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USPS Forges Ahead with Gas-Powered Mail Trucks Despite EPA's Desire for EVs
- humanistbot 5y agoNote that this is at the order of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was appointed to the post by Trump in 2020. The same one who slowed down the mail service around the election and is the founder CEO of XPO logistics, which is a huge conflict of interest. The Biden administration directed USPS to go electric, but they are quasi-independent.
- detaro 5y agoGiven the failures and complaintslast year, why does he still have that job? From wikipedia it seems like the politics around the board selecting the Postmaster General even being functional seem to have been difficult in the past years, is that the main reason?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ghostly_s 5y agoGive me a break. If the admin wants the postal service to go EV, pay for it. The very fact that the USPS remains solvent under the conditions they are forced to operate is a damn miracle. Put up or shut up.
- Jtsummers 5y ago> Give me a break. If the admin wants the postal service to go EV, pay for it. The very fact that the USPS remains solvent under the conditions they are forced to operate is a damn miracle. Put up or shut up. From the article: > President Biden's social spending package proposal unveiled last year included $6 billion for the USPS to purchase new vehicles, but that proposal is still being debated in Congress. So it looks like the administration has, in fact, tried to "put up".
- Natsu 5y agoShouldn't they secure that funding before they require this?
- Jtsummers 5y ago> Shouldn't they secure that funding before they require this? Are you under the impression that the Biden administration has required that the USPS go with EVs? Because that doesn't seem to have happened. If you are referring to some other requirement, maybe you should clarify what you're talking about.
- CameronNemo 5y agoWASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill on Tuesday to provide the Postal Service (USPS) with about $50 billion in financial relief over a decade and requiring future retirees to enroll in a government health insurance plan. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-approves-50-billion-relief-bill-postal-service-2022-02-08/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-approves-50-billio... Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., blocked an initial vote Monday [Feb 14] on the Postal Service bill, saying it needed to be reworked. https://apnews.com/article/business-postal-service-marsha-blackburn-4e0788280a7d1bd23ffd888d8d624068 https://apnews.com/article/business-postal-service-marsha-bl... Go ahead and keep blaming this administration for problems created by Bush that Republicans in the Senate refuse to remedy.
- ghostly_s 5y agoThis administration has a majority in both houses and rather than doing anything with it, is tying their hands behind their back in defense of some absurd concept of "norms" which the other side has made abundantly clear they stopped believing in ages ago. Believe what you want but "the big meanie republicans are screwing everything up" stopped carrying any water for a lot of us some time ago.
- CameronNemo 5y agoThat is fair. But the Senate majority is slim to none considering how that coal-funded oligarch votes. And you still can't deny that this admin is trying to help the USPS remain solvent.
- zacharycohn 5y agoIt would only take 1-2 republicans to vote for the package to pass it. There are already 48-49 democrats on board.
- akomtu 5y agoWith the current state of things with news agencies, we need to assume these are carefully handpicked facts that give a false impression. Those 50 billions likely come with lots of strings attached and USPS can't just use 5 billions per year; the bill was riddled with irrelevant provisions that have nothing to do with mail, and that senator's vote didnt really decide anything. Need to verify all this to make any conclusions.
- twothamendment 5y agoI can understand not switching 100% all at once, but it seems like they'd want to stick their foot in the water and try it out in some ideal areas. As someone who lives in an area that is outside the norm (postal vehicles aren't the standard issue), it wouldn't be a good idea here - but they have to be perfect for somewhere...
- ars 5y agoThey are - I read they are doing 10% EV's, with flexibility to increase that if it works well. It seems to me the ones asking for EV are not the ones paying for it, which seems to be the problem.
- stetrain 5y agoSadly I found no such option to pay for it on any of my ballots recently.
- Mountain_Skies 5y agoIIRC, this design does allow for switching over to manufacturing an EV powertrain relatively easily. Not sure if this is also true for conversion of already built vehicles but even if not, over time attrition would move most over to EV.
- ars 5y agoSeems to be a money thing - anyone know how much gas vs electric costs for postal vehicles? This https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0223-multi-billion-dollar-modernization-of-postal-delivery-vehicle-fleet.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0223-... gives no details.
- h2odragon 5y agoI have the strong impression that the current fleet of LLVs are, at this point, each an individual work of patchwork art, still moving only due to the constant attention of dedicated genius grade mechanics. But that would not be possible had they not been built, intentionally, with some of the most common and vanilla parts available. A new fleet that uses parts nothing else does will be an expensive boondoggle destined for quick sale as surplus.
- anm89 5y agoGod forbid I wouldn't get junkmail littered through my mail slot one day.
