As a letter carrier in MN I am sure they did not test these in the snow! These are so low to the ground good luck getting trough snow. I get stuck so easy in the Metris van we have now!
I am a postal carrier and own a truck in Boston. My Dad lives in Florida and when I visited him. I noticed that the carriers in Florida don't have A/C that's brutal.
@@solodolo6018 We have pro masters at my station in boston and two tons. No llv at all, but when I first started we had llv and crvs and one tons. All of them had those fans that blow dust and hot air in your face. I can't believe Boston has A/C but Florida and Arizona doesn't smh.
also love how they were required to make the front end low near 3ft to protect pedestrians, meanwhile here in Texas it's legal to have a 6ft hood height, wish they'd give every single truck the same treatment...not as severe at this but at least 4 or 5ft hood height MAX.
Why not? I find them fitting for American streets. I would recommend selling them to Russia, but with the sanctions in place thats not possible at the moment. They also need some nice cars.
Surely one of the most epic design fails in the history of design As was mentioned the shelving inside looks like a bloody murder situation for whoever has to go past all that sharp metal
@@bill-8794 compared to what we drove for the past 30 plus years, these might be good. LLV's have terrible blind spots and anyone over four foot can't stand in the back. There is no shelves in many of them either. Then you throw in radical ideas like heaters and AC. The sharp corners are minor compared to those.
Such an ignorant comment. There's a lot more to design than making stuff look good, these type of vehicles were always made with a function over aesthetics mindset. If this vehicle performs well, then it is a good design and the designer should be proud.
Awesome video! It is the ugliest vehicle I’ve ever seen, but now I get it, once he explained about the use case and the ability to see people around the vehicle
USPS. By the way, I have difficulty communicating because I had a stroke in Broca’s area, the part of the brain that controls speech. 2/8/2021 but I lived again. (My wife helped me compose this.)
This vehicle is going to get tremendous scrutiny as it should. "The 10-year contract with Oshkosh's Defense unit makes an initial $482 million investment, but it could be worth $6 billion or more for the unit to build up to 165,000 next-generation delivery vehicles."
As a letter carrier for 25 years the postal service could careless about customer service and spend time and resources on harassing the letter carriers
@@jamesmckay4573 the postal service never was intended to make a profit, but in this case they may actually make one due to the low cost per mile traveled and less maintenance.
EV postal trucks will benefit the most from regen braking with all the stop and go mail box to mail box driving. Can’t wait to see these vehicles on the road
And maintenance, probably. I worked at FedEx. Our inner-city trucks were brutal on batteries and alternators. They often didn't travel far enough between stops to recharge the battery from starting the diesel engine the previous stop. It would get so that, towards the end of the shift, the battery voltage would be so low that the radios (my responsibility) were unreliable and the drivers couldn't update the package pick-up/delivery status, print labels, etc.
@@stevenhill3136 LOLOLOL zero cancer causing emissions. Because we all know electricity is created by unicorn poop and is magically inserted into the vehicle. God you people are so ignorant.
I think they designed this mail truck to be as repulsive as they could so no one would adopt them. He just said the vehicle would have 360 cameras all the way around. Basically making the hideous front-end not necessary..........!
This is a perfect example of a racehorse designed by govt. committee is... a camel. The price seems reasonable at about $36K a base truck, but I bet the final price is double.
The minimum buy order puts the whole project at about $150k/vehicle. Like the F-35, it drops considerably once you build more. This is not a machine designed for beauty, it is a designed for a purpose. A Ferrari or McLaren would make a shitty package delivery van. And so would an F-150 or Silverado pickup. And, these things are going to spend the bulk of their lives running around neighborhoods full of small pre-school-aged children. That pedestrian safety angle is not a joke.
This will ensure that whenever you get into an accident, it will be at least 2 to 3 seconds before you even feel the impact XD What a massive duck bill, that thing is. . .
I have seen LLV with A/C, driven by supervisors. When it went to carrier duty the A/C was disabled. When a carrier moves one to 2 blocks (walking route), the A/C is useless as that amount of space would Not cool down in that period of time. Mounted routes have to have the window open to deliver the mail at curbside, the A/C will be next to useless. The LLV in winter can't keep the drivers compartment warm on mounted routes either. FYI There is No insulation in the LLV plus, with the amount of windows, where could you put it. People who compare cars to delivery vehicles need to research what they are talking about.
@@hermitgreenn I'll ask my letter carrier once he is driving one. Historically USPS management lip service caring about their employees. Real world versus should.
My bet is you're dead wrong. But I'm even more sure about the fact that you don't know what you're talking about. Either do I, having not driven one. But I know I'm guessing. You just flat out pull stuff out of your a**.
But no 4wheel or all wheel drive. 70 mile range as soon as you go into locations outside of towns these things will run out of power. How well is that going to work in Montana, Kanas , Texas even places that have hills, mountains and snow?
You must be kidding. If you're a current or former carrier you should know supervisors would check vehicles for that, as rubber bands could prevent the truck from going into park.
Even the heaters were little more than an afterthought. There was no heat vent at all for our feet in the first LLV's. The single heat vent for the defroster was put on the wrong side of the vehicle. That is why you will see a little fan on the dash.
The few auxiliary floor heaters are mandated to be removed. Its great when its below zero. Your feet are froze everyday and burn like hell at night when you try to warm up at home.
Well this certainly sidesteps all the fraud and criminality that went into the contract. Not to mention the pathetic joke that the EV part is an afterthought that the military contractor has no expertise, or even clue about.
Interesting that he didn't mention what I think of as the main advantage: Not having to restart an ICE at each entry to the vehicle. I don't know if they're going to be allowed to leave the trucks "on" when delivering individual bundles, but if so, it's even more convenient.
We were told when LLV's first rolled out they wouldn't have A/c so we wouldn't be taking long breaks during the heat (Texas). They did however have fans which blew the hot air around 😂
What this poor USPS spokesperson is trying not to say is our boss Dejoy has shares in Oshkosh Defence and has foisted this monstrosity on us. The fuel version has worse mpg than the current 30year old trucks and Oshkosh has come out and said they haven't a clue on how to make the electric ones. Boondoggle pure and simple. Not Oshkosh or USPS fault it's down to one man.
Anyone who delivers mail knows this is not practical. The windshield is god awful big, which removing ice from will be a nightmare. The cargo area is half as small as the current LLV. Fitting everything during Christmas will be impossible. The air conditioning is the only perk.
Good report, thanks. However, please use and instruct others in proper microphone technique in locations with high ambient noise. The hand microphone should be held straight up just under the chin so you and others speak across it. The closer the microphone is to the speaker’s mouth the better the signal-to-noise ratio. Don’t make the mistake of holding it in front of the mouth that looks bad and is susceptible to breath-popping and plosives. The higher the ambient noise level the narrower the pattern of the microphone should be used. “Shotgun“ microphones come in various lengths. The longer the mike, the narrower the pattern and its ability to reject unwanted sound. "Bad sound makes good video look bad."
This is where feature demands over ride ANY common sense. Might as well have Toyota build a full Hybrid with two hundred mile range and 50 MPG. Scary how our government works sometimes.
