New mail vehicles the ‘next generation’ of mail carrying
Vehicles with an odd shape have been making their way around Butler County over the past month. However, they still bear familiar colors and markings, and they perform a task as old as time.
The U.S. Postal Service is rolling out new mail-delivery vehicles that have been specifically designed to suit the changing needs of the mail. These “next-generation delivery vehicles” have a taller cab and a shorter hood compared to the LLVs — or Long Life Vehicles — which has been the most common mail-carrying vehicle since it was rolled out in 1987. They look like vans, but with a particularly tall trunk, a large windshield and a hood that is flat and narrow, sort of like a duck bill.
Patrick Ecker, director of fleet strategy and support for USPS, said the vehicles are shaped that way, in part, because of feedback from the service’s mail carriers, who had input in their design. After surveying longtime carriers from around the country, the Postal Service created a vehicle that fits the changing delivery needs and has modern vehicle amenities.
“They have almost doubled the size. They are designed not just for packages, but for the comfort of our carriers,” Ecker said of the new vehicles. “We’re going from primarily delivering letters to packages, especially as you see e-commerce being more prevalent … they can fit a lot more in the vehicle.”
According to the Postal Service, the organization plans to roll out 106,000 new vehicles by 2028, including 45,000 battery-electric next-generation delivery vehicles and 21,000 commercial-off-the-shelf battery-electric vehicles. So far, more than 35,000 new vehicles are on the road, with the Postal Service saying the $9.6 billion upgrade of its delivery fleet is proceeding at pace.
Ecker said the upgrade to the fleet has been a need for a while, not only because the Postal Service is delivering more packages and fewer letters, but because the LLVs were becoming obsolete.
“Those LLVs did not have air conditioning. They're excited for that, they're excited for cup holders,” Ecker said of the mail carriers’ opinions. “They now have a porch light and it illuminates a mailbox if they are delivering later in the day.”
Ecker said it will take a few years before the next-generation delivery vehicles outnumber the older ones in most areas, but more and more of them will be on the streets every month. He added that it was “a known need for a while” that the Postal Service had to update its delivery vehicles, so the deployment of the new ones is a priority.
The vehicles are being delivered to areas that have large Postal Service sorting and delivery centers. Butler’s vehicle fleet is serviced by a USPS service center at New Castle, which has a sorting and delivery center, so the new vehicles are being rolled out in both areas.
Some of the sorting centers are also being modernized, according to Ecker, which is being done in tandem with the new vehicle rollout.
“As we’re modernizing the delivery centers, we’re also modernizing the fleet,” he said. “We’ll make sure the parking lot is set up for these new vehicles, we’ll put in that electric infrastructure.”
USPS is upgrading infrastructure at its facilities with the addition of charging stations for the zero-emission electric vehicles, of which over 14,000 have already been purchased, according to a December news release from the service. According to Ecker, 16 of the new ones have been released into the Butler area.
Ecker said that in making the delivery vehicles more accommodating to their drivers, they are also able to accommodate more packages compared to the older ones. Ecker pointed out people up to 6 feet and 4 inches tall can stand in the back of the truck without having to duck their heads. People as short as 5 feet tall can comfortably reach the pedals to drive the new ones.
When it comes to making deliveries in the peak season of December, the new vehicles will also help prevent drivers from having to make return trips, according to Ecker.
“Sometimes a carrier might have to take a second trip. In peak season, you might have to go back to the office and take them back out; you no longer have to make that second trip,” he said.
Mark Wahl, strategic communications specialist for USPS, said that mail carriers were some of the main consultants when the service was designing the next-generation delivery vehicles. Because a delivery vehicle essentially functions as “their mobile office,” and it’s where carriers spend a majority of their work days, the new ones were made specifically for the people who would be driving them.
“They went to the carriers themselves,” Wahl said. “They asked for a multitude of feedback. That was a big part of the development.”
The modernization features implemented in the vehicles also include safety features. The vehicle will not go into gear if the seat belt is not clicked, and the parking brake engages automatically. The vehicles also offer better visibility, ergonomic seating and user-friendly operations, plus parking assistance and a 360-degree camera, meant to give the driver better peripheral vision, according to a news release from USPS.
Ecker said that not every mail carrier will get to drive a next-generation delivery vehicle — at least not immediately — but each office that gets the new vehicle will have training for them.
Ecker said people of Pennsylvania will likely start seeing more and more of these next-generation vehicles in their communities.
“In terms of Pennsylvania, we have over 350 of these next-generation delivery vehicles,” Ecker said.
Wahl added that USPS has service centers for its vehicles, where in-house staff members perform maintenance and repairs on them daily. He said the Postal Service is always hiring, and not just people who work with letters and packages.
“We have over 2,000 positions at the USPS. If you have a skill set, we probably have a place to put you,” Wahl said.
