The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest. They're tall and ungainly, with outsize windshields, thick bumpers and duck-bill hoods.

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.

  • GooberEar@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    15·
    3 months ago

    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.

    • qisope@lemmy.world
      5·
      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

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
      3·
      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?