@@theodorehaskins3756 I'm feel kinda aware that the government does a shit job providing the best of the best resources for our humble civilian services. Our taxes are supposed to go to everything not just DoD. WTF are we protecting?? All our fellow peasant Americans are struggling all for what???
Thanks Ellie. The one thing most comments ignore is that It took the post office 6 years to get to this point, and they do not want to repeat the process as the motivations are 1.Get the old vehicles off the road. and 2. The old vehicles were designed for mail, and today the Post Office is dealing with less mail, more packages. Had they started 1 year ago, EV's would have been a more credible technology. So, the vehicle was designed around ICE and was converted to EV after individual members of Congress yelled and screamed, and Joe Biden set a target of all new government vehicles being EV's.
They were designed as EVs, with a hybrid option. Congress only whined about the mix. DeJoy, the guy that is to the USPS what Rogozin was to Roscosmos, was only going to have a 10% mix. The EVs were always part of the spec Government vehicles being EVs is a good thing. Look no further than car rental companies' experience with EVs for why. When you run a fleet, maintenance (and often fuel) is a huge part of your bottom line.
@@Markle2k this whole design started way before DeJoy ever came on board. It was not just his idea to ICE for power. EV's were not nearly as common or developed when it started. Biden and congress did demand that more were EV. The LLV's were supposed to be replaced starting ten years ago. They started the design work about 5 or 10 years before that.
It's ugly but practical and LONG overdue. The Grumman LLV's he referenced that don't have air conditioning are the USPS trucks everyone recognizes and were last built in 1994.
The LLV doesn't even have a good heater. They were very poorly designed from the start. They even forgot to put windshield defroster on the right side.
Totally agree. I don't know why they only put defrost vent on the left side but nothing on the right side(driver side). I have to wipe them off by myself.
One of the best TH-cam videos from CES! I was surprised there were not more from the channels that focus on electric vehicles. Thanks for the detailed interview and video. 🎉
Not an EV enthusiast, but of all the applications the USPS makes the most range, low speed and distance for their vehicles and 99% in city driving are all perfect for EV and hybrids! They will pay for themselves quickly over the 8mpg vehicles they currently have that have zero safety features, no air bags, ABS, A/C, etc, etc.
As a mail carrier I'm both excited and concerned about this. Do not give northern areas the EVs! Cold weather negatively effects how long a vehicle runs on a charge. I don't want to be half way through my route only to run out of charge. To be honest, the Post Office shouldn't get EVs at all. EVs will never replace traditional vehicles. The infrastructure isn't there to support mass adoption. They should wait a couple years for the EV fad to die and a better alternative, like hydrogen fuel cell, to become mainstream.
Think about the EV benefits though. Instant heat on a cold morning. You should be able to leave AC running when you get out of the truck (hopefully). They’re usually peppy.
I carry mail on a state that receives alot of snow. Does this unit have 4 wheel drive? The newer fleets coming out cannot be chained up? Most of testing in newer vehicles is done in warmer climates.
In my area the carry the mail to each house. The truck is parked at the end of the block. All day it probably goes less than 10 miles. The range of this vehicle should be adequate. But I don’t see the advantage of this over a production van like the electric Ford Transit
These are designed for a specific use case. The EV Transit first is designed as an ICE vehicle and is not going to take advantage of all the packaging efficiencies an EV affords. This is an EV with the ability to have an ICE drivetrain installed. The Transit package is designed to be everything. From plumber's truck to airport shuttle bus, flower delivery van to flatbed truck. That involves a lot of compromises just to meet a price point through economy of scale by serving a wide customer base. These will meet that economy of scale through the sheer scale of their single customer. Wide vs. deep
The postal service is trying hard to eliminate those type of routes to save money. Some walking or park and looproutes may only drive 4 or five miles per day. A rural driving route can be over 200 miles. A city driving route is 20 to 30 miles per day.
So this design is made to accommodate the "5th percentile female", to ensure she can see objects that are 3' tall, without making recourse to the 360 degree camera stitched image viewer HUD that they also have in the vehicle.
3:36 I actually really like the llv, but it is in fact, a microwave with wheels in the summer. There's a little fan on the dash that does the best it can.
Imagine it's the middle of July. It's 5 p.m.and 25 of these vehicles all plug in at the same time in every post office. We are going to have to shut our air conditioners off to charge these things in rolling black outs due to all the coal fired power plantss have been shut down.
im a letter carrier in upstate ny, that vehicle wont make it in the harsh winter, its too low for the snow. definatly will get stuck on the snow all day long lol
Its unique. Why steal something everybody knows who it belongs to? But then nobody steals our postal cars. Nobody would be so dumb. And they are Nissan, VW, Opel, Ford etc. Mostly EV already.
Up north a lot of our trucks have no heat!. 70 miles is Not enough range to help rural routes or to run packages extra hours and during very busy holidays. So whats options here turn off heat to conserve battery? Wait while vehicle charges? Obstacle avoidance on metris is terrible it beeps at you EVERY TIME you are close to a mailbox... LLV's and metris are absolutely terrible in snow and actually are a driving hazard. Sure wish and hope they take this in to account! Dont care about looks but would like something that actually would work for us
Maybe I'm naive, but 70 miles doesn't seem like much. I guess if they are delivering in the immediate vicinity of the facility they'll be okay, but this won't work on any rural routes.
Rural probably isn't running at 2000lb capacity. I believe these are also fast-charging...80% within 15 minutes. And if you recall, not every vehicle will be EV. I'd assume the ICE trucks are for those longer rural routes.
@@T-K-4-2-1 Yes, the US still needs to dig fossil ressources and burn them when everybody else on the world has stopped using them, because the USPS can not let go...
Just how many miles do you suppose any given zip code covers, even in a rural area? The average driver puts fewer than 30 miles a day on their vehicle. In rural areas, they have multiple mail routes, hence multiple drivers covering those routes. 70 mile range per day is more than sufficient. They likely want that cushion for the cold days when the battery won't be as efficient and maybe will only get 50 miles of range, which is still more than necessary.
@@Royale_with_Cheeze when new these will be pulling back into the lot with a third of a tank,, electric. Only goes down from there as a battery ages. If they insist on proceeding with this joke fine. I would think a limited run of 10 thousand out in the real world would be enough to prove themselves. If they work great, but to just go all in is complete folly.
@@JohnWhite-Iowa-City Perhaps they already put a small number of them in the real world as a pilot program to test them out. I don't expect the USPS can afford to go "all in" on an untested vehicle.
Packages are definitely going to be a problem, Amazon likes to dump parking lots full of packages at post offices for the last mile delivery... USPS needs to negotiate better contracts with their last smile deliveries with Amazon... Apparently if they don't deliver them on time they don't actually get paid by Amazon.. That's one of the reasons you see USPS trucks in neighborhoods on Sundays, they're delivering Amazon Last Mile packages... I do e-commerce from home, I'm lucky I've been able to get my local carrier on board to pick up my outgoing packages.. saving me incredible amounts of time traffic money and gasoline having to go to a location Post Office drop off.. Of course all of my packages are extremely well packaged their waterproof, they're bright they're colorful you could throw them like a frisbee.. USPS has been doing an extremely good job out of the Los Angeles area of moving my packages quickly and on time.. lickity split..