- warning26 5y agoSo weird, considering that mail delivery seems perfectly suited for EVs; the charging can be consolidated where trucks are parked overnight anyway.
- aleksandrm 5y agoSomeone is probably pocketing from the deal. Always follow the money.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Spivak 5y agoI mean even if they went with EVs you could still say that. Who isn't financially motivated by obscenely wasteful government contracts? $11.3 billion / 150 thousand trucks = $73k / truck
- voldemort1968 5y agoPeople think this kind of logic is an example of thinking, but it's actually thought suppression.
- guynamedloren 5y agoWhat?
- BoysenberryPi 5y agoExplain this comment to me. It seems reasonable to come to the conclusion that someone is profiting on the side from this deal. Especially given the current postmaster general. Is there some other trail of thought you think is being neglected from jumping to this conclusion?
- ceejayoz 5y agoIt’s a silly comment because any deal would involve someone making a profit.
- chrisbrandow 5y ago
- kevinventullo 5y agoI would love for these trucks to be EV’s as much as anyone, but I can see where USPS is coming from. Some selected quotes from the article: The USPS did say that it plans to put 5000 electric delivery trucks into service starting in 2023 and claims that there is room for more EVs to be added to the mix "should additional funding become available." “While we can understand why some who are not responsible for the financial sustainability of the Postal Service might prefer that the Postal Service acquire more electric vehicles, the law requires the Postal Service to be self-sufficient,” a USPS spokesperson told the Post in a statement. Armchair take: If the EPA really wants these changes, they should be lobbying higher up the food chain in order to subsidize these EV’s in some way.
- newsclues 5y agoEV or not, why is it so fuel inefficient?
- arcticbull 5y agoConstant stopping and starting. This is where most car energy is expended. Cars are most fuel efficient when they're rolling about 50MPH.
- l33t2328 5y agoI’ve heard this many times, but I’ve never actually seen it cited.
- nomel 5y agoNot trying to be rude, but it's because it's intro Physics (F=m*a, with F coming from fuel, battery, or brakes), with an understanding that the process that generated that force has an efficiency that's less than 100%, mixed with a dash of intro Calculus (integral of force).
- l33t2328 5y ago
- wnevets 5y agoIts shameful that Dejoy is still allowed to ruin the USPS.
- theedman 5y agoI really think this is a best-case scenario for a hybrid. You get EV-ish efficiency in the city, a decrease in wear on mechanical parts, especially things like brakes, and no range related issues that come with a BEV - if using hybrid SUV's as a datapoint, modern hybrid systems even get better MPG on the highway then their gas counterparts. It's clear that if you buy a consumer vehicle, the extra cost a hybrid pays quickly off over the course of ownership, and maintenance isn't nearly as expensive as it was when the came out 20 years ago. I totally get why hybrid 18-wheelers don't exist - there's very little stopping involved, so the benefits of the regenerative braking, and the off-the-line electric efficiency are null, but USPS trucks have to stop hundreds of times per trip. Modern day hybrids are fuel efficient, generally more powerful then their gas counterparts, and are bullet-proof enough to be used as taxi cab fleets in NYC. Someone's going to say that you need to haul a bunch of stuff. The F150 Hybrid gets 25mpg vs the 20mpg of the gas. It really doesn't make sense to me.
- DeRock 5y ago> no range related issues that come with a BEV The average USPS route covered by these vehicles per day is 20 miles (and median is probably even lower). Range isn't a concern for the vast majority.
- _0w8t 5y agoI had for few years Yaris hybrid from Toyota. It turned out maintenance was costly due to a design bug. Yaris had advanced regenerative braking similar to Prius. As the result the brakes did not get hot. In turn under rainy Norwegian weather that lead to accumulation of water that was not evaporated as with normal brakes. That lead to extensive rust within a year. This was not problem as I learned in Prius or for that matter in electrical cars. Those were sufficiently heavier to offset this. But Yaris was light.
- post_break 5y agoThey must be paying for these with the funds from not having to install mailboxes. We found out the law changed recently and now communal mail boxes are no longer their responsibility which is crazy.
- thedougd 5y agoIf we switched to EVs, how would I know the mail is near without the sound of a vehicle accelerating as fast as it can and then to braking as hard as it can every fifty feet? /s
- stetrain 5y agoWell EVs have to have a noise maker below 15mph so you can't sneak up on old ladies in parking lots. I propose "We just got a letter, We just got a letter..." Or if true chaos is your goal, ice cream truck music.
- Overtonwindow 5y agoThe Postal Service will spend up to $11.3 billion on a fleet of 90-percent gasoline-powered trucks and 10-percent electric trucks. That is seriously imbalanced given the lifecycle expectancy of these vehicles. It should be more like 75% PHEV, and 25% gasoline.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]