6 ms·

Yeah - while it seems easy/logical to just swap a normal delivery vehicle for an electric version of it, you don't really have to do that & electric vehicles do

Yeah - while it seems easy/logical to just swap a normal delivery vehicle for an electric version of it, you don't really have to do that & electric vehicles do come in many more shapes and sizes due to the might higher flexibility and scalability of the electric power system. For example here in Brno, Czech Republic, the entry to the city center is nowadays quite restrictive for regular cars/vans - a lot of it is a pedestrian zone & its not really built for cars anyway, the street layout dating back to the middle ages in places or to the 19th century. As a result, a lot of the deliveries happen via alternative means - for example when you order a pizza from the local Dominos, they will come with an electric scoter or on a bike. A lot of the food delivery happens via guys on small e-scooters (or even electric monowheels!) or just on foot/going by public transport. In other cases you can see a DHL cargo e-bike, etc. :)

gffrd 4y ago
For some reason I find it really funny that there are Dominos in the Czech Republic …
- 15155 4y ago
  There are Dominos everywhere, it's not a laughing matter.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - screwturner68 4y ago
    I felt the same way the first time I went to London and everyone in the pub was drinking Coors light except me I was drinking a fine English Bitter. I wouldn't wish Coors upon anyone.
- notch898a 4y ago
  As an American I refuse to believe there is anything in Brno but a gigantic Česká zbrojovka factory.
  - tpm 4y ago
    The current Česká zbrojovka is located in Uhersky Brod, the Brno location is long gone.
    - notch898a 4y ago
      Aye. But there are millions of rifles with such insignia on them [0] and they were exported all over the world. If you asked some guy in the corners of afghanistan what Brno was, in the off chance they knew the word, they would probably think it was a brand of rifle. I'd be curious if there is anything more iconic in recent history from brno that covers the ends of the earth than brno firearms. [0] https://images.guns.com/prod/2021/06/21/60d0c845dabd0402af4f48ba5a05c9e158992780b7db8.JPG?imwidth=600 https://images.guns.com/prod/2021/06/21/60d0c845dabd0402af4f...
      - kriro 4y ago
        It's the birth place of Adam Ondra, arguably the best climber of all time and also his preferred climbing region. He does cover the ends of the earth by smashing the hardest climbs in the world everywhere :D
      - piva00 4y ago
        Had no idea about Brno firearms but have seen Starobrno beers in quite a lot of countries I've been to, in and out of Europe.
      - tpm 4y ago
        Villa Tugendhat by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is pretty iconic, probably in different circles though.
    - m4rtink 4y ago
      Yeah - it used to be a pretty gigantic complex & it is now being re-developed: https://www.novazbrojovka.cz/ https://www.novazbrojovka.cz/ It will essentially become a whole new quarter, with housing, office/retail space and new schools. That's how big it was. BTW, main focus now in Brno is high tech (a lot of electron microscopy), IT (Red Hat, Kiwi, YSOFT, Seznam, Netsuite, Avast, etc.) and lately also space (OHB, SAB Aerospace, etc.).
- drstewart 4y ago
  Hard on anecdotal observation Domino's is far more popular in Europe than the US
- Tade0 4y ago
  Imagine if it was run by an Australian.
- m4rtink 4y ago
  Not sure if they are anywhere else in Czech Republic, but in Brno they even reside in the magnificent functionalist Palace Moravia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Moravia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Moravia As far as I can tell their service is good & pizzas tasty. :)
- lowercased 4y ago
  First time I traveled from US to Europe was Spain in 1988, and I was interested to see Burger King and McDonalds there. A decade later, visiting the UK, I was 'surprised' a bit to see so many 'US' brands there. Mid 2000s - visited Shanghai - so many Western/US brands, didn't feel much different than being in NYC. 2010s - visited Russia and Romania - again, many US brands there (or other European/UK brands I knew). I got Sbarro pizza in Moscow - cost about $45 for one large pizza, but still tasted the same. Lately, I've started noticing 'UK' brand products coming to the US (Persil detergent, for example). Maybe many of these are Unilever brands being exported to more countries? When people talking about "multinational corporations", this is what they mean. As a US person who's never traveled abroad, it might be jarring (or 'funny') at first to see familiar brands in a 'foreign' country. But we're ... a pretty global society now.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