Great information from your interview. I had heard two years ago that they were going to buy 100,000 new trucks with only 10% electric or something like that. It is excellent to hear that they are now planning 70% EV for the first batch. I started seeing FedEx trucks that are EV in the last few months and of course there is the Rivian truck for Amazon on the way. In cities, it seems like a win-win for everyone. So much less pollution.
Is it, though? Electricity generation still creates a lot of pollution. And the electric grid is not in the best of shape in much of the country. The federal government and many of the individual states need to upgrade the power infrastructure in order to support the increasing number of EVs.
@@mattbosley3531 With EVs you can have the same amount of vehicles on the road, with the dirtiest electricity, and it STILL produces less pollution. The main reason for that, is that a big electricity plant burning x fuel, burns it FAR more efficiently than all those small engines in all those vehicles.
the post office is going to large distribution centers for workers involved with mail delivery. This means alot of those ev's will use much more electricity daily while charging. Then there's all the employees driving their personal gas vehicles twice as far as they use to for their daily commute. After you figure all that in with the energy to make those batteries it's going to be worse for the environment all said and done.
Its great they are going EV. But visibility is a joke when the front sticks out about 3 feet. This duckbill truck could easily run over a cat or small child it never saw. It doesn't have to stick out so far, because it lacks a front engine. Just look at the front design of the Semi. Its visibility is great. Just scale that shape down and you have your design.
@@T-K-4-2-1 No I didn't miss that part. I don't believe that the govt's lowest bidder will get it right. (They aren't the military, that pays for quality high tech). Are they going to match Tesla's Autopilot 1.0 in 5 years? Ha, ha. The post office promised us good stamp machines in the 80s and they had to junk them for over 20 years until they got them right.
EVs do not have an ICE engine in front so its superflous or a POOR design. (Pull up the Tesla design to see what I mean). The Tesla electric motors and inverters are along the axles. That duckbill design might be a compromise, indicating that some trucks will actually be delivered as HYBRIDS due to lack of batteries by the low-ball winning bidder in govt. contracting. (I used to write RFPs for defense contractors, who pay for quality. Non-military contracting is full of firms that promise everything and deliver a shoddy pile of compromises. Watch and see!).
It is designed to take an engine. I haven't heard the details on the ICE/hybrid version, but it probably uses a compact FWD power unit with a lay-down I-4 or boxer engine to keep the hood low.
That is what I started with. Not actually army but looked like it had been through a war when I got it. They were somtimes scary to drive. I also got to drive the old jeeps in the military.
me too the good old days no packages short routes no pressurs boy did that change a living hell from year 2000 till i retired in 2019 no wonder nobody wants to work there
I heard they produce 1 mail truck a day. They said they are ramping up production. Are they ramping up to 2 vehicles per day? It should take around 85 years to complete the 60,000 mail trucks.
As a carrier, and I guarantee you 99% of other carriers are with me on this, we do not care how stupid it looks, as long as it's FUNCTIONAL, like the old LLVs. The Mercedes Metris that we've been using for a few years now are total garbage in every single way, and honestly, their so impractical, they should be considered safety hazards.
I hope they went with the, now open, Tesla charging port. They could probably save money by installing a bank of, say, 4 Tesla chargers at each post office instead of trying to use the other crappy chargers available.
I retired from the USPS as a City Carrier. The LLVs they use are super light, freezing in the winter and sweating in the Summer in those things. They can get up to 120 degrees inside on your Route. Bit these Ugly New Things they are coming out with are definitely UNSAFE. If you get hit head on your dead. You get hit from behind your flying thru that huge windshield and your dead. There's not enough room in them for Packages they handle daily. There will be dead batteries in the Winter Months as they won't last for 12 hours. Whoever came up with this should be Fired. They are unsafe and won't handle the Package Load. They should have used vehicles similar to the FedEx Van.
@willaerley7140 Good Luck in that piece of Junk. Hope you find room for all your Amazon packages. And whatever you do don't get in a wreck and fly thru that gigantic window. I'd take an LLV over that thing anyday.
@willaerley7140 I did my Time. I'm retired bud. I don't have to worry about that crappy job anymore. I Don't miss it one bit. This thing is a Wimp Mobile just like Todd and most of the New USPS Employees. They can't take it so they quit. They don't know how to work.
@@jebbthetrainkid1281 Don’t lump us all in together. I agree that management sucks. Yeah, I wish we had an LLV that looks like a Hummer. No chance, though.
I wonder how many of those trucks will be around long enough to get antique tags, let a lone make it 30 years. Zero would be my guess. The life of the batteries will be 10 years max.
That guy did a great job and really did not sugar coat anything but walk around it and define why at the same time. Just made me think the only pleasant presence of the federal government have is the post office.
You can abide by requirements without making it hideous. There are ways to accomplish those line of sight reqs that don't make it look like a fuck billed platypus car. 🤦♂️
It also requires an ICE/hybrid option for edge case routes that can't accommodate to the 70 mile worst-case range. That's probably most of the reason for the duck bill look vs, the Rivian Amazon truck's more conventional slope front. With the duck bill, you can slide in a compact FWD package and replace part of the batteries with a fuel tank for a nice hybrid solution
The USPS had EV’s in the past before. The problem was the battery packs going bad mainly cause by the batteries get low on water. Hopefully they will use Lithium batteries.
The USPS is an ideal case study for EV's. Every day the trucks leave, travel a set distance, then return to the same place, then spend the night waiting for the next day. They can also do managed charging by slowing down the rate on the trucks that don't need so much in favor of the trucks that are really low. This will work well since they all will be leaving at the same time.
Enough talk! When are they going to be replacing the old trucks? Electric or gas! I think the postal workers have struggled long enough with the old trucks and deserve a better truck!
I love ev fleet progress. 165,000 of these is amazing. I wonder how the ice fleet is fueled. On site? How do the gas and oil companies profit from ev charging?
I just retired from the Postal Service in Boston. I don't know about other regions, but there, they issue credit cards that can be used at any gas station. The card requires you to first enter the vehicle mileage and a pin issued to that driver. My personal vehicle is a plug-in hybrid, so I rarely buy gas. When I saw the number climb up to approx. $70 to fill up the Pro-Master vehicle I drove, I thanked my lucky stars (and my foresight) that I drive a semi-EV.
oh yeah, never mind the 500,000 pounds of earth displaced for each battery for every single one of those 165,000 vehicles!! not to mention mention each and everyone of the other proprietary parts that are an unnecessary waste of plastic parts and resources! right yay evs!!😊😊😊
Surprisingly interesting video. The default vehicle here is the Grumman that I believe is the LLV referred to... also ugly, but given that mail routes here require the carrier to leave their vehicle every house or two (boxes on house, not at curb) the starter motor for the IC engine in them takes a lot of abuse.
It's actually the battery and alternator. Start/stop is common as a fuel-economy measure because they can make high-amperage motors that will take a huge duty-cycle nowadays.
The old LLV (long life vehicle) is a 4-cylinder Chevrolet piece of crap vehicle. It does have a decent design for hauling mail and parcels, though. The newer postal trucks we use to deliver in are Ford Explorers, 6 cylinder engines. Roughly made in the year 2000. They are called, FFV’s. Flex fuel vehicles. I believe they can run on propane but have only used gasoline.
