For some reason, I'm not convinced sitting behind 40 square feet of glass is exactly safe! And I would sure as hell hope fuel economy is a major consideration in ANY service vehicle that would be operating 8+ hours a day.
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Hey Mark.......
- Thread starter RapidRabbit
- Start date
Cant disagree about the windshield size as a potential safety issue but gas mileage?? Ive never seen a mail truck moving faster than 35 miles per hour.
Not sure I follow the MPH point. You can engineer something to suit the application regardless of what we are talking about. In terms of a mail truck that would be to get the most out of it in a duty cycle consisting of lots of short stop and go events. Not dissimilar to a UPS truck. Around here they have a large fleet using propane as fuel, for example. Not an expert in that area so I don't know if its simply a fuel cost benefit or if the propane functions better in that environment economically. Point being, operationally fuel efficiency has to be considered in the equation as it is a big cost of the business.
Neighborhood USPS delivery service vehicles are not built with fuel mileage in mind but reliability. You mentioned that fuel mileage was 'a major consideration in ANY service vehicle that would be operating 8+ hours a day'. That may be part of the equation for FedEx or UPS delivery vehicles since their service area may be much larger than a USPS home delivery vehicle but I will bet lunch that the USPS would rather have a vehicle that never needs service and gets OK mileage vs one that needs more-than-regular maintenance and gets great mileage because their service areas are much smaller. And since the USPS vehicles dont travel long distances they dont need to be very aerodynamic either. Probably dont meet CAFE either.
My thinking here is that with almost 250k vehicles running about all day fuel is a huge part of the budget. You can get good fuel mileage and also have reliability. Its not one or the other. They've used the same jeep style trucks forever. Now that they are finally making the move to buy new its only logical to push toward the most technologically advanced option available as these could be in service for the next forever, however long that might be.
So I went down the rabbit hole. Even prior I "knew" how poorly the USPS was run. Jeezus. After reading the first couple bits I found when Googling "USPS postal vehicle fuel usage" or such I made the decision to stop. It was infuriating to read just how bad it really is. For example;
So I went down the rabbit hole. Even prior I "knew" how poorly the USPS was run. Jeezus. After reading the first couple bits I found when Googling "USPS postal vehicle fuel usage" or such I made the decision to stop. It was infuriating to read just how bad it really is. For example;
blu67
Well-Known Member
Wasn't USPS almost bankrupt not that long ago? Now they can afford fleets of new vehicles???
Yeah, Im sure the fleet of vehicles theyve been running for many decades arent in the best overall condition. And the constant negative balance sheet of the Postal service tells me that the bleeding isnt going to stop or slow down anytime soon. Honestly, I do very little business with the USPS and Im betting a LOT of people are the same. Since the advent of email and the rise in popularity of alternative shippers (i.e.. FedEx, UPS etc) the Postal service has seen their revenue stream shrink dramatically, I would also say that the Amazon contract with the USPS to deliver packages has replaced some of the lost revenue. Still, I dont think fleet fuel efficiency is as important as their fleet maintenance cost.
Mach1 Driver
Well-Known Member
I never got a stimulus check - maybe that's where it went!
Id be more interested in why it cost every citizen over $14k to get $1400 to eligible persons. Not everyone gets 'stimulus' but everyone gets the bill. Hundreds of billions went to New York, California etc to 'bail out' their budget deficits (i.e. public pensions and social programs).
I don't want to follow the Fix way and go off on another hijack about the stimulus and taxes but...
Not everyone gets stuck with the bill. The VAST majority of Americans not only won't contribute $14k they won't contribute a dime. Let's talk about the average family in a household of 4 (2 school age kids, mom and dad). Under the current tax system if the household income is less than $45k they don't pay a dime in federal income tax. If the household income is the current median of $68,703 they pay a whopping $1,450 or just 2.1% of their income in tax*. That's the median which is heavily affected by high wage earners. It's very difficult to get a really good gauge on what most would consider the income of a traditional middle class family but that median figure is surely on the high side. Point being, the folks living at 123 Pine St in Mayberry aren't ponying up to pay for very much. As a matter of fact, a HUGE number of households not only don't pay any taxes they get lots of free money in credits that result in actual cash payouts to them every year.
They will however have received approximately $9000 in total with all three stimulus checks. Yep, an amount equal to over 6 years of federal tax liability. And next year with the boost in child tax credit their tax gets even lower. SAAAAAWEEEEET! Or absolutely fucking retarded depending on your viewpoint when you can make the fair assumption 70-80% or more of those who received the free handout never lost a days work or pay during the whole COVID "shutdown". And of those who did, many actually made more money with the State and Fed boosts in unemployment payments than had they worked.
And those 100's of billions headed for the Blue meccas...yeah, that cash won't be put to replacing any of that stolen pension monies. You can bank on that.
* Simple tax calculation of total income less standard deduction and including child tax credit. There is more they could get (less to pay) if I did their actual return thanks to EIC and perhaps other areas.
