3 ms·

The US has roughly 320 million more people than Switzerland. You can afford to have a domestic arms industry when you're bigger.

sofixa 6y ago
And post delivery is hyper localised, so population doesn't change things much. Smaller countries than Switzerland have domestic arms industries, but that doesn't mean they use military-grade trucks from them for postal services.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  The US is very spread out in a lot of places and geographically diverse. Many local routes cover a very large area. Currently, these Grumman vehicles only make up 75% of the fleet. They also use vans, some electrics and in some areas they need 4x4 trucks and even boats. Considering the extreme punishment these vehicles take, i think the investment is probably worth it. I remember reading about how much money they spent on these Grumman vehicles decades ago and being appalled. But here we are 20 years later and they are still using those same trucks. The USPS is an order of magnitude larger than the swiss postal service. At some point it usually becomes just as cost effective to order a fleet of custom vehicles rather than off the shelf ones.
  - hinkley 6y ago
    Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, the Internet tells me. It has a population of 400,000, which is slightly less than the total current employees of the USPS. We spend all day here talking about scalability, but then we start talking about public policy and people get amnesia.
Ancapistani 6y ago
Ironically, the Swiss have excellent small arms for their military, and an impressive degree of design an manufacturing continuity for them. The Sig 510, adopted in 1957, uses the same charging handle as the rifle they adopted in 1889.
- neolog 6y ago
  I never know if unchanged means "still good" or "obsolete". How can you tell?
  - Ancapistani 6y ago
    In this case, it was because the bolt handle on the m1889 worked just as good on the K-31. While the Sig 510 doesn’t require you to pull the bolt each time you fire, it did need a handle to grab to load the rifle - why create a new part with a new supply chain? After all, the older rifles were still in service for years after the new one was adopted, so re-using the same handle meant they only had to stock one part in their armories instead of two. Here’s the bold assembly for the Schmidt-Rubin 1889 or 1896/11: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hqEAAOSwT~9WhutS/s-l300.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hqEAAOSwT~9WhutS/s-l300.jpg Here’s the bolt handle on the Schmidt-Rubin K-31: https://www.gunpartscorp.com/pub/products/997460.jpg https://www.gunpartscorp.com/pub/products/997460.jpg Here’s the charging handle on the Sig 510: http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab269/Combloc/SIG%20510-7/P1110558_zpsb5dd0b3e.jpg http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab269/Combloc/SIG%20510-7... The part you grip is interchangeable :)

sofixa 6y ago

And post delivery is hyper localised, so population doesn't change things much. Smaller countries than Switzerland have domestic arms industries, but that doesn't mean they use military-grade trucks from them for postal services.

jjeaff 6y ago
The US is very spread out in a lot of places and geographically diverse. Many local routes cover a very large area. Currently, these Grumman vehicles only make up 75% of the fleet. They also use vans, some electrics and in some areas they need 4x4 trucks and even boats. Considering the extreme punishment these vehicles take, i think the investment is probably worth it. I remember reading about how much money they spent on these Grumman vehicles decades ago and being appalled. But here we are 20 years later and they are still using those same trucks. The USPS is an order of magnitude larger than the swiss postal service. At some point it usually becomes just as cost effective to order a fleet of custom vehicles rather than off the shelf ones.
- hinkley 6y ago
  Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland, the Internet tells me. It has a population of 400,000, which is slightly less than the total current employees of the USPS. We spend all day here talking about scalability, but then we start talking about public policy and people get amnesia.

Ancapistani 6y ago

Ironically, the Swiss have excellent small arms for their military, and an impressive degree of design an manufacturing continuity for them. The Sig 510, adopted in 1957, uses the same charging handle as the rifle they adopted in 1889.

neolog 6y ago
I never know if unchanged means "still good" or "obsolete". How can you tell?
- Ancapistani 6y ago
  In this case, it was because the bolt handle on the m1889 worked just as good on the K-31. While the Sig 510 doesn’t require you to pull the bolt each time you fire, it did need a handle to grab to load the rifle - why create a new part with a new supply chain? After all, the older rifles were still in service for years after the new one was adopted, so re-using the same handle meant they only had to stock one part in their armories instead of two. Here’s the bold assembly for the Schmidt-Rubin 1889 or 1896/11: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hqEAAOSwT~9WhutS/s-l300.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hqEAAOSwT~9WhutS/s-l300.jpg Here’s the bolt handle on the Schmidt-Rubin K-31: https://www.gunpartscorp.com/pub/products/997460.jpg https://www.gunpartscorp.com/pub/products/997460.jpg Here’s the charging handle on the Sig 510: http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab269/Combloc/SIG%20510-7/P1110558_zpsb5dd0b3e.jpg http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab269/Combloc/SIG%20510-7... The part you grip is interchangeable :)