How does it reduce worker injury? Worker fatigue? I would like it if my carrier were as healthy as possible if for no other reason than to contribute to the Postal Services dedication to reliability.
They spend most of their work day walking. They are going to love being able to stand up while retrieving your packages from the back and not having to bend over.
70 Miles… ??? pointless if it can’t do at least 150 miles. Should have got Tesla involved. Or at least someone with half decent battery technology. 70 Miles is like early 90s electric vehicle range. I get that it does 70 miles fully loaded etc but common seriously?
@@dewiz9596 Brand new yes they will probably make most of their deliveries before needing a recharge for the day, but I’d hazard to say in some rural communities they won’t be able to make the whole day. five years later they won’t be able to make normal deliveries in a city without recharging. And if you want to send them to another location or city now you have to ship them in a truck.
Are Teslas towing 2,000 lbs of cargo? Check that math. The longest route USPS runs is 187 miles...I'd imagine the rural routes will get the new ICE vehicles, and the high-density routes will get the EV...in which case 70 miles at full capacity is more than enough.
@@T-K-4-2-1 Yes they can. Model X is even cheaper than this monstrosity. Imagine the USPS delivering your next letter from the IRS through the left falcon wing dors. Cool!
Has Todd ever Delivered Mail before? I doubt it. If he did I'm sure he jumped into the Supervisory Positions as quick as he could. By looking at him I doubt he could handle any physical job and probably was the worker in the Office. Seen it many times. It's always the most worthless workers that are in USPS Management. This Vehicle is a Death Trap. I would refuse to drive it.
Remember the old joke that a camel is a horse designed by committee? Kind of applies here. I don't understand the massively oversized bumper. Range 70 miles seems low but most of these will be stop and go in city and suburb. I wonder what this upgrade is going to cost us in increased postal rates. It isn't going to be cheap for either each vehicle or the electrical upgrade at each post office.
The cost of the vehicles are probably the least of the cost. Infrastructure including charging, repair training, operating training, and repair parts inventory, and repair equipment are going to be the highest costs plus there will be a learning curve in all of this.
@@garyradtke3252 Yes! Unfortunately we will pay for it all in ever increasing postal rates, and the USPS will keep losing more and more business as that happens.
i work for the usps we cant get a diret anser when we are going to get training on these new trucks thy are playing around getting truck we tacking at lest 2 trucks a week off the road do to rotted out frame
oh yeah i can see peeps crackin there forehead on them things and start the cussing and parcel throwing while a little kid and parent waits outside for their mail lol
There is something that STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN about the billion dollar plus contract that was awarded to the company to provide these electric fiasco trucks to the postal service. There is a video on TH-cam about it. The company that won the contract DOES NOT MAKE ELECTRIC VEHICLES! They subcontracted that out to another company.
Leave it up to our Ellie to cover the interesting stories no one else does!
Really? I've seen at least 3 other reports on this from other TH-camrs.
In ten yrs they will be abandoned,,and become tiny homes
As a letter carrier in MN I am sure they did not test these in the snow! These are so low to the ground good luck getting trough snow. I get stuck so easy in the Metris van we have now!
Give me a llv over a metris any snow day.
Same in Alaska! We have the FFV here. Not sure how the new trucks are going to work in the cold and heavy snow >_>
they won't charge in the cold air either.
You realize Oshkosh is in Wisconsin right? Just south of Green Bay.
@@craignelson6543 says who? battery management includes temperature management.
I am a postal carrier and own a truck in Boston. My Dad lives in Florida and when I visited him. I noticed that the carriers in Florida don't have A/C that's brutal.
None of the LLVs have ac.
@@fredbecker607 yes. Point is, he’s surprised that even in Florida, they didn’t add AC in the LLV’s
Gets up to 115 degrees where I'm at and we don't have AC. Just a little fan that blows hot air at you :)
@@solodolo6018 We have pro masters at my station in boston and two tons. No llv at all, but when I first started we had llv and crvs and one tons. All of them had those fans that blow dust and hot air in your face. I can't believe Boston has A/C but Florida and Arizona doesn't smh.
In FL we have Metris' at most offices by now.
SEC to investigate a $54 million stock purchase made a day before Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced a contract for Oshkosh.
also love how they were required to make the front end low near 3ft to protect pedestrians, meanwhile here in Texas it's legal to have a 6ft hood height, wish they'd give every single truck the same treatment...not as severe at this but at least 4 or 5ft hood height MAX.
I get visibility, pretty sure it could have been done another way. That bumper design very clearly says that design sensibility was not a factor.
That's where the sensors are going to be. And, since pedestrian safety is the major concern, those are probably softly suspended
those bumpers look absolutely crazy
Driver: ... Guess I'll die-
Mustang: *CRASHES FRONTALLY into the mail truck*
2023 Mail Truck: Im a flat boi now :D
I work for usps and if I can stand up in a LLV and have AC I’m with it
But that low speed sonar… it annoys me in my car. I can’t imagine what that’ll be like going off every mailbox, all day long.
Less annoying than Please scan Flats then Letters.
With that huge window in hot climate like Arizona or California the A.C won’t keep up.
The designer of that Monstrosity should never again be allowed near an automobile in any way shape or form.
Why not? I find them fitting for American streets. I would recommend selling them to Russia, but with the sanctions in place thats not possible at the moment. They also need some nice cars.
Surely one of the most epic design fails in the history of design As was mentioned the shelving inside looks like a bloody murder situation for whoever has to go past all that sharp metal
@@bill-8794 compared to what we drove for the past 30 plus years, these might be good. LLV's have terrible blind spots and anyone over four foot can't stand in the back. There is no shelves in many of them either. Then you throw in radical ideas like heaters and AC. The sharp corners are minor compared to those.
Such an ignorant comment. There's a lot more to design than making stuff look good, these type of vehicles were always made with a function over aesthetics mindset. If this vehicle performs well, then it is a good design and the designer should be proud.
He did it on purpose lol
Awesome video! It is the ugliest vehicle I’ve ever seen, but now I get it, once he explained about the use case and the ability to see people around the vehicle
I was glad he answered without hesitation
USPS. By the way, I have difficulty communicating because I had a stroke in Broca’s area, the part of the brain that controls speech. 2/8/2021 but I lived again. (My wife helped me compose this.)
Wishing you well.
Brah, this vehicle won't be able handle my dirt rts... yikes.
To low clearance, and going up the steep hills/mountains will be interesting...
This vehicle is going to get tremendous scrutiny as it should. "The 10-year contract with Oshkosh's Defense unit makes an initial $482 million investment, but it could be worth $6 billion or more for the unit to build up to 165,000 next-generation delivery vehicles."
plus bringing thirty thousand facilites up to being able to charge them. Spending like this should be taken away from the government
The director of USPS definitely needs to be SCRUTINIZED everything he does.
As a letter carrier for 25 years the postal service could careless about customer service and spend time and resources on harassing the letter carriers
@@jamesmckay4573 the postal service never was intended to make a profit, but in this case they may actually make one due to the low cost per mile traveled and less maintenance.
