AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Think what you want. When I say a friend it means something. Do your friends mislead you? You think the PO can put in EV charging for what residential installs cost and want to disprove anything else.
New USPS van
- Thread starter Finklejag
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2025
- Messages
- 71
Spent two months as a rural Mail carrier a few years back. Some thoughts:
1. Having had to watch a video in training of a kid on a big wheel getting run over by an LLV (the mail van we've all come to recognize the past 40 years), the low hood and giant windscreen make sense. It's similar to modern school buses. Visibility in the LLV is less than awful; in fact the mirrors were redesigned shortly after they were put into service to try to help.
2. It's enormous due to Amazon. We had to play tetris every day to cram all the boxes into the LLV. I managed to do it, but there were others who had to make two trips (which is a nightmare) or get one of the assistants (carriers that hadn't gotten a dedicated route) who returned early to go back out with the rest.
3. The size will be a problem, at least on rural routes. Think less "farm fields and a mailbox every 3 miles" and more "1980s subdivision on the outskirts of town". Narrow, winding streets with lots of twists and fully-matured trees growing right up to the edge of the pavement. Add in trash cans on garbage day and even the LLV feels too big.
4. The AC will fail and never be fixed. Postmasters are cheapskates. I've reported LLVs with failing transmissions and engines that would randomly die, only for them to not be fixed.That greenhouse is going to suck in two or three years.
5. The Metris is better than you think. I never drove one at USPS (have for another employer), but many carriers love them. They seem to hold up okay, too. Better than the Caravans and Uplanders did, from what I hear.
1. Having had to watch a video in training of a kid on a big wheel getting run over by an LLV (the mail van we've all come to recognize the past 40 years), the low hood and giant windscreen make sense. It's similar to modern school buses. Visibility in the LLV is less than awful; in fact the mirrors were redesigned shortly after they were put into service to try to help.
2. It's enormous due to Amazon. We had to play tetris every day to cram all the boxes into the LLV. I managed to do it, but there were others who had to make two trips (which is a nightmare) or get one of the assistants (carriers that hadn't gotten a dedicated route) who returned early to go back out with the rest.
3. The size will be a problem, at least on rural routes. Think less "farm fields and a mailbox every 3 miles" and more "1980s subdivision on the outskirts of town". Narrow, winding streets with lots of twists and fully-matured trees growing right up to the edge of the pavement. Add in trash cans on garbage day and even the LLV feels too big.
4. The AC will fail and never be fixed. Postmasters are cheapskates. I've reported LLVs with failing transmissions and engines that would randomly die, only for them to not be fixed.That greenhouse is going to suck in two or three years.
5. The Metris is better than you think. I never drove one at USPS (have for another employer), but many carriers love them. They seem to hold up okay, too. Better than the Caravans and Uplanders did, from what I hear.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
They should have put the power train from the Sienna hybrid in them.
It was not my intent to impugn your friend.
There is a difference between the people who accept the estimates and sign the checks and those in entirely different positions.
They were all out of the big windows.
