Austin: You rolling? This is the stupidest costume ever. *beep* This is a United States Postal Delivery Truck. It’s been around for while. The truck is The Grumman LLV (or, Long Life
Vehicle) and as the name implies, it was built to last. A custom order from the US government in 1986,
before which, the USPS employed modified Jeeps. The Jeeps weren’t getting the job done,
so the Postal Service approached 3 different companies with a list of criteria for the
perfect mail truck - and this model won out. An aluminum body which sits on top of a Chevy
S10 frame, with an engine, affectionately called the "Iron Duke" by GM, giving it a
top speed of about 60 miles per hour. A fine solution for the time, but The Grumman’s
long life, (which was projected at just over 20 years) is well past the expiration date. The USPS currently employs 146,000 of these
trucks in their fleet. Give them credit: the design has lasted a
long time - but, it hasn’t been without its issues. Most of the blame could probably be laid at
the feet of the aluminum design. The body is mostly riveted together, and it
lacks any insulation. No insulations means BIG problems. You can probably guess that the LLVs don’t
have air conditioning, which means during the summer, the interior temperature of the
truck can rise to well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. And during the winter, the thirty-year-old
heaters are notoriously unreliable, turning the truck into a freezer on wheels. From experience I know that these trucks are
NOT designed to handle severe winter weather. When the snow starts falling, the solution
in Missouri seems to be: "chain the tires and hope for the best". The LLVs also frequently have electrical problems,
which lead to fires. There’s LITERALLY a website dedicated to
tracking how often these things catch fire - and researchers have come up with a long
list of reasons why, including a design flaw: the windshield wiper fluid line is installed
directly above the LLV’s fusebox. Long story short, these lines have a tendency
to leak. Windshield wiper fluid is flammable, so the
fluid hits the fusebox, sparking a fire, and a truck with no insulation, made of aluminum,
filled with paper and cardboard cargo means bad news bears. It gets even more dangerous when you factor
in the fuel tank. The LLV runs on gas, and goes an astonishing
10 miles per gallon. AND according to the United States Postal
Service Office of the Inspector General: “it cost the Postal Service about $524 million
to fix the LLVs in the year 2009, alone. More than 40,000 trucks required more than
$3,500 each in maintenance and another 19,000 of these required an average of $5,600 in
repairs consecutively in 2008 and 2009." As I said earlier, these are all symptoms
of DESIGN flaws. The only solution? A NEW design. So, today: let’s redesign the USPS delivery
truck. We’ll start with the body. The LLVs have a fairly iconic and minimalist
design, which we’ll endeavor to honor, but the trucks need to handle the elements better. OUR body will take a few design hints from
some of the more vintage delivery trucks, while providing top-of-the-line durability
against harsh road conditions. Let’s take a closer look. First, the back. In terms of practicality, our LLV has plenty
of space for packages big and small - in fact, enough room that you can hot-swap cargo on
the fly if the truck needs to be reallocated to another part of town, and even converted
to provide first aid support in the event of a local emergency. To make the new LLVs more drive-able than
their predecessors, all-terrain truck tires will provide versatility in all kinds of road
conditions. Both affordable and long lasting, the need
for chaining tires during winter weather will be a thing of the past. We’ve added LEDs around the body. This serves two purposes: first it will help
direct traffic around the delivery truck, and it'll make things safer by making the
truck more visible during harsh weather. Packages can now be accessed from both the
back, and side, with a sliding door that allows the driver to exit the vehicle safely from
either direction. The current LLVs have the steering wheel on
the right side for safety, but our design eliminates that need, and, by making both
left-and-right side delivery possible, allows local mail carriers more freedom to design
a quicker route. Our truck also sits higher than the current
LLV which reduced the chances that the vehicle will be flooded out by heavy rain or stuck
in snow or mud. More often than not, motor vehicle accidents
involving delivery trucks take place while the truck is stationary, so we’ll also install
an airbag system, and modern collision detection sensors that will deploy when they sense an
immediate impact, so that the driver stays safe. Next, let’s move to software. It’s the 21st century. We want these trucks to last even longer than
the previous model, and mail delivery is already a complicated logistical system, so we can
help make that easier by adding the trucks to a digital network. Most mail carriers keep a tablet on their
person right now, but with a new design, we can integrate it into the truck itself. That way, we can monitor route analytics and