EV postal trucks will benefit the most from regen braking with all the stop and go mail box to mail box driving. Can’t wait to see these vehicles on the road
And maintenance, probably. I worked at FedEx. Our inner-city trucks were brutal on batteries and alternators. They often didn't travel far enough between stops to recharge the battery from starting the diesel engine the previous stop. It would get so that, towards the end of the shift, the battery voltage would be so low that the radios (my responsibility) were unreliable and the drivers couldn't update the package pick-up/delivery status, print labels, etc.
It is great to see government spending forty percent more for this than it would have purchasing an already proven vehicle.
@@jamesmckay4573 EV's proven to be cheaper to run and maintain plus unlike gas junk have zero cancer causing emissions. So there’s that
@@stevenhill3136 LOLOLOL zero cancer causing emissions. Because we all know electricity is created by unicorn poop and is magically inserted into the vehicle. God you people are so ignorant.
@@jamesbizs Dilution matters. By your logic your farts stink as bad 50 miles away lol
I think they designed this mail truck to be as repulsive as they could so no one would adopt them. He just said the vehicle would have 360 cameras all the way around. Basically making the hideous front-end not necessary..........!
That explains a lot and it is a challenging service to maintain. You did it again, great job.
I'm a city carrier and as superior as the interior is to the LLV, this low ground clearance vehicle without AWD will perform terrible in my area.
This is a perfect example of a racehorse designed by govt. committee is... a camel. The price seems reasonable at about $36K a base truck, but I bet the final price is double.
The minimum buy order puts the whole project at about $150k/vehicle. Like the F-35, it drops considerably once you build more.
This is not a machine designed for beauty, it is a designed for a purpose. A Ferrari or McLaren would make a shitty package delivery van. And so would an F-150 or Silverado pickup. And, these things are going to spend the bulk of their lives running around neighborhoods full of small pre-school-aged children. That pedestrian safety angle is not a joke.
What is with the front bumper? 🇨🇦 70 mile range??? Very expensive van!
RIVIAN cargo-van look 1000X better
Cow catcher.
This will ensure that whenever you get into an accident, it will be at least 2 to 3 seconds before you even feel the impact XD What a massive duck bill, that thing is. . .
I have seen LLV with A/C, driven by supervisors. When it went to carrier duty the A/C was disabled. When a carrier moves one to 2 blocks (walking route), the A/C is useless as that amount of space would Not cool down in that period of time. Mounted routes have to have the window open to deliver the mail at curbside, the A/C will be next to useless. The LLV in winter can't keep the drivers compartment warm on mounted routes either. FYI There is No insulation in the LLV plus, with the amount of windows, where could you put it. People who compare cars to delivery vehicles need to research what they are talking about.
Just because the LLV couldn't do it doesn't mean the new vehicles shouldn't.
@@hermitgreenn I'll ask my letter carrier once he is driving one. Historically USPS management lip service caring about their employees. Real world versus should.
My bet is you're dead wrong. But I'm even more sure about the fact that you don't know what you're talking about. Either do I, having not driven one. But I know I'm guessing. You just flat out pull stuff out of your a**.
How will those work in zero degree weather in MI, WI, AK, VT, ME, MA, NH, etc.?
Poorly im sure
But no 4wheel or all wheel drive. 70 mile range as soon as you go into locations outside of towns these things will run out of power. How well is that going to work in Montana, Kanas , Texas even places that have hills, mountains and snow?
They should make these have the column shifter like the explorer chassis so it is like LLV. Also will double as a place for rubber bands.
You must be kidding. If you're a current or former carrier you should know supervisors would check vehicles for that, as rubber bands could prevent the truck from going into park.
@@chicagojunk I see mail carriers doing that what?
@@chicagojunk
A flimsy rubber won’t make it go shifting anyway. Regardless there isn’t enough leverage at the bottom to move the shifter.
I'm mostly surprised that USPS has been hauling boxes of stuff to customers all these years in non-climate controlled vehicles.
Even the heaters were little more than an afterthought. There was no heat vent at all for our feet in the first LLV's. The single heat vent for the defroster was put on the wrong side of the vehicle. That is why you will see a little fan on the dash.
The few auxiliary floor heaters are mandated to be removed. Its great when its below zero. Your feet are froze everyday and burn like hell at night when you try to warm up at home.
@@fredbecker607 Agree. They should add vents for the defroster right in front of the carriers. I still have to wipe it myself even with Defrost on.
Well this certainly sidesteps all the fraud and criminality that went into the contract. Not to mention the pathetic joke that the EV part is an afterthought that the military contractor has no expertise, or even clue about.
Found the WKHS investor.
Yep you are correct, and they still think these are coming in 2023. This is a complete disaster.
Interesting that he didn't mention what I think of as the main advantage: Not having to restart an ICE at each entry to the vehicle. I don't know if they're going to be allowed to leave the trucks "on" when delivering individual bundles, but if so, it's even more convenient.
Current practice is that the key has to be out of the ignition. E brake on also.
NOPE not even with the new safety features this will bring.
We were told when LLV's first rolled out they wouldn't have A/c so we wouldn't be taking long breaks during the heat (Texas). They did however have fans which blew the hot air around 😂
Will we be able to see for incoming vehicles like making a turn, the turn lanes that breaks away from the main road, can’t see those vehicles
I think this is the most iconic American vehicle ever made--the USPS made a fantastic choice! 😂
What this poor USPS spokesperson is trying not to say is our boss Dejoy has shares in Oshkosh Defence and has foisted this monstrosity on us. The fuel version has worse mpg than the current 30year old trucks and Oshkosh has come out and said they haven't a clue on how to make the electric ones. Boondoggle pure and simple. Not Oshkosh or USPS fault it's down to one man.
Agreed… people don’t know the politics behind the decision
and no usb ports for charging phones. will get stuck in 3 inches of snow, catch fire at the same time.
Very sharp corners on that shelving. I can see a few injuries from that.
I can see a few Deaths from that low front end and Gigantic unsafe Window.
Anyone who delivers mail knows this is not practical. The windshield is god awful big, which removing ice from will be a nightmare. The cargo area is half as small as the current LLV. Fitting everything during Christmas will be impossible. The air conditioning is the only perk.
And you will have to turn that off to save battery. 🤣
Good report, thanks. However, please use and instruct others in proper microphone technique in locations with high ambient noise. The hand microphone should be held straight up just under the chin so you and others speak across it. The closer the microphone is to the speaker’s mouth the better the signal-to-noise ratio. Don’t make the mistake of holding it in front of the mouth that looks bad and is susceptible to breath-popping and plosives. The higher the ambient noise level the narrower the pattern of the microphone should be used. “Shotgun“ microphones come in various lengths. The longer the mike, the narrower the pattern and its ability to reject unwanted sound.
"Bad sound makes good video look bad."
Wow, postmen will need cushioned padding on them for all those sharp corner shelves!
You have to be kidding. Injuries are not allowed. Any injuries are the carriers fault and they will be disciplined.
@@fredbecker607 Yeah it will be their fault for not using the green tag shoes or for not curbing their wheels.
Lots of gov't double speak, still a step forward.
This is where feature demands over ride ANY common sense. Might as well have Toyota build a full Hybrid with two hundred mile range and 50 MPG. Scary how our government works sometimes.
well they are just shoving this shit in everyone's throats
So are you aware of how the government contracts for it services, to include the replacement of their aging fleet vehicles?
