this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2024
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The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest. They’re tall and ungainly. The windshields are vast. Their hoods resemble a duck bill. Their bumpers are enormous.

“You can tell that (the designers) didn’t have appearance in mind,” postal worker Avis Stonum said.

Odd appearance aside, the first handful of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that rolled onto postal routes in August in Athens, Georgia, are getting rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to cantankerous older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire.

Within a few years, the fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The new trucks also feature something common in most cars for more than six decades: air conditioning. And that’s key for drivers in the Deep South, the desert Southwest and other areas with scorching summers. 

“I promise you, it felt like heaven blowing in my face,” Stonum said of her first experience working in an air-conditioned truck.

Good.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've used the old trucks in New Mexico, 140°F in the trucks wasn't uncommon in the summer. It was a relief to get out of it and cool off a bit. AC will be great.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Jesus Christ that's basically uninhabitable for any extended period of time

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah it's basically a convection oven on wheels with the little rinky dink fan installed in them

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

At 140 degrees you would be able to last about 10 minutes before hitting hyperthermia; not much longer for death.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Love it, peak utility design, and it's cute.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The delivery truck, Duck for short.

Cuz it kinda looks like a duck.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah. Kinda like a storm trooper helmet too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

... idk, not boxy enough :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Ducky McDuckyFace?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago

Honestly, as replacements for their legacy, these look spot on. Modern versions of what came before. I'm so glad the postal workers are receiving new, safer equipment.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, sure, it's no looker, but if it makes mail carriers' lives easier then that's a win. Will probably be 'iconic' in a decade or two.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Plus the hood looks designed for pedestrian and collision safety, which is nice

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

As most will undoubtedly be walking with their heads in their phones, oblivious to what is going on around them

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

yeah fuck those dumb pedestrians, never even watching for cars on the sidewalk. Don't they know that roads and spaces within 30ft of roads are for cars??

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago

I think they’re adorable. They should let us buy them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Sort of weird looking by current standards. I don't know how long it will be before I see one of these. I live in a rural area, and our local USPS seems to use personal vehicles I guess? I don't really know for sure, but they don't drive the standard white and blue box that USPS drivers had when I lived in more urban/suburban settings.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

same where I am - delivery vehicle is an ancient, busted right-hand drive jeep. I don't imagine I'll be seeing one of these new vehicles any time soon

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Mpg on those old ones is like 9. Using those things in a rural area is just a waste of money. $3 to deliver to less than 10 customers for gas alone?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It would be hard to develop something that's not an improvement to the absolute shitboxes they were using.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

If lurking in the USPS subreddit for a few years had taught me anything, it's that some really love the LLVs and some just hate the platypus that's replacing it, as it was often called.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Really happy we are upgrading these finally, the previous vehicles had aged out and put postal employees in danger.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Huh, in my area recently they've been using just normal Mercedes vans with the Mercedes logo replaced by the USPS logo so I had assumed that was just the new standard USPS vehicle now but I guess not, interesting.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

I think it's cute!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Well it’s ugly as shit but it’s super functional so I really can’t complain. Some people thought the AC-130 was ugly, fat and slow till it shelled the fuck out of them

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

So this is what happens when a Fiat Multipla develops into its final form in all its glorious ugliness...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Belcher-ass transportation mode.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We just got a van in my area a few years back, wonder if this'll replace it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Nah, they use vans for more package dense areas. They are rolling out electric versions of those too eventually.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

It looks like the car that SpongeBob would drive if that were a thing that happened in reality. I love it so much.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

oh fuck what a beauty. I want one of these in cozy coupe theme but the old one without the eyes. kids these days have it rough.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Damn look at the storage space they have

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Man look at the 5head on that truck

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Glad to hear they're mostly electric. A mail truck is an ideal use a for EV, it ought to save the USPS a ton of money