    I remember being in Italy(?) about 30 years ago and for whatever reason my friend went into a Blimpie's, of all places! Once they realized he was American, they gave him free food in exchange for a critique of how their sandwiches tasted compared to the ones over here.
    - lowercased 4y ago
      Nice!
euroderf 4y ago
Seems like this might be a case for solar panels on-board. Long delivery route, moderate speeds, open road.
- comboy 4y ago
  From quick search electric car uses 0.15-0.2kWh per kilometer. That's amount of energy you get after delivering 200 Watts for an hour. Let's say you have 2m2 of roof (pretty generous), of very efficient panels in your driving in absolute optimal conditions when they are giving you full power (that's around 200W/m2). No loses on the inverter and such. So you need to be going at the speed of 2km/h. Well, that's actually not that bad for a postal service. It's assuming absolute optimal conditions, but energy usage is for a typical electric car. I doubt it would be financially net positive or carbon negative, but the idea is not as crazy as I thought assuming final delivery in medium density sunny urban areas.
  - Tade0 4y ago
    I suppose it makes sense to at least power the AC with them, as its drain correlates with the amount of sunlight.
    - rout39574 4y ago
      AC is pretty power hungry; solar panels on the roof of an average van (best case) aren't going to make much of a dent. I find estimates of 10-20 miles per day of range in the best cases. At current prices, my sense is that solar panels on vehicles are marketing, not materially contributing to the energy budget. Nothing wrong with that but I wouldn't like to spend my feature money on the option.
      - Gordonjcp 4y ago
        > AC is pretty power hungry; solar panels on the roof of an average van (best case) aren't going to make much of a dent. If you space them off the roof by about an inch, like the old Landrover "Safari" roof, it'll make a hell of a difference.
codetrotter 4y ago
> electric vehicles do come in many more shapes and sizes due to the might higher flexibility and scalability of the electric power system. True. For example, this Norwegian article from 2021 has two pictures in it. https://fagbladet.no/nyheter/posten-stanser-kjop-av-fossile-varebiler-til-bruk-i-byene-fra-2022-6.91.770522.81f7949c7a https://fagbladet.no/nyheter/posten-stanser-kjop-av-fossile-... The first picture at the top are mostly big electric cars. But scroll down a bit. As shown in the second picture, the other electric cars that the Norwegian postal service use are much smaller. Almost like a quad bike with small wheels and a roof.
SamBam 4y ago
Around me (Boston USA area) there are ebike grocery deliveries (Getir) wizzing down every street. It's a great idea, although clearly the incentives are set up so that the delivery guys need to complete as many orders as possible, the predictable result of which is that these kids are driving dangerously the wrong was down one-way streets and cutting lights.
- dev1n 4y ago
  The ebikes aren't dangerous, the cars that hit them are. I think that's an important distinction.
  - whafro 4y ago
    It's not the ebikes that he's saying are dangerous, it's the couriers. I got hit by a Getir rider in Brookline (probably near the parent) who zipped the wrong way out of a one-way street into the crosswalk I was using. Any vehicle driven by someone who isn't following the general rules/flow/expectations of everyone around them is dangerous. And large vehicles are dangerous too. But that's orthogonal.
  - 7speter 4y ago
    Right, its the cars that are dangerous when people on bikes (ebikes or not) ride on sidewalks.
    - bandofthehawk 4y ago
      I think part of the problem is that the danger from cars kind of force the bikes onto the sidewalk. If a biker has a choice between possibly getting hit by a car or possibly hitting a pedestrian, the choice is kind of obvious. The solution is better infrastructure for bikes. Separate bike lanes from cars and pedestrians, slow the cars down, and improve visibility at conflict points.
      - eropple 4y ago
        > If a biker has a choice between possibly getting hit by a car or possibly hitting a pedestrian, the choice is kind of obvious. I don't think that's true, though. The alternative is not "endanger pedestrians", the alternative is "walk". A biker has a choice to not bike. And that's what I do; I walk when I'm in Boston, because I don't think urban biking is safe enough for me to make that choice. Like, yes, better bike infrastructure is a good idea and separated bike lanes is something that I absolutely support, but biking is a choice, and right now a lot of people on e-bikes (not so much regular bikes, to be honest) make me feel unsafe to walk in places that they tend to congregate.