@@theodorehaskins3756 I'm feel kinda aware that the government does a shit job providing the best of the best resources for our humble civilian services. Our taxes are supposed to go to everything not just DoD. WTF are we protecting?? All our fellow peasant Americans are struggling all for what???
@@opj4you So let me know when you wanna change the subject, because that's not the question I asked you. Comphrende.
@@theodorehaskins3756 No.
Thanks Ellie. The one thing most comments ignore is that It took the post office 6 years to get to this point, and they do not want to repeat the process as the motivations are 1.Get the old vehicles off the road. and 2. The old vehicles were designed for mail, and today the Post Office is dealing with less mail, more packages. Had they started 1 year ago, EV's would have been a more credible technology. So, the vehicle was designed around ICE and was converted to EV after individual members of Congress yelled and screamed, and Joe Biden set a target of all new government vehicles being EV's.
They were designed as EVs, with a hybrid option. Congress only whined about the mix. DeJoy, the guy that is to the USPS what Rogozin was to Roscosmos, was only going to have a 10% mix. The EVs were always part of the spec
Government vehicles being EVs is a good thing. Look no further than car rental companies' experience with EVs for why. When you run a fleet, maintenance (and often fuel) is a huge part of your bottom line.
@@Markle2k this whole design started way before DeJoy ever came on board. It was not just his idea to ICE for power. EV's were not nearly as common or developed when it started. Biden and congress did demand that more were EV. The LLV's were supposed to be replaced starting ten years ago. They started the design work about 5 or 10 years before that.
It's ugly but practical and LONG overdue. The Grumman LLV's he referenced that don't have air conditioning are the USPS trucks everyone recognizes and were last built in 1994.
My wife retired before her truck did. Both started about the same time.
The LLV doesn't even have a good heater. They were very poorly designed from the start. They even forgot to put windshield defroster on the right side.
Totally agree. I don't know why they only put defrost vent on the left side but nothing on the right side(driver side). I have to wipe them off by myself.
One of the best TH-cam videos from CES! I was surprised there were not more from the channels that focus on electric vehicles. Thanks for the detailed interview and video. 🎉
Glad you liked it!
Not an EV enthusiast, but of all the applications the USPS makes the most range, low speed and distance for their vehicles and 99% in city driving are all perfect for EV and hybrids! They will pay for themselves quickly over the 8mpg vehicles they currently have that have zero safety features, no air bags, ABS, A/C, etc, etc.
they won't pay for themselves
@@armadilllo They will pay off.. the money saved on fuel, and maintenance costs 👍
@@cback94 yeah? Go tell Hertz that🤣
My guess the windshield is $4K
4 K plus .
As a mail carrier I'm both excited and concerned about this. Do not give northern areas the EVs! Cold weather negatively effects how long a vehicle runs on a charge. I don't want to be half way through my route only to run out of charge.
To be honest, the Post Office shouldn't get EVs at all. EVs will never replace traditional vehicles. The infrastructure isn't there to support mass adoption. They should wait a couple years for the EV fad to die and a better alternative, like hydrogen fuel cell, to become mainstream.
Think about the EV benefits though. Instant heat on a cold morning. You should be able to leave AC running when you get out of the truck (hopefully). They’re usually peppy.
I carry mail on a state that receives alot of snow. Does this unit have 4 wheel drive? The newer fleets coming out cannot be chained up? Most of testing in newer vehicles is done in warmer climates.
Were the old postal trucks ever good looking?
In my area the carry the mail to each house. The truck is parked at the end of the block. All day it probably goes less than 10 miles. The range of this vehicle should be adequate. But I don’t see the advantage of this over a production van like the electric Ford Transit
These are designed for a specific use case.
The EV Transit first is designed as an ICE vehicle and is not going to take advantage of all the packaging efficiencies an EV affords. This is an EV with the ability to have an ICE drivetrain installed.
The Transit package is designed to be everything. From plumber's truck to airport shuttle bus, flower delivery van to flatbed truck. That involves a lot of compromises just to meet a price point through economy of scale by serving a wide customer base. These will meet that economy of scale through the sheer scale of their single customer. Wide vs. deep
The postal service is trying hard to eliminate those type of routes to save money. Some walking or park and looproutes may only drive 4 or five miles per day. A rural driving route can be over 200 miles. A city driving route is 20 to 30 miles per day.
@@Markle2k I can understand your point but defense contractors aren’t known for on time on budget programs. This will end up costing more than planned
At 1:03 - "sonar stuff", like underwater detection?
No, the parking sensors use sound waves.
So this design is made to accommodate the "5th percentile female", to ensure she can see objects that are 3' tall, without making recourse to the 360 degree camera stitched image viewer HUD that they also have in the vehicle.
nothing like a camera going out, or a sensor, and you can't drive the vehicle anymore.
3:36 I actually really like the llv, but it is in fact, a microwave with wheels in the summer. There's a little fan on the dash that does the best it can.
Imagine it's the middle of July. It's 5 p.m.and 25 of these vehicles all plug in at the same time in every post office. We are going to have to shut our air conditioners off to charge these things in rolling black outs due to all the coal fired power plantss have been shut down.
im a letter carrier in upstate ny, that vehicle wont make it in the harsh winter, its too low for the snow. definatly will get stuck on the snow all day long lol
Probably. I’ve seen AWD Audis rip through 2 feet snow, though.
Is there anything in the NGDV contract, or is anyone talking, about battery pack replacement plans for the 25 or 30 years these might be in use?
Nice job interviewing the USPS Ellie.
It is obviously an anti-theft design, a vehicle so ugly no one would ever steal it.
Its unique. Why steal something everybody knows who it belongs to? But then nobody steals our postal cars. Nobody would be so dumb. And they are Nissan, VW, Opel, Ford etc. Mostly EV already.
Up north a lot of our trucks have no heat!. 70 miles is Not enough range to help rural routes or to run packages extra hours and during very busy holidays. So whats options here turn off heat to conserve battery? Wait while vehicle charges?
Obstacle avoidance on metris is terrible it beeps at you EVERY TIME you are close to a mailbox...
LLV's and metris are absolutely terrible in snow and actually are a driving hazard.
Sure wish and hope they take this in to account! Dont care about looks but would like something that actually would work for us
Its a good piece of work. I think you should do more of this "use case" type story. Finding and reporting on unique use cases is very interesting.
Will do❤
It is great to know it wont be coming over the pond to the UK
why not, already has steering on the right, would make a great minivan :)
Will this mail truck have 4WD/AWD for snowy/icy weather? Will it also be a lot bigger & more spacious than the clunker LLVs?
Maybe I'm naive, but 70 miles doesn't seem like much. I guess if they are delivering in the immediate vicinity of the facility they'll be okay, but this won't work on any rural routes.
Rural probably isn't running at 2000lb capacity. I believe these are also fast-charging...80% within 15 minutes.
And if you recall, not every vehicle will be EV. I'd assume the ICE trucks are for those longer rural routes.
@@T-K-4-2-1 Yes, the US still needs to dig fossil ressources and burn them when everybody else on the world has stopped using them, because the USPS can not let go...
