• paraphrand
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    695 months ago

    They look a bit futuristic in a weird way, to me. I think they could end up looking iconic.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      Looks like their mail totes but upside-down.

      I like the aesthetics and color scheme.

    • @[email protected]
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      95 months ago

      Looks like an asset from a pixar film with the blank background. Pictures of the real thing in the article it looks wonky but it’s more about function over form.

    • @[email protected]
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      375 months ago

      Reminds me of that little vehicle from Flight of the Navigator that delivers the food, then he hides in it to escape the facility.

      Food delivery bot from Flight of the Navigator

      • @[email protected]
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        75 months ago

        Bruh, I’ve been trying to figure out why they looked so familiar! Thanks. This has been bugging me periodically for a while.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      Me, too. Out here we get snow, dark weather, rain for months, and they have to drive on gravel and on unpaved shoulders in RWD un-air conditioned and poorly heated tin cans.

      Plus they don’t make much in the way of scratch at all so this is the first change they need. When I ask the letter carriers they say that they likely won’t see the new rigs for at least a year on the Left Hand Coast.

      (the second thing they need is to be making lots more money because they don’t make enough to deal with customers like me much less their current vehicles)

  • Shadow
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    495 months ago

    It looks goofy but practical, I kinda like it.

  • Flying Squid
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    185 months ago

    The ACs came none to soon. Summers are not going to get any cooler. I always feel bad for the carriers on summer days as it is.

  • @[email protected]
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    35 months ago

    The front kinda reminds me of a ski boot that you shove into a binding…downhill alpine mail slalom?!?!

  • Justin
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    5 months ago

    These are huge upgrades over the old trucks. The proportions are sized to fit the features they need, like fast, ergonomic access to the back, and better visibility than any other car on the road.

    Good on them for designing a good vehicle instead of letting some sports car fanatic dictate a concept car idea.

    Taking courage in your design will win over the car fanatics in 5 or so years when the next design trend starts, and the reliability and function will mean that these will keep looking good 30 years from now.

  • @[email protected]
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    65 months ago

    Just a really faint memory but I recall during COVID there was big negativity with USPS not doing their due diligence to select the best option and some other shady USPS dealings at the time.

    I wonder if they changed the proposed vehicle since then.

    • Diplomjodler
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      125 months ago

      Originally they wanted to mainly procure ICE vehicles, because Trump. Then they changed it to mainly EVs because the reasonable people were in charge for a time. Those EVs have generally been well received by the drivers. Who knows what happens next.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      Based off of memory, they didn’t, and this contract was awarded to a defense contractor who built this thing that only gets 13MPG instead of the EV option we were told we’d be getting and I believe they each cost well over $100k per unit. They were forced to build more EVs as promised but these still cost $192k per truck, about as much as a Lamborghini Huracán.

  • @[email protected]
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    845 months ago

    That’s because they spend the majority of their time inside of it and work vehicles are supposed to be function over form.

  • @[email protected]
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    55 months ago

    Such a unique and fun design is going to stand out in our collective culture. Kids are going to love this thing.

    • @[email protected]
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      445 months ago

      Nope. LLV’s are exclusively scrapped by the USPS at end of life. I tend to think thats mostly to retain their image as a USPS only vehicle and prevent potential impersonation for crime, which is the same reason UPS has a “always scrap” policy as well.

      There are a very few select examples that have been sold private party by not-the-usps, and do exist out there but there will be no great flood of EOL mail trucks. Most of them are so incredibly beat at this point that they barely work anyway.

      • paraphrand
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        125 months ago

        Wow, I never considered how I don’t see mail trucks posing as other things. Thats a fun fact.

        It’s like never seeing old Pizza Hut buildings turned into other things.

  • Zier
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    25 months ago

    A real auto designer could have made this look less stoopid! This was a choice.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 months ago

    Some people that realize how much of an upgrade this is. The original carriers (Grumman LLV) used the same body-on-frame chasis as the Chevy S-10 Blazer and used a GM-sourced 2.5L I4 engine (“Iron Duke”) which was infamous for catching on fire. In other words, nothing has changed in 40 years.

  • @[email protected]
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    125 months ago

    they look so goofy that I burst out laughing any time I see it, they’re just so cute! It’s like the opposite reasoning of laughing at a cybertruck but the same outcome