The USPS needs 180,000 new delivery vehicles, automakers gearing up to bid

The USPS needs 180,000 new delivery vehicles, automakers gearing up to bid

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Jonathon Ramsey

Winning the New York City Taxi of Tomorrow tender was a huge prize for Nissan, even though the company is still working through the process of claiming its prize. The United States Postal Service has begun the process to take bids for a new delivery vehicle to replace the all-too-familiar Grumman Long Life Vehicle, and that will be a much larger plum for the automaker who wins it, perhaps worth more than six billion dollars.

The Grumman LLV is an aluminum body covering a Chevrolet S-10 pickup chassis and General Motors' Iron Duke four-cylinder engine. The USPS bought them from 1987 to 1994, and the 163,000 of them still in service are a monumental drain on postal resources: they get roughly ten miles to the gallon instead of the quoted 16 mpg, drink up more than $530 million in fuel each year, and their constant repair needs like the balky sliding door and leaky windshields have led the service to increase the annual maintenance budget from $100 million to $500 million. A seat belt is about as modern as it gets for safety technology, and the USPS says that assuming things stay the same, it can't afford to run them beyond 2017. Last year it put out two triage requests for proposals seeking 10,000 new chassis and drivetrains for the Grumman and 10,000 new vehicles.

The LLV is also too small for the modern mail system in which package delivery is growing and letter delivery is declining. The service says it doesn't have a fixed idea of the ideal "next-generation delivery vehicles," but it listed a number of requirements in its initial request and is open to any proposal. Carriers have some suggestions, though, saying they want better cupholders, sun visors that they can stuff letters behind, a driver's compartment free of slits that can swallow mail, and a backup camera.

The request for information sent to automakers pegs the tender at 180,000 vehicles that would cost between $25,000 and $35,000 apiece, and it will hold a conference on February 18 to answer questions about the contract. GM is the only domestic maker to avow an interest, while Ford and Fiat-Chrysler have remained cagey. Yet with a possible $6.3 billion up for grabs and some new vans for sale that would be advertised on every block in the country, we have a feeling everyone will be listening closely come February 18. We also have a feeling the LeMons series is going to be flooded with Grummans come 2017.News Source: Wall Street Journal, Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty ImagesGovernment/LegalChevroletChryslerFiatFordGMMinivan/VanTruckCommercial VehiclesSpecialtychevroletgeneral motorsgrummangrumman llvuspsI'm reporting this comment as:Rude or offensiveNot constructive / off-topicSexual contentSpam or misleadingOtherReported comments and users are reviewed by Autoblog staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate Community Guideline. Accounts are penalized for Community Guidelines violations and serious or repeated violations can lead to account termination.

The first thing they need to do is to get out of the mindset that one-size-fits-all and that the whole fleet must be purchased at the same time. The Air Force made the same mistake with the F-35.  Also, as was proven with the LLV's, the idea of a 25+ year vehicle doesn't work out in practice. It ignores advances in safety and efficiency which were ignored at great costs with the LLV's.. Buy off-the-shelf vehicles from a major auto manufacturer with minor modifications. No more Grumman type junk!  

USPS also needs to chuck the idea that they need to buy all at once. Buy some new ones every year. What they've wasted in fuel/repairs to the LLVS while trying to build their piggy bank would have bought them a significant portion of the new fleet. The last buy that they "leveraged their buying power" they got 3500 cargo versions of Grand Caravans for the same price my local dealer advertised a nicely equipped All-American version.

Any manufacturer interested should supply a pilot-test fleet for real world evaluation prior to letting out the contract. Then buy something of what you need in each market, rather than trying to get away with making one vehicle for all situations. City Carriers in Florida do not have the same vehicle needs as say a Rural Carrier in Anchorage, Alaska. They may need some with AWD, some with better cooling.
 
