employees use must be of certified and approved US manufacture.  They're not bad shoes, but you're not allowed to mail order them, nor does the Post Offices have their own supply.  And that's just a small sample of the bizarre things Congress has required of them.

-Crissa

BTW, the USPS does seem to be delivering more packages now than they used to do. It used to be that you got a delivery slip in the mail and had to drive down to your local PO office to pick it up. Now packages are hand-delivered right to your front door. (Much more convenient and the lack of a trip to the PO likely helps out global warming a little bit.)  As an package delivery example, I recently ordered a gallon of expensive Swiss motorcycle oil (kind of bulky and heavy) from Amazon and it was delivered in a beat-up box by my mail carrier - however my credit card bill was delivered to a neighbor who brought it over to me the next day. So it would appear that package delivery is more important now than first class letter delivery.   

Speaking of uniforms: When I worked for the USPS back in the 1960's I was given a voucher for something like $150 (a lot of money in those days) to buy a uniform. I bought my clothing from a uniform store located across from city hall in my town. I bought a pair of shoes, spiffy wool grey pants with stripes, a trim wool jacket and a pith helmet. The quality of the clothing was really amazing and I still have the shoes, which remain in great condition with the original soles and leather that has not cracked or split. American made for sure.     But that clothing was a lot more expensive than what I had been buying at J. C. Penny and Sears Roebuck.

One other interesting fact was that I had to take a written test to get the P.O. job. The test consisted of reading a complicated train schedule and picking out the trains that would get the mail from one destination to another in the shortest amount of time by shifting the mail from one train to another at various cities across the country. As it turned out, I was familiar with trains having had plenty of practice solving train math problems in my high school algebra classes.     My guess is that the current job application USPS test is different now. 

[NEW2elec]

To be sure the electric drive train is ideal for this use case.  No idling, regen braking, short trips and long down time for charging.
That one pedal driving feature is great for those guys. 
Just seems wasteful to scrap thousands of functioning chassis.  When the rapid advancement in technology is factored in then even brand new vehicles with current batteries will likely be obsolete in ten years.

[Crissa]

We're debating whether the chassis are functional.

It would probably cost more to try to upgrade them in both up front, maintenance, not to mention function.  A cab that actually understood how air moves would be a basic advancement that a 1980 Accord had that the USPS vehicle does not.

-Crissa

[Richard230]

Every time I see one of those P.O. delivery vehicles go up and down the street, starting and stopping at every house to deliver the mail I am amazed how well they seem to hang in there and keep running. I am sure that that sort of usage is considered "severe service" by the manufacturer and I kind of doubt that they get the sort of maintenance they deserve. From what I can see while passing by the little trucks they sure look well used and don't exactly meet current safety standards. I really doubt that they would be worth converting to battery power except as an experiment to see how it works. I think an entirely new vehicle, epitomized for USPS delivery service, would be the way to go - especially if the government is paying for it. 

[caza]

The vehicle is called the LLV, which stands for long life vehicle. They were specifically designed to have an incredibly long service life of 30 years, with very few other considerations or priorities.

I definitely agree that a newly designed EV build with USPS's needs in mind is the best path forward. Similar to how Arrival is working with UPS for their electric trucks.