gffrd 4y ago

For some reason I find it really funny that there are Dominos in the Czech Republic …

15155 4y ago
There are Dominos everywhere, it's not a laughing matter.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- screwturner68 4y ago
  I felt the same way the first time I went to London and everyone in the pub was drinking Coors light except me I was drinking a fine English Bitter. I wouldn't wish Coors upon anyone.
notch898a 4y ago
As an American I refuse to believe there is anything in Brno but a gigantic Česká zbrojovka factory.
- tpm 4y ago
  The current Česká zbrojovka is located in Uhersky Brod, the Brno location is long gone.
  - notch898a 4y ago
    Aye. But there are millions of rifles with such insignia on them [0] and they were exported all over the world. If you asked some guy in the corners of afghanistan what Brno was, in the off chance they knew the word, they would probably think it was a brand of rifle. I'd be curious if there is anything more iconic in recent history from brno that covers the ends of the earth than brno firearms. [0] https://images.guns.com/prod/2021/06/21/60d0c845dabd0402af4f48ba5a05c9e158992780b7db8.JPG?imwidth=600 https://images.guns.com/prod/2021/06/21/60d0c845dabd0402af4f...
    - kriro 4y ago
      It's the birth place of Adam Ondra, arguably the best climber of all time and also his preferred climbing region. He does cover the ends of the earth by smashing the hardest climbs in the world everywhere :D
    - piva00 4y ago
      Had no idea about Brno firearms but have seen Starobrno beers in quite a lot of countries I've been to, in and out of Europe.
    - tpm 4y ago
      Villa Tugendhat by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is pretty iconic, probably in different circles though.
  - m4rtink 4y ago
    Yeah - it used to be a pretty gigantic complex & it is now being re-developed: https://www.novazbrojovka.cz/ https://www.novazbrojovka.cz/ It will essentially become a whole new quarter, with housing, office/retail space and new schools. That's how big it was. BTW, main focus now in Brno is high tech (a lot of electron microscopy), IT (Red Hat, Kiwi, YSOFT, Seznam, Netsuite, Avast, etc.) and lately also space (OHB, SAB Aerospace, etc.).
drstewart 4y ago
Hard on anecdotal observation Domino's is far more popular in Europe than the US
Tade0 4y ago
Imagine if it was run by an Australian.
m4rtink 4y ago
Not sure if they are anywhere else in Czech Republic, but in Brno they even reside in the magnificent functionalist Palace Moravia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Moravia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Moravia As far as I can tell their service is good & pizzas tasty. :)
lowercased 4y ago
First time I traveled from US to Europe was Spain in 1988, and I was interested to see Burger King and McDonalds there. A decade later, visiting the UK, I was 'surprised' a bit to see so many 'US' brands there. Mid 2000s - visited Shanghai - so many Western/US brands, didn't feel much different than being in NYC. 2010s - visited Russia and Romania - again, many US brands there (or other European/UK brands I knew). I got Sbarro pizza in Moscow - cost about $45 for one large pizza, but still tasted the same. Lately, I've started noticing 'UK' brand products coming to the US (Persil detergent, for example). Maybe many of these are Unilever brands being exported to more countries? When people talking about "multinational corporations", this is what they mean. As a US person who's never traveled abroad, it might be jarring (or 'funny') at first to see familiar brands in a 'foreign' country. But we're ... a pretty global society now.
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
  I remember being in Italy(?) about 30 years ago and for whatever reason my friend went into a Blimpie's, of all places! Once they realized he was American, they gave him free food in exchange for a critique of how their sandwiches tasted compared to the ones over here.
  - lowercased 4y ago
    Nice!