Just how many miles do you suppose any given zip code covers, even in a rural area? The average driver puts fewer than 30 miles a day on their vehicle.
In rural areas, they have multiple mail routes, hence multiple drivers covering those routes. 70 mile range per day is more than sufficient. They likely want that cushion for the cold days when the battery won't be as efficient and maybe will only get 50 miles of range, which is still more than necessary.
@@Royale_with_Cheeze when new these will be pulling back into the lot with a third of a tank,, electric. Only goes down from there as a battery ages. If they insist on proceeding with this joke fine. I would think a limited run of 10 thousand out in the real world would be enough to prove themselves. If they work great, but to just go all in is complete folly.
@@JohnWhite-Iowa-City
Perhaps they already put a small number of them in the real world as a pilot program to test them out. I don't expect the USPS can afford to go "all in" on an untested vehicle.
As a carrier loading this thing with 230+ parcels daily gonna take some getting use to but the a/c makes it all worth it.
Packages are definitely going to be a problem, Amazon likes to dump parking lots full of packages at post offices for the last mile delivery... USPS needs to negotiate better contracts with their last smile deliveries with Amazon...
Apparently if they don't deliver them on time they don't actually get paid by Amazon..
That's one of the reasons you see USPS trucks in neighborhoods on Sundays, they're delivering Amazon Last Mile packages...
I do e-commerce from home, I'm lucky I've been able to get my local carrier on board to pick up my outgoing packages.. saving me incredible amounts of time traffic money and gasoline having to go to a location Post Office drop off..
Of course all of my packages are extremely well packaged their waterproof, they're bright they're colorful you could throw them like a frisbee.. USPS has been doing an extremely good job out of the Los Angeles area of moving my packages quickly and on time.. lickity split..
Great information from your interview. I had heard two years ago that they were going to buy 100,000 new trucks with only 10% electric or something like that. It is excellent to hear that they are now planning 70% EV for the first batch.
I started seeing FedEx trucks that are EV in the last few months and of course there is the Rivian truck for Amazon on the way. In cities, it seems like a win-win for everyone. So much less pollution.
Is it, though? Electricity generation still creates a lot of pollution. And the electric grid is not in the best of shape in much of the country. The federal government and many of the individual states need to upgrade the power infrastructure in order to support the increasing number of EVs.
@@mattbosley3531
With EVs you can have the same amount of vehicles on the road, with the dirtiest electricity, and it STILL produces less pollution.
The main reason for that, is that a big electricity plant burning x fuel, burns it FAR more efficiently than all those small engines in all those vehicles.
the post office is going to large distribution centers for workers involved with mail delivery. This means alot of those ev's will use much more electricity daily while charging. Then there's all the employees driving their personal gas vehicles twice as far as they use to for their daily commute. After you figure all that in with the energy to make those batteries it's going to be worse for the environment all said and done.
Its great they are going EV. But visibility is a joke when the front sticks out about 3 feet. This duckbill truck could easily run over a cat or small child it never saw. It doesn't have to stick out so far, because it lacks a front engine. Just look at the front design of the Semi. Its visibility is great. Just scale that shape down and you have your design.
You musta missed the part about automatic breaking and sonar.
Imagine it runs of the Potus's dog! A national nightmare!
@@T-K-4-2-1 No I didn't miss that part. I don't believe that the govt's lowest bidder will get it right. (They aren't the military, that pays for quality high tech). Are they going to match Tesla's Autopilot 1.0 in 5 years? Ha, ha. The post office promised us good stamp machines in the 80s and they had to junk them for over 20 years until they got them right.
EVs do not have an ICE engine in front so its superflous or a POOR design. (Pull up the Tesla design to see what I mean). The Tesla electric motors and inverters are along the axles. That duckbill design might be a compromise, indicating that some trucks will actually be delivered as HYBRIDS due to lack of batteries by the low-ball winning bidder in govt. contracting. (I used to write RFPs for defense contractors, who pay for quality. Non-military contracting is full of firms that promise everything and deliver a shoddy pile of compromises. Watch and see!).
It is designed to take an engine. I haven't heard the details on the ICE/hybrid version, but it probably uses a compact FWD power unit with a lay-down I-4 or boxer engine to keep the hood low.
I remember driving the old Postal army jeeps
That is what I started with. Not actually army but looked like it had been through a war when I got it. They were somtimes scary to drive. I also got to drive the old jeeps in the military.
me too the good old days no packages short routes no pressurs boy did that change a living hell from year 2000 till i retired in 2019 no wonder nobody wants to work there
I heard they produce 1 mail truck a day. They said they are ramping up production. Are they ramping up to 2 vehicles per day? It should take around 85 years to complete the 60,000 mail trucks.
As a carrier, and I guarantee you 99% of other carriers are with me on this, we do not care how stupid it looks, as long as it's FUNCTIONAL, like the old LLVs.
The Mercedes Metris that we've been using for a few years now are total garbage in every single way, and honestly, their so impractical, they should be considered safety hazards.
Obviously designed with beak performance in mind.
🤣😂👍
I see what you did there.
Ellie, you're the best !
You're the best!
I hope they went with the, now open, Tesla charging port. They could probably save money by installing a bank of, say, 4 Tesla chargers at each post office instead of trying to use the other crappy chargers available.
Wher are the Amazon dog food packages are going fit?
I retired from the USPS as a City Carrier. The LLVs they use are super light, freezing in the winter and sweating in the Summer in those things. They can get up to 120 degrees inside on your Route. Bit these Ugly New Things they are coming out with are definitely UNSAFE. If you get hit head on your dead. You get hit from behind your flying thru that huge windshield and your dead. There's not enough room in them for Packages they handle daily. There will be dead batteries in the Winter Months as they won't last for 12 hours. Whoever came up with this should be Fired. They are unsafe and won't handle the Package Load. They should have used vehicles similar to the FedEx Van.
I’d take this ugly thing over an LLV any day. I’m sure they have airbags and crumple zones. LLV is a death trap.
@willaerley7140 Good Luck in that piece of Junk. Hope you find room for all your Amazon packages. And whatever you do don't get in a wreck and fly thru that gigantic window. I'd take an LLV over that thing anyday.
@@jebbthetrainkid1281 Put your seat belt on, dude.
@willaerley7140 I did my Time. I'm retired bud. I don't have to worry about that crappy job anymore. I Don't miss it one bit. This thing is a Wimp Mobile just like Todd and most of the New USPS Employees. They can't take it so they quit. They don't know how to work.
@@jebbthetrainkid1281 Don’t lump us all in together. I agree that management sucks. Yeah, I wish we had an LLV that looks like a Hummer. No chance, though.
I wonder how many of those trucks will be around long enough to get antique tags, let a lone make it 30 years. Zero would be my guess. The life of the batteries will be 10 years max.
That guy did a great job and really did not sugar coat anything but walk around it and define why at the same time. Just made me think the only pleasant presence of the federal government have is the post office.
You can abide by requirements without making it hideous. There are ways to accomplish those line of sight reqs that don't make it look like a fuck billed platypus car. 🤦♂️
It also requires an ICE/hybrid option for edge case routes that can't accommodate to the 70 mile worst-case range. That's probably most of the reason for the duck bill look vs, the Rivian Amazon truck's more conventional slope front. With the duck bill, you can slide in a compact FWD package and replace part of the batteries with a fuel tank for a nice hybrid solution
The USPS had EV’s in the past before. The problem was the battery packs going bad mainly cause by the batteries get low on water. Hopefully they will use Lithium batteries.
