USPS

[89th]

Get ready for the cost of a stamp to go way, way up.

[Doctor Phibes]

@89th said in USPS:

Get ready for the cost of a stamp to go way, way up.

and for it to become very slow and/or expensive to deliver to certain places.

I don't see the post office working as a for-profit organization, however I also don't think that people like Vivek and Elon really care less.

[Jolly]

Could cut a lot by dropping the EV contract.

[taiwan_girl]

@Doctor-Phibes said in USPS:

I don't see the post office working as a for-profit organization,

I agree. There are certain things to be provided by the government which usually never be profitable. Post office, public transit, police, fire, etc.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Jolly said in USPS:

Could cut a lot by dropping the EV contract.

The problem goes a lot further back than that

[Jolly]

To be fair, they make them count their retirement different from Federal agencies...

[jon-nyc]

Remember when the Postmaster General was a Cabinet position? Sounds very 19th century but it lasted until the Carter Administration

[Jolly]

,

For years, the Australians used Honda scooters, like the one in the first picture. Cheap to buy and operate, very reliable and easy to work on. But their parcel numbers kept going up and they wanted to go the EV route...That's their new EV trike in the second picture.

I realize those delivery vehicles would not work well in many USPS post offices, but they would do well in some. And for a lot less money.

The USPS needs new vehicles. I suggest they need a mixture of right hand drive gas (or propane) powered vehicles and something like Australia's EV trike.

Not the hugely expensive Biden EV.

[89th]

I'd be curious how much of the net loss is vehicle based...

[taiwan_girl]

Taiwan delivery vehicle. I only remember seeing these. Never any post trucks like in the US.

It would be interesting to get Amazon feedback on their use of electric delivery trucks. That would be a good indicator of they are worthwhile for a large organization to use.

But as @Doctor-Phibes points out, the problem with the US post office is far above the buying electric delivery vans. New vehicles are needed no matter what. From my very minimum research, the electric vans are costing about USD$10-$15K more than a gas power one. What the savings are in maintenance, fuel etc and long the payback is to cover the additional higher first cost, I dont know.

But, the post office has lost USD$87B in the last 15 years or so (plus the pension costs), so the electric vehicle situation is (relatively) minor issue.

[Doctor Phibes]

The electric vehicle thing is just a handy political shiny bauble to dangle, it's obviously a much more fundamental problem.

Alternatively, maybe Trump could award the contract for them to Elon and ask for a big discount?