My mailman pulled up in one of these yesterday. I was stunned. No nameplate on the vehicle, right-hand drive, and the Mercedes-Benz star up front has been replaced with the USPS delivery eagle!
USPS announces deployment of the Mercedes Metris right-hand drive commercial off-the-shelf vehicles into the delivery fleet. Approximately 17,310 vehicles over the next three years, beginning in May 2020 and continuing through September 2022. Of the 4,092 Metris vehicles scheduled for deployment in 2020, approximately 3,392 will be assigned to city delivery routes.
Let's hope the USPS got a great deal on the purchase. Still a shame that an American brand could not come up with the winning bid. Note: These Metris units are assembled in the United States using a mix of domestic and foreign components.
“It is common practice to remove manufacturer’s nameplates as part of the upfit process. The Postal Service does not endorse any vehicle manufacturer or advertise on a manufacturer’s behalf. As part of our decal package we chose to use the USPS trademark eagle symbol instead of the vehicle manufacturer’s symbol. All decal markings are installed as part of the vehicle acquisition contract.”
Let's hope the USPS got a great deal on the purchase. Still a shame that an American brand could not come up with the winning bid. Note: These Metris units are assembled in the United States using a mix of domestic and foreign components.
That was my first thought - disappointment at their buying a foreign make. And also disappointment at the pedestrian looks of this - it looks like a regular delivery van. I'm so used to the unique looks of the mail trucks that this normal white van look I find oddly repellant. I'm sure I'll get used to it...
though I wonder what safety will be like. Meaning the entire country is used to the mail truck being distinctive, when you are behind one you know right away what it is and know it can stop at any point, so you are ready for it. Though I'm sure this will have a huge USPS decal on back, I do wonder if people won't be paying close attention due to its normal cargo van looks and not be prepared to stop which will lead to more rear-endings. Time will tell.
This is still a fairly small number of vehicles over 3-years, might be a stop-gap measure or a testing measure. There are 140,000 LLV Mail Trucks in service today.
The Metris is more of a tweener cargo van, fits between a Transit and Transit Connect. I could see this as the more appealing option for mail delivery. It's not huge and tall like a Transit and it's not as small as a TC.
Max Cargo Capacity:
Transit Connect: 123/145 cu/ft
ProMaster City: 132 cu/ft
Chrysler Pacifica: 140 cu/ft
Mercedes Metris: 183 cu/ft
Ford Transit (Smallest): 275 cu/ft
Trying to imagine the electricity load of one of the Post Offices I visit would have on the grid, or the number of solar panels and windmills they would need.
My mailman pulled up in one of these yesterday. I was stunned. No nameplate on the vehicle, right-hand drive, and the Mercedes-Benz star up front has been replaced with the USPS delivery eagle!
I can imagine we'll see a wide variety of EV cargo vans by the end of the decade that meet most commercial customer needs. Right now EV vans have fairly low range (under 200 miles) which is okay for certain applications like last-mile package delivery and the USPS. It's possible the USPS will buy a bunch of Transit EV vans when they become available, but I doubt they will have the budget to make that infrastructure transition.
I agree. I would think that EVs are perfect for local delivery fleet operations (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc) And the fuel and maintenance savings should easily pay for installing some charge points.
Postal vehicles are the most obvious choice for EV. You pretty much know exactly the range they will need. I can't imagine it would be too difficult to have the charging set up on off peak grid schedules.
Would electric be a good choice for postal vehicles? They are constantly stopping then moving 50 feet over and over. So isn't all that constant accelerating going to quickly drain the battery? Even taking into account regenerative braking I'd think that constant starting from a standstill will cause problems.
Though then again, it isn't like the mail trucks go far, I guess they could easily go back and get a quick charge if needed. I'm thinking current battery tech that needs hours to charge where the new batteries coming out will charge faster....
I saw one of these the other day in my neighborhood at the mailboxes while I was riding my bike and laughed to myself at the USPS logo replacing the MB star. Thought it was a one off thing no idea they signed a deal.
Strange that they got some of these. I thought there was a replacement competition in the works for those Grumman (or whatever they're called) ones that have been around forever?
So I went to check the mail and our mailman or mail carrier what ever the hell you guys call them these days was there with their new MB van and looks like it already got into an accident the whole front end is missing
PS for those wondering a lot of new neighborhoods in FL have community mailboxes like this in one area when we were shopping around to build our new house all of them were like this. Guess it makes mail delivery easier?
When have you ever seen USPS driving around in disrepair like that? Oh wait!,when it's a Benzo and the cost to repair is probably I'm assuming on the silly side...Either that; or that accident just happened sometime that day.
While it wasn't a van GM, IMO, missed an opportunity by not selling the RHD Holden Acadia in the USA for mail carriers.
Personally I think a hybrid would make a good powertrain for mail carriers, especially rural route ones. Allow the ICE to run at full load, constant RPM as a generator when needed. Use it to keep the battery pack within a certain range and full charge over night.
Don't forget HVAC systems are run fairly constant with the window open. A true EV in the north will drain even faster and A/C runs none stop in the south. Some of these routes can extend into 10 hr shifts and that's without stopping for fuel.
My city (suburb of Cleveland Ohio) has already replaced their entire fleet with these. Probably 30 trucks.
Yes it is a shame Ford or GM couldn't fit the USPS needs with this. Especially Ford - what was wrong with the Euro Transit Connect? That's basically the same thing. GM I can understand to a point, they haven't made a mini-van-esque anything for 20 years.
This is great for the mailmen though. They finally get air conditioning and modern safety and convenience. Those old mail trucks were aluminum death traps with all the comfort of a prison cell.
I never heard of anyone dying in those aluminum death traps.
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