What kinda mail delivery vehicles?

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Hello everybody,

Just wandering what type of vehicles are used to deliver mail where you live? Where I live, 80% of the vehicles are older 4 door Jeeps & new Jeep Wranglers.


Thanks, Dale
 
This kind:

usps-delivery-truck-next-generation-delivery-vehicle.jpg
 
Everything. More than a few XJ Cherokees and 4-door Wranglers, but one of the other tennants in our appt. delivers mail in an eyesore Chrysler Intrepid? and a friend used a CRV but got a Buick Century after he rolled the Honda.

Something I've wondered lately but think I know the answer - the Grumman mail trucks can't be sold surplus to the general public, can they?
 
Still see lots of Grumman LLV (long life vehicle) but I am starting to notice more and more minivan type vehicles running around.
For about the last year our delivery people in my neighborhood have been using the USPS vans mostly.
 
It seems here in my Houston suburb they drive random personal vehicles. I think the one I see most often is a guy with a worn out looking Chevy Suburban from the 2000-2006 time frame. We don't have individual mailboxes so no need for right hand drive or anything.
 
I think those are based on a Chevy S10 frame and have the 2.5L Iron duke with a GM automatic transmission.
I read an article awhile back about the USPS saying the vehicle isn't ideal anymore because of the huge increase in parcels
needing to be carried due to online shopping which didn't exist when that vehicle was manufactured.
 
I should have added that rural mail carriers own their own vehicle. A small post office in a small village away from the city typically doesn't have USPS owned delivery vehicles.
 
Rural USPS contractors in my area are likely to drive most anything, from luxury personal vehicles to beaters. One lady in my area drives a right hand drive fairly late model Subaru wagon.
 
Same here. Grumman LLV (long-life vehicle). Based on the original S-10 chassis, Iron Duke, and TH180. Bare bones, no AC, not much else... doesn't get much "longer life" than that. They are getting pretty long in the tooth and being phased out, though.


Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
This kind:

usps-delivery-truck-next-generation-delivery-vehicle.jpg
 
City carrier delivers mail in a Dodge Caravan and I've also seen them place bags of mail in and out of a Honda Accord before they walk it up and down the street.

They also have a larger truck about the size of what UPS would use. Those have Mercedes diesel powerplants, I believe.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
This kind:

usps-delivery-truck-next-generation-delivery-vehicle.jpg




Same here. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any other USPS vehicle besides that one and the larger semi-trucks every once in a while.
 
How does a mail carrier put mail in the mailboxes if the vehicle isn't right hand drive? Do they lean waaay over from the driver's seat? Do they put the car in park and slide across to the passenger side? Or do you guys not have curbside mailboxes? Here we have curbside boxes every few hundred feet. Trying to deliver mail in a left hand drive vehicle would be a nightmare. We have nothing but the LLVs here.
 
Originally Posted By: exranger06
How does a mail carrier put mail in the mailboxes if the vehicle isn't right hand drive? Do they lean waaay over from the driver's seat? Do they put the car in park and slide across to the passenger side? Or do you guys not have curbside mailboxes? Here we have curbside boxes every few hundred feet. Trying to deliver mail in a left hand drive vehicle would be a nightmare. We have nothing but the LLVs here.
My rural carriers all have normal vehicles for the rural delivery. They usually sit in the middle upfront.
 
The "Iron Duke" powered Grumman aluminum bodied trucks pictured above are what we have here.
A senior postman told me Grumman came by and removed their name placard from the vehicles.
He said they were like the B-52 in that they've gone long past their design lifespan.
He also said that new ones were on the way and that these old ones would be auctioned.

THEN he said "This one has a new engine and new transmission WHO'D WANT IT?"

I told him I WOULD! Some people.
 
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