Talk to the cabbies in any large city who (reluctantly) gave up their Panther platform Fords for Toyota hybrids. They'd NEVER go back. The stop and go nature of must curb line routes are where hybrid shine. They would pay back the higher costs in short order. They're nuts if they don't purchase hybrids. (C-Max, Prius V)

They should not rely exclusively on vehicles with sliding doors. It really limits their purchasing options. There are lots of CUV's out there that would work fine for many routes. Of course right hand drive is needed for the curb-line routes, but many manufacturers European versions of the vans/utes they sell here.   

Since the business is transitioning from letters to parcels, a larger vehicle is needed. Though, the biggest would only be the size of a full-size minivan. No Sprinters needed for carrier duty.

This is a very custom order.  It was 25 years ago and it is again today.  USPS requires that the body be aluminum or composite for rust protection.  They require both the cargo and driver to be sliding, not a normal hinged door.  And it has to be right hand drive.  That's just a few reasons why no existing consumer vehicle fits the bill. The custom build nature of it forces it to pretty much be one big order.  They can pay a lot less per unit by ordering 25 years worth at once then they could buying just one year's worth.  Also, since they bought them all at once last time, they need to do the same again because they are all going bad at once.  another benefit is that al of there maintenance programs and parts inventory can switch over to one vehicle rather than stocking a progression of parts and education for various vehicles for each year's order.

The "custom" part is what gets (got) them in trouble. They don't need aluminum bodies because they should never again try to get 25 years out of a delivery vehicle. In the past decade they've spent more money trying to keep the LLV's on the road, than they would have spent just buying something new. They're doing frame swaps on many of the old trucks at about $10K each. That's an insane amount of money to put into a twenty-plus year old delivery vehicle. Not to mention the money they've wasted for fuel on those gas-pigs.

They don't need the sliders - if you notice that on the LLV's the sliding door isn't for cargo, it's for the driver! A hinged door there would do fine. The (left) door only needs to be able to open wide so the mail trays can be loaded. The parcels go in the back. Rolling doors or hatch there makes no difference.

Their only real "custom" requirement is that the cars be right hand drive. There are plenty of great choices for those that are already in production for European/JDM. I can't remember if any are still being made and exported from USA, but that wouldn't be an insurmountable issue.

The VMF's (postal garages) service multiple lines/types of vehicles now. Having a few different models of delivery vehicles would be a burden.

And if they bought something that somebody already made/makes - they could get replacements down the road. That's one of the big issues with the LLV's. They have to repair them no matter the cost, because they can't just go and order one.

These Grumman vans get 10 mpg instead of there rated 17 not because a defect or deception, but because of their route.  Stop and go every 50-100 ft takes a lot more fuel than any EPA city mpg test.  Any new gas postal van will see much worse mpgs than its rating.   But an electric van with regenerative braking will do that stop and go duty very efficiently. That stop and go also takes a toll on the engine, transmission and brakes.  Most of these vans are on their 3rd of 4th engine and transmission.  An EV with regenerative braking and a single speed gearbox won't have any such durability issues.  You just need the battery to have a decent liquid cooling system. These vans go 25 to 40 miles per day, perfect for an EV.  With a battery pack of only about 20kw*hr, charging every night, you could probably keep the charge within the 20%-80% range that makes for long battery life. The USPS could buy a few vans with bigger batteries or even gas engines for the few longer routes it may have. They are looking at bidding $25-35,000 for each vehicle.  That is a contract of $4.5 to $6.3 billion.  That is a lot of volume, which could bring down the battery building cost through economy of scale.  The USPS could even increase the bid a bit for an EV due to the "value added" from money saved later in fuel.  of course they need to factor in the added cost of charging infrastructure, but they can also count on reducing their maintenance programs.  This bid price sounds totally doable with an EV. Now is the time.  This next generation fleet should last 20 years.  That's 20 years of 100% domestic electric energy vs a mix of foreign and domestic oil.  That's 20 years of fuel price volatility and contributing to global oil demand and price.  That's 20 years of scratching of heads and asking, "Why in the world did we not get EVs?"

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