4 ms·

"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 year

"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 https://jobs.nzpost.co.nz/paxster

pplante 6y ago
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.
- teruakohatu 6y ago
  They deliver mail and small packets only. Parcels are delivered in vans. 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.
- robocat 6y ago
  Packages in NZ are mostly delivered by small owner-operated vans like: https://www.google.com/search?q=courier+van+site:nz&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=courier+van+site:nz&tbm=isch
xxpor 6y ago
In cities in the US, it's similar. They have full size vans that aren't particularly custom for routes where the delivery person gets out and walks to the mailboxes. These new vehicles, and the ones they replace, are largely for suburban/rural deliveries where they drive right up to the mailbox, and so need a right hand drive vehicle.
cyberpunk 6y ago
Here in Germany DHL and the like use ebikes for the letter / small packet post daily, and the bigger stuff just gets dropped off by a van... seems to work...
Nition 6y ago
I'm also in New Zealand. What I found really interesting about this article was that apparently US mailboxes are positioned right by the road so that the mail carrier can directly drop the mail in from a vehicle. Clever! Although it must make it more likely to get your mailbox knocked over by a car. Here the mailbox is usually on the other side of a grass verge and footpath (sidewalk), too far to reach from the road.
bigiain 6y ago
In Australia the Honda CT90->CT110->NBC110 "Postie Bike" was, up until 2015 or so, the best selling motorcycle for decades, so much so that it almost always got left out of motorcycle market share reporting. Australia Post used to buy ~2000 of them a year, but recently have replaced most of the motorcycles with bicycles and electric bicycles (and the volume of ordinary letters that are suitable for motorcycle/bicycle/walking delivery has also plummeted, these days an enormous (literal) volume of mail is parcels from China/Amazon, which don't fit as neatly/efficiently in a motorcycle pannier an are mostly delivered by contractors in generic white vans. "In terms of actual numbers, a major contributor to the fall has been the Australia Post ‘postie bike’ fleet. After artificially inflating new bike sales figures for years, sales of the postie bike (formerly CT110, now NBC110) fell 43 per cent in 2017 and a further 52 per cent last year. Australia’s top-selling ‘road bike’ for years, the NBC110 only scraped into the road category’s Top Ten last year and didn’t even figure in the overall Top Ten." -- https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/2018-australian-motorcycle-market-report-overview/767427 https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/2018-australia... and: "For years, the CT110 was Australia’s top-selling motorcycle, but almost the entirety of those sales went to Australia Post. With the decline in letter delivery and Australia Post’s move to electric trikes better suited to parcel delivery, CT 110 / NBC 110 sales have fallen rapidly in recent years, including a 52 per cent drop in 2018 alone. The NBC 110 didn’t even appear in the ‘Top 10’ listings provided by the FCAI, suggesting less than 500 units were sold last year. That compares to 1,447 sales just two years ago." -- https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/motorcycle-sales-fall-again-in-2019/798321 https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/motorcycle-sal...
- Danieru 6y ago
  Japan Post is still using Honda SuperCub. Maybe Honda will release an electric version they can upgrade to.
twic 6y ago
See also school buses. In the UK we just use normal coaches.

pplante 6y ago

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.

teruakohatu 6y ago
They deliver mail and small packets only. Parcels are delivered in vans. 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.
robocat 6y ago
Packages in NZ are mostly delivered by small owner-operated vans like: https://www.google.com/search?q=courier+van+site:nz&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=courier+van+site:nz&tbm=isch

xxpor 6y ago

In cities in the US, it's similar. They have full size vans that aren't particularly custom for routes where the delivery person gets out and walks to the mailboxes. These new vehicles, and the ones they replace, are largely for suburban/rural deliveries where they drive right up to the mailbox, and so need a right hand drive vehicle.

cyberpunk 6y ago

Here in Germany DHL and the like use ebikes for the letter / small packet post daily, and the bigger stuff just gets dropped off by a van... seems to work...

Nition 6y ago

I'm also in New Zealand. What I found really interesting about this article was that apparently US mailboxes are positioned right by the road so that the mail carrier can directly drop the mail in from a vehicle. Clever! Although it must make it more likely to get your mailbox knocked over by a car. Here the mailbox is usually on the other side of a grass verge and footpath (sidewalk), too far to reach from the road.

bigiain 6y ago

In Australia the Honda CT90->CT110->NBC110 "Postie Bike" was, up until 2015 or so, the best selling motorcycle for decades, so much so that it almost always got left out of motorcycle market share reporting. Australia Post used to buy ~2000 of them a year, but recently have replaced most of the motorcycles with bicycles and electric bicycles (and the volume of ordinary letters that are suitable for motorcycle/bicycle/walking delivery has also plummeted, these days an enormous (literal) volume of mail is parcels from China/Amazon, which don't fit as neatly/efficiently in a motorcycle pannier an are mostly delivered by contractors in generic white vans. "In terms of actual numbers, a major contributor to the fall has been the Australia Post ‘postie bike’ fleet. After artificially inflating new bike sales figures for years, sales of the postie bike (formerly CT110, now NBC110) fell 43 per cent in 2017 and a further 52 per cent last year. Australia’s top-selling ‘road bike’ for years, the NBC110 only scraped into the road category’s Top Ten last year and didn’t even figure in the overall Top Ten." -- https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/2018-australian-motorcycle-market-report-overview/767427 https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/2018-australia... and: "For years, the CT110 was Australia’s top-selling motorcycle, but almost the entirety of those sales went to Australia Post. With the decline in letter delivery and Australia Post’s move to electric trikes better suited to parcel delivery, CT 110 / NBC 110 sales have fallen rapidly in recent years, including a 52 per cent drop in 2018 alone. The NBC 110 didn’t even appear in the ‘Top 10’ listings provided by the FCAI, suggesting less than 500 units were sold last year. That compares to 1,447 sales just two years ago." -- https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/motorcycle-sales-fall-again-in-2019/798321 https://www.justbikes.com.au/news-and-reviews/motorcycle-sal...

Danieru 6y ago
Japan Post is still using Honda SuperCub. Maybe Honda will release an electric version they can upgrade to.

twic 6y ago

See also school buses. In the UK we just use normal coaches.