Most automobiles within the US Postal Service really need this. They are all getting old as they were designed with a 24 year life cycle. Agency reports say that replacing the entire fleet with comparable cars would cost $ 4.2 billion. Is replacement the only option?
LLVs Postal Service
LLV stands for Long Life Automobiles and is the kind of truck the Postal Service uses. With daily driving, the trucks had a 24 year life cycle. That 24 year cycle is almost over. The Postal Service Inspector General has said that, over the next eight years, the Postal Service would spend more repairing the vehicles than replacing them.
The price of repairing all of the USPS vehicles
In 2009 alone, the Postal Service spent $ 524 million on LLV repair. Typically it is better to repair vehicles instead of replace them. The average repair bill for each LLV is about $ 5,600, with some repair bills going as high as $ 40,000. The vehicles don’t typically require any kind of specialized maintenance, though the right-handed driving setup can cause more expensive maintenance at times.
Replacing the LLV fleet
The cost to benefit comparison of continuing to repair the LLV fleet is easily turning upside down. In the next eight years, the postal service will actually lose money if it repairs instead of replaces any cars that have a repair bill of more than $ 3,500. Straight-across replacement of the full LLV fleet would cost $ 30,000 per truck.
Automobile alternatives for US Postal service
The alternatives for U.S. Postal Service delivery cars are being heavily researched. The USPS has offered a $ 50,000 reward to five different firms for providing a working prototype of a USPS vehicle by August. Letter carriers in numerous other areas are testing three-wheeled electric vehicles, bicycles, and also some more traditional minivan-style vehicles for delivering the mail, rain or shine.