truck diagnostics to design quicker safer delivery schedules, and to monitor the trucks
for maintenance issues, so we can solve big problems before they arise. Additionally, we’ll install cameras on every
side of the truck, which the driver can monitor. This helps the truck move in and out of difficult
or cramped areas easier, and the recorded footage can serve a number of purposes in
the event of an accident, theft, or even altercation. Under the hood, we’ll give the vehicle an
electric motor. I mean, why not? Mail trucks are the perfect candidate for
electric engines - their daily travel consists of a small, localized area. They can recharge every evening at carrier
annexes, it will save a tremendous amount of money on fuel, and if the local post office
is forward-thinking, they can get on a solar power grid and save even more money. Last but not least, to add a bit of flair,
we’ll give it flames. Now, I know this item probably won’t make
it through committee, but I CANNOT state enough how important this feature is to the overall
design. Put it all together, and you’ve got the
mail truck of the future. Now, obviously, I’m no design expert, but
surely someone out there can take these principles and put something together worthy of the USPS. It truly is an urgent need. The office of the inspector general also noted
that, from 2010 to the time this video is being filmed, the high amount of maintenance
needed for the current LLVs cost $342 million MORE than it would have cost to buy new trucks. That’s the big reason why the United States
government has gone looking for the next big thing. A number of vehicle manufacturers like AM
General, Oshkosh, Karsan, Mahindra, and the Workhorse Group are currently competing for
a design contract to build the next generation of USPS delivery trucks. If only America knew a forward-thinking, billionaire
electric car designer who specializes in revolutionizing out-of-date infrastructures. Hm. *music beat* Got your own suggestions of how to redesign
the postal delivery truck? Let them be known in the comments! This video's sponsor, Dashlane, cares about
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Alright reddit, tell me why this can't, won't, and hasn't been done already?
I usually like AustinMcConnel's stuff, and I actually quite liked this video, especially with its presentation and topic. However, the second half involving designing a new truck, kinda felt like those things you did as a kid where you designed your own car with super cool lasers and such. And I'm not just talking about the part with the flames, but the whole thing in general.
Check out this small article talking about the 5 concepts being proposed and tested for the USPS (he mentions it at the end of the video).
A quick skim reveals the following design criteria:
Secondary criteria:
Interesting differences between this channel's concept and the prototypes are the RHD and 4WD standard, and the overall retro design.
I like the idea of a digitally connected mail fleet, but that does pose possible problems to long-term use (20+ years) - imagine a fleet of trucks running on Windows XP in today's environment. The 360-cameras seem a little bit too much of a cost for the gain, perhaps just backup cameras would be sufficient? The hybrid nature is a great idea, but maybe should be a little more accessible as it will need to be replaced over the vehicle's X decade-long lifetime. I'd say that the MPG gains are worth it regardless of that issue, though.
"The original truck was selected because it was cheap and affordable, plus they're built to last. So here's an alarmingly expensive sounding vehicle with plenty of parts on it that can break."
A few miscalculations in this video:
I think an electric mail truck is an amazing idea, but it would take some major infrastructure investments for that to be realistic. Maybe USPS could convince Amazon to help subsidize some of that cost? Amazon is already paying USPS to operate on Sundays, and having an electric fleet would likely cost less for USPS in the long term which benefits Amazon.
Realistically I think the next mail truck will run on gas because USPS is chronically underfunded and already has the infrastructure to maintain gas powered vehicles. Plus there isn't a time-tested electric delivery vehicle on the market, so using one would be risky. This makes me sad because USPS could probably use the goodwill that would come with switching to electric. It's not going to look good for them if they are still using gas powered vehicles on a large scale 20-30 years in the future.
Bear in mind that this design is over thirty years old, and production ended in 1994.
What percentage of other road vehicles built before 1994 are still in service? Have any of them been run most every weekday for over 26 years?
Sure it’s time to replace them, their original design life has been exceeded already. But that’s a damn impressive vehicle.
Why cant they just get some hondas or some other reliable cars? We have hondas and they last for a very long time
I wonder how this would work for rfd?
Lame. Tldw is that the new mail truck is electric and has airbags, leds, heat and AC