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Post Office Delivery Trucks Keep Catching on Fire

12 points by ilamont 6y ago

thecrumb 6y ago
I always have to step over the oil pool by the mailbox when the mailman stops. Would be interesting to know how much they spend just putting oil in these old things.
dredmorbius 6y ago
The Grumman LLV (long life vehicle) was commissioned by the USPS in the 1980s, entered service in 1987, and were manufactured through 1994, with a planned service life of daily stop-and-start all-weather driving of 20 years to every delivery address in the nation. Over 140,000 were built. Every USPS LLV truck on the road today is at least 24 years old, the oldest in their 30s. The Jeeps they replaced had an eight-year life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV Discusses a successor but describes the LLV in detail: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/2058/0000/Grumman-autonomous-Long-Life-Vehicle-LLV/10.1117/12.167490.short?SSO=1 https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of... (http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/?q=sullivan+Grumman+autonomous+Long+Life+Vehicle http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/?q=sullivan+Grumman+autonomous+...) The contract was awarded in April, 1986: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/09/business/postal-contract-won-by-grumman.html https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/09/business/postal-contract-... A bit of congressional testimony from the Postmaster Gerneral in 1985 gives some perspective on the programme: https://books.google.com/books?id=puahcekyrjkC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA31&dq=Grumman+Long+Life+Vehicle&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true https://books.google.com/books?id=puahcekyrjkC&newbks=0&prin... The real story here isn't that the USPS cannot operate or maintain its delivery trucks; it has done an exemplary job extending life 50% beyond design goals under exceedingly challenging conditions. Rather it's that the postal service has been under sustained attack, first by imposing financial obligations no competitor has to meet, and now, slowly crippling its actual mobility and reliability by forcing past-end-of-llife equipment use and thwarting all attempts to develop a replacement fleet. There is a replacement plan in progress: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/automobiles/the-mail-truck-is-a-classic-and-thats-a-problem-for-a-modern-post-office.html?searchResultPosition=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/automobiles/the-mail-truc...
perl4ever 6y ago
The article says the existing ones cost >$400/month to keep running and replacements would cost >$40K apiece? Really?

12 points by ilamont 6y ago

I always have to step over the oil pool by the mailbox when the mailman stops. Would be interesting to know how much they spend just putting oil in these old things.

dredmorbius 6y ago

The Grumman LLV (long life vehicle) was commissioned by the USPS in the 1980s, entered service in 1987, and were manufactured through 1994, with a planned service life of daily stop-and-start all-weather driving of 20 years to every delivery address in the nation. Over 140,000 were built. Every USPS LLV truck on the road today is at least 24 years old, the oldest in their 30s. The Jeeps they replaced had an eight-year life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV Discusses a successor but describes the LLV in detail: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/2058/0000/Grumman-autonomous-Long-Life-Vehicle-LLV/10.1117/12.167490.short?SSO=1 https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of... (http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/?q=sullivan+Grumman+autonomous+Long+Life+Vehicle http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/?q=sullivan+Grumman+autonomous+...) The contract was awarded in April, 1986: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/09/business/postal-contract-won-by-grumman.html https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/09/business/postal-contract-... A bit of congressional testimony from the Postmaster Gerneral in 1985 gives some perspective on the programme: https://books.google.com/books?id=puahcekyrjkC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA31&dq=Grumman+Long+Life+Vehicle&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true https://books.google.com/books?id=puahcekyrjkC&newbks=0&prin... The real story here isn't that the USPS cannot operate or maintain its delivery trucks; it has done an exemplary job extending life 50% beyond design goals under exceedingly challenging conditions. Rather it's that the postal service has been under sustained attack, first by imposing financial obligations no competitor has to meet, and now, slowly crippling its actual mobility and reliability by forcing past-end-of-llife equipment use and thwarting all attempts to develop a replacement fleet. There is a replacement plan in progress: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/automobiles/the-mail-truck-is-a-classic-and-thats-a-problem-for-a-modern-post-office.html?searchResultPosition=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/automobiles/the-mail-truc...

perl4ever 6y ago

The article says the existing ones cost >$400/month to keep running and replacements would cost >$40K apiece? Really?