Not everyone gets stuck with the bill. The VAST majority of Americans not only won't contribute $14k they won't contribute a dime. Let's talk about the average family in a household of 4 (2 school age kids, mom and dad). Under the current tax system if the household income is less than $45k they don't pay a dime in federal income tax. If the household income is the current median of $68,703 they pay a whopping $1,450 or just 2.1% of their income in tax*. That's the median which is heavily affected by high wage earners. It's very difficult to get a really good gauge on what most would consider the income of a traditional middle class family but that median figure is surely on the high side. Point being, the folks living at 123 Pine St in Mayberry aren't ponying up to pay for very much. As a matter of fact, a HUGE number of households not only don't pay any taxes they get lots of free money in credits that result in actual cash payouts to them every year.
They will however have received approximately $9000 in total with all three stimulus checks. Yep, an amount equal to over 6 years of federal tax liability. And next year with the boost in child tax credit their tax gets even lower. SAAAAAWEEEEET! Or absolutely fucking retarded depending on your viewpoint when you can make the fair assumption 70-80% or more of those who received the free handout never lost a days work or pay during the whole COVID "shutdown". And of those who did, many actually made more money with the State and Fed boosts in unemployment payments than had they worked.
And those 100's of billions headed for the Blue meccas...yeah, that cash won't be put to replacing any of that stolen pension monies. You can bank on that.
* Simple tax calculation of total income less standard deduction and including child tax credit. There is more they could get (less to pay) if I did their actual return thanks to EIC and perhaps other areas.
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If you read my prior post before 4:30 CST, read it again. I had calculated the tax burden incorrectly by treating the child tax credit as a deduction rather than an actual credit. BIG change in the tax liability, obviously.
My last thought as this shit only gets the blood boiling. Once you realize just how large a percentage of the people in this country not only do not pay federal income taxes but actually get money handed to them stop and think who it is that like to shout about the rich paying their fair share, etc. Yep. The same folks. Blissfully unaware they themselves do not even participate in the funding of our country.
My last thought as this shit only gets the blood boiling. Once you realize just how large a percentage of the people in this country not only do not pay federal income taxes but actually get money handed to them stop and think who it is that like to shout about the rich paying their fair share, etc. Yep. The same folks. Blissfully unaware they themselves do not even participate in the funding of our country.
The largest contribution to why the USPS has a large debt is that, by law that only applies to them, they must fully pay all pension benefits that would be paid out to each individual when they retire now into a trust fund. A new employee with a 35 year expected life with the USPS requires the USPS to fully pay all of the expected pension benefits once that employee is signed on. All other pensions work by having enough funds to fully pay all retired personnel, and a sliding scale of funds depending upon the number of years already employed.
Congress made this law applicable only to the USPS. If it was applied to private or public corporations, those corporations would be in a similar financial situation.
That said, revenue for the USPS has been dropping since circa 1998 due to e-mail, Internet and increased competition from FedEx and UPS. What has saved their butt so far is that FedEx, UPS, and Amazon all rely upon the USPS for delivery "of the last mile". The USPS makes most of their monies from package deliveries, but due to inertia, have failed to incorporate the infrastructure to do package deliveries well.
Oh, and the trucks the USPS is purchasing the replace the current fleet? Most of the local delivery trucks will be electric, which makes a lot of sense, as these vehicles sit overnight and can be charged then. Most don't travel more than 60 miles per day. Electric delivery trucks makes a lot of sense.
Congress made this law applicable only to the USPS. If it was applied to private or public corporations, those corporations would be in a similar financial situation.
That said, revenue for the USPS has been dropping since circa 1998 due to e-mail, Internet and increased competition from FedEx and UPS. What has saved their butt so far is that FedEx, UPS, and Amazon all rely upon the USPS for delivery "of the last mile". The USPS makes most of their monies from package deliveries, but due to inertia, have failed to incorporate the infrastructure to do package deliveries well.
Oh, and the trucks the USPS is purchasing the replace the current fleet? Most of the local delivery trucks will be electric, which makes a lot of sense, as these vehicles sit overnight and can be charged then. Most don't travel more than 60 miles per day. Electric delivery trucks makes a lot of sense.
Electric makes excellent sense if the vehicle is designed properly. Battery life and cost are the primary reasons electric car purchases up until now have been questionable financial decisions. This is why the government (those of us who actually pay taxes) were handing out massive incentives to individuals to buy those initial units. The life expectancy for the batteries and cost to replace (if even possible) makes a second and third ownership less attractive or even prohibitive for the majority of early wave electrics. Let's hope this new USPS design keep s all that in mind.
Since I've never had an interest in owning an electric I do not know the effect on those systems in an environment like a mail truck will see. My guy seems to act as if his current truck has only either full throttle or nothing from driveway to driveway!
Since I've never had an interest in owning an electric I do not know the effect on those systems in an environment like a mail truck will see. My guy seems to act as if his current truck has only either full throttle or nothing from driveway to driveway!
Take your Politics to the other forum please.
Sorry, Mike. Didn't realize what forum this was in. My mistake
Since when did derailing a thread become illegal. Did somebody walk on your lawn again?
Mark
I don’t know, let me be clear.
B67FSTB
The NorCal dude from Belgium
Mike ! Terry got dragged away from the topic. I think he has to much time and to little or no projects on his hands ?????
tarafied1
Well-Known Member
since we are over the politics now, I'd like to say... I kind of like the Gasser PT Cruiser. It's the only was I would ever have one.
Yeah like you NEED another car project.