The USPS is an ideal case study for EV's. Every day the trucks leave, travel a set distance, then return to the same place, then spend the night waiting for the next day. They can also do managed charging by slowing down the rate on the trucks that don't need so much in favor of the trucks that are really low. This will work well since they all will be leaving at the same time.
I guess I won't be helping anyone else out on their rts anymore. He said 70 miles. I do atleast 64 on my rt alone.
Yeah and the maintenance cost will eat at the USPS budget
Solar panels on top?.. probably not since he didn't mention it. U.s. gov...go figure
Enough talk! When are they going to be replacing the old trucks? Electric or gas! I think the postal workers have struggled long enough with the old trucks and deserve a better truck!
Does this make the mail faster or more reliable or stamped cheaper??
No, But it will make carriers safer(in case if you haven't seen news regarding burning LLVs and carriers died because of the heat)
Nicely done, Ellie! We had questions; you got answers!
Platypus post van 😄
Enjoying the videos Ellie 👍🚀🐱
Glad you like them!
Where do they plan to charge them? Many offices are 100 years old no inside storage. It’s setting up for failure.
Inflation Reduction Act has budget for USPS to upgrade their facilities in order to set up the charging infrastructure.
I love ev fleet progress. 165,000 of these is amazing. I wonder how the ice fleet is fueled. On site? How do the gas and oil companies profit from ev charging?
I just retired from the Postal Service in Boston. I don't know about other regions, but there, they issue credit cards that can be used at any gas station. The card requires you to first enter the vehicle mileage and a pin issued to that driver.
My personal vehicle is a plug-in hybrid, so I rarely buy gas. When I saw the number climb up to approx. $70 to fill up the Pro-Master vehicle I drove, I thanked my lucky stars (and my foresight) that I drive a semi-EV.
Gas an oil companies are heavily invested in electric, but sure, “hur dur! Oil lobby is keeping electric down!”
We used to have a pump on site, but now we go to stations. A lot of electricity comes from natural gas drilled by oil companies.
@@jamesbizs
Solar panels are the bane of big oil.
oh yeah, never mind the 500,000 pounds of earth displaced for each battery for every single one of those 165,000 vehicles!! not to mention mention each and everyone of the other proprietary parts that are an unnecessary waste of plastic parts and resources! right yay evs!!😊😊😊
They should have adopted the stand up driving position that the old milk trucks had. Just step up and drive, stop step out and deliver.
will looks like stamps will be going way up to cover the cost of the new EV vehicles
More like stupid. They should have just purchased off the rack model like ford and dodge have. But no, let’s waste billions on our own f’d up design.
Surprisingly interesting video. The default vehicle here is the Grumman that I believe is the LLV referred to... also ugly, but given that mail routes here require the carrier to leave their vehicle every house or two (boxes on house, not at curb) the starter motor for the IC engine in them takes a lot of abuse.
It's actually the battery and alternator. Start/stop is common as a fuel-economy measure because they can make high-amperage motors that will take a huge duty-cycle nowadays.
The old LLV (long life vehicle) is a 4-cylinder Chevrolet piece of crap vehicle. It does have a decent design for hauling mail and parcels, though. The newer postal trucks we use to deliver in are Ford Explorers, 6 cylinder engines. Roughly made in the year 2000. They are called, FFV’s. Flex fuel vehicles. I believe they can run on propane but have only used gasoline.
@@SaabAholic I am not sure if they contracted out production, but the LLV is indeed a Grumman (yes, the aerospace company
@@Markle2k I think he may have been referring to the engine rather than the vehicle as a whole. I doubt Grumman built the engine.
@@Markle2k OK. But our mechanic says the LLV uses Chevrolet parts.
How does it reduce worker injury? Worker fatigue? I would like it if my carrier were as healthy as possible if for no other reason than to contribute to the Postal Services dedication to reliability.
Poor postmen that have to drive in the duckbill.
They spend most of their work day walking. They are going to love being able to stand up while retrieving your packages from the back and not having to bend over.
70 Miles… ??? pointless if it can’t do at least 150 miles. Should have got Tesla involved. Or at least someone with half decent battery technology. 70 Miles is like early 90s electric vehicle range.
I get that it does 70 miles fully loaded etc but common seriously?
They won’t be driving cross country
@@dewiz9596 Brand new yes they will probably make most of their deliveries before needing a recharge for the day, but I’d hazard to say in some rural communities they won’t be able to make the whole day. five years later they won’t be able to make normal deliveries in a city without recharging. And if you want to send them to another location or city now you have to ship them in a truck.
Are Teslas towing 2,000 lbs of cargo? Check that math.
The longest route USPS runs is 187 miles...I'd imagine the rural routes will get the new ICE vehicles, and the high-density routes will get the EV...in which case 70 miles at full capacity is more than enough.
@@dewiz9596 They wont't be driving country. Full stop.
@@T-K-4-2-1 Yes they can. Model X is even cheaper than this monstrosity. Imagine the USPS delivering your next letter from the IRS through the left falcon wing dors. Cool!
Has Todd ever Delivered Mail before? I doubt it. If he did I'm sure he jumped into the Supervisory Positions as quick as he could. By looking at him I doubt he could handle any physical job and probably was the worker in the Office. Seen it many times. It's always the most worthless workers that are in USPS Management. This Vehicle is a Death Trap. I would refuse to drive it.
Remember the old joke that a camel is a horse designed by committee? Kind of applies here. I don't understand the massively oversized bumper. Range 70 miles seems low but most of these will be stop and go in city and suburb. I wonder what this upgrade is going to cost us in increased postal rates. It isn't going to be cheap for either each vehicle or the electrical upgrade at each post office.
The cost of the vehicles are probably the least of the cost. Infrastructure including charging, repair training, operating training, and repair parts inventory, and repair equipment are going to be the highest costs plus there will be a learning curve in all of this.
@@garyradtke3252 Yes! Unfortunately we will pay for it all in ever increasing postal rates, and the USPS will keep losing more and more business as that happens.
i work for the usps we cant get a diret anser when we are going to get training on these new trucks thy are playing around getting truck we tacking at lest 2 trucks a week off the road do to rotted out frame
The current LLV trucks they have now are 30 years old
Actually 36 years since the first ones were 1987.
Square cornered shelving in the name of driver safety.
Square cornered shelves for square boxes. Most boxes don’t have rounded corners
oh yeah i can see peeps crackin there forehead on them things and start the cussing and parcel throwing while a little kid and parent waits outside for their mail lol
They should have looked at the design of the Canoo van on how they solved visibility with glass front panels.
Start moving your mail boxes if it's near any trees with limbs under 10 feet .
There is something that STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN about the billion dollar plus contract that was awarded to the company to provide these electric fiasco trucks to the postal service. There is a video on TH-cam about it. The company that won the contract DOES NOT MAKE ELECTRIC VEHICLES! They subcontracted that out to another company.
Interesting. Hard to believe nobody allowed in CES unless had the shot.