euroderf 4y ago

Seems like this might be a case for solar panels on-board. Long delivery route, moderate speeds, open road.

comboy 4y ago
From quick search electric car uses 0.15-0.2kWh per kilometer. That's amount of energy you get after delivering 200 Watts for an hour. Let's say you have 2m2 of roof (pretty generous), of very efficient panels in your driving in absolute optimal conditions when they are giving you full power (that's around 200W/m2). No loses on the inverter and such. So you need to be going at the speed of 2km/h. Well, that's actually not that bad for a postal service. It's assuming absolute optimal conditions, but energy usage is for a typical electric car. I doubt it would be financially net positive or carbon negative, but the idea is not as crazy as I thought assuming final delivery in medium density sunny urban areas.
- Tade0 4y ago
  I suppose it makes sense to at least power the AC with them, as its drain correlates with the amount of sunlight.
  - rout39574 4y ago
    AC is pretty power hungry; solar panels on the roof of an average van (best case) aren't going to make much of a dent. I find estimates of 10-20 miles per day of range in the best cases. At current prices, my sense is that solar panels on vehicles are marketing, not materially contributing to the energy budget. Nothing wrong with that but I wouldn't like to spend my feature money on the option.
    - Gordonjcp 4y ago
      > AC is pretty power hungry; solar panels on the roof of an average van (best case) aren't going to make much of a dent. If you space them off the roof by about an inch, like the old Landrover "Safari" roof, it'll make a hell of a difference.

codetrotter 4y ago

> electric vehicles do come in many more shapes and sizes due to the might higher flexibility and scalability of the electric power system. True. For example, this Norwegian article from 2021 has two pictures in it. https://fagbladet.no/nyheter/posten-stanser-kjop-av-fossile-varebiler-til-bruk-i-byene-fra-2022-6.91.770522.81f7949c7a https://fagbladet.no/nyheter/posten-stanser-kjop-av-fossile-... The first picture at the top are mostly big electric cars. But scroll down a bit. As shown in the second picture, the other electric cars that the Norwegian postal service use are much smaller. Almost like a quad bike with small wheels and a roof.

SamBam 4y ago

Around me (Boston USA area) there are ebike grocery deliveries (Getir) wizzing down every street. It's a great idea, although clearly the incentives are set up so that the delivery guys need to complete as many orders as possible, the predictable result of which is that these kids are driving dangerously the wrong was down one-way streets and cutting lights.

dev1n 4y ago
The ebikes aren't dangerous, the cars that hit them are. I think that's an important distinction.
- whafro 4y ago
  It's not the ebikes that he's saying are dangerous, it's the couriers. I got hit by a Getir rider in Brookline (probably near the parent) who zipped the wrong way out of a one-way street into the crosswalk I was using. Any vehicle driven by someone who isn't following the general rules/flow/expectations of everyone around them is dangerous. And large vehicles are dangerous too. But that's orthogonal.
- 7speter 4y ago
  Right, its the cars that are dangerous when people on bikes (ebikes or not) ride on sidewalks.
  - bandofthehawk 4y ago
    I think part of the problem is that the danger from cars kind of force the bikes onto the sidewalk. If a biker has a choice between possibly getting hit by a car or possibly hitting a pedestrian, the choice is kind of obvious. The solution is better infrastructure for bikes. Separate bike lanes from cars and pedestrians, slow the cars down, and improve visibility at conflict points.
    - eropple 4y ago
      > If a biker has a choice between possibly getting hit by a car or possibly hitting a pedestrian, the choice is kind of obvious. I don't think that's true, though. The alternative is not "endanger pedestrians", the alternative is "walk". A biker has a choice to not bike. And that's what I do; I walk when I'm in Boston, because I don't think urban biking is safe enough for me to make that choice. Like, yes, better bike infrastructure is a good idea and separated bike lanes is something that I absolutely support, but biking is a choice, and right now a lot of people on e-bikes (not so much regular bikes, to be honest) make me feel unsafe to walk in places that they tend to congregate.