
Post Office Delivery Trucks Keep Catching on Fire - ilamont
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3ezx4/post-office-delivery-trucks-keep-catching-on-fire
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dredmorbius
The Grumman LLV (long life vehicle) was commissioned by the USPS in the 1980s,
entered service in 1987, and were manufactured through 1994, with a planned
service life of daily stop-and-start all-weather driving of 20 years to every
delivery address in the nation. Over 140,000 were built. _Every USPS LLV truck
on the road today is at least 24 years old, the oldest in their 30s._ The
Jeeps they replaced had an eight-year life.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV)

Discusses a successor but describes the LLV in detail:

[https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-
of...](https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-
spie/2058/0000/Grumman-autonomous-Long-Life-Vehicle-
LLV/10.1117/12.167490.short?SSO=1)
([http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/?q=sullivan+Grumman+autonomous+...](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/?q=sullivan+Grumman+autonomous+Long+Life+Vehicle))

The contract was awarded in April, 1986:

[https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/09/business/postal-
contract-...](https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/09/business/postal-contract-won-
by-grumman.html)

A bit of congressional testimony from the Postmaster Gerneral in 1985 gives
some perspective on the programme:

[https://books.google.com/books?id=puahcekyrjkC&newbks=0&prin...](https://books.google.com/books?id=puahcekyrjkC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA31&dq=Grumman+Long+Life+Vehicle&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true)

The real story here isn't that the USPS cannot operate or maintain its
delivery trucks; it has done an exemplary job extending life 50% beyond design
goals under exceedingly challenging conditions. Rather it's that the postal
service has been under sustained attack, first by imposing financial
obligations no competitor has to meet, and now, slowly crippling its actual
mobility and reliability by forcing past-end-of-llife equipment use and
thwarting all attempts to develop a replacement fleet.

There is a replacement plan in progress:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/automobiles/the-mail-
truc...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/automobiles/the-mail-truck-is-a-
classic-and-thats-a-problem-for-a-modern-post-
office.html?searchResultPosition=1)

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thecrumb
I always have to step over the oil pool by the mailbox when the mailman stops.
Would be interesting to know how much they spend just putting oil in these old
things.

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perl4ever
The article says the existing ones cost >$400/month to keep running and
replacements would cost >$40K apiece? Really?

