woodguru

It was like a game to literally get the worst possible gas mileage to the point of being illegally fuel inefficient. Weight classes have regulated mileage requirements, and this thing made the weight cut for a truck that gets 8mpg by one pound. One pound difference between this being an illegally inefficient truck.

If this doesn't outrage your sensibilities that the postal service would not do everything possible to put this out to manufacturers to competitively bid for 165,000 trucks, nothing will. Instead of standards and shopping DeJoy awarded this to a military vehicle manufacturer in Wisconsin.

Any decent 4 cylinder engine should be able to get somewhere over 20mpg.

According to postal figures, they are using something like 110 million gallons of gas a day...it's like damn, this is a chance to save over $1.1 million a day in gas costs if they can get 15mpg on these 165,000 trucks.

Putting politics aside, and forget the battery cars, sticking with gas engines shouldn't we be looking to get the most reliable and competitive gas mileage out of the postal service fleet we can?

I'll look up some of the other reports on this I've seen, I looked at several. This is not the way spending billions revamping a fleet should be, one man does not get to call the shots.

Carol Kelly

It’s all about following Lenin to total victory. Part II bankrupt the nation.

woodguru

It actually hinges with a plan to take the postal service private...when that happens the buyout will be based on failure and will be for pennies on the dollar, the intent is to save the new owners billions of dollars on new infrastructure like trucks, it will be an upgraded fleet. The billions going in now will cost hundreds of millions later. The other financing feature is to buy in with access to the retirement funds to where the lucky postal workers can invest in the privatization of the postal service.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

You want a first hand opinion?
Well, here ya go!

Yeah, they should go for the highest fuel mileage possible. Not because I care about the cost so much, but, I don't want to have to fuel the damn thing every couple of days. It's a time thing. I want to get done, and go home. While we're at it, you've told me I'm overpaid on multiple occasions. That being said, you neglected to factor in the hourly pay of the carrier fueling up the vehicle into the equation. Especially if that carrier is into, or going to go into overtime pay.
I have no idea of the politics involved, or any of that, but, I do know the fleet needs to be replaced. The current Grumman LLV's we have now are a safety hazard for us, and the public. I've spent many hours in them, and I can honestly say that during the heat of summer, someone would be arrested for leaving a dog in a vehicle with internal temperatures like they develope. But it's OK for the mail carrier.
I got lucky, and don't have to deal with them anymore. I've got a permanent route that is park, and loop. All walking, and I have a Dodge Caravan mini van with A/C. I'm not sitting in an oven all day. Plus, 2/3rds of my route is in a REALLY nice area. Huge trees, so, I get a lot of shade.

All I know to tell you is that if it makes sense, they ain't gonna do it.
Dambdest place I've ever worked, but it has stellar money, and benefits. And, if you're a union member, you can take a piss in front of someone's house, and not get fired!

Weasel Loc: In the Great State Of Indiana!!

Go.getem Tiger 🐅 😍

archie bunker Loc: Texas

You know this how?

debeda

That doesn't seem efficient. Who's DeJoy? And does the post office have a contract for purchase for specialized vehicles (drive sits on the right in postal trucks, etc)

PeterS

You act like the government is supposed to do something responsible? Well, if Republicans wanted someone responsible they would have put someone in charge who was! For Republicans, the faster government destroys the faster we can destroy the government. I mean you can't run around crying about government inefficiencies if you put someone responsible in charge of the government, can you? DeJoy is a win-win for Republicans and the faster he can destroy the government with inefficiencies the better!

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

Postal is Not subsidized by tax money.

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

DeJoy is a big shipping magnate presently.
Why would he not want to destroy the Post office , empty the pension funds into his own pockets, keep all the best profitable routes, then sell off the rest.
The vehicle purchase leaves plenty of room for corruption and kickbacks.
Carving up the Beast among only a few.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

The Postal Service was destroying itself long before he came along.

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

No it was not.
It was Republican constrictures that was causing problems.
When republicans heard the PO was planning to purchase all electric vehicles
Red flags went up everywhere in republicansdom. They couldn’t have that.
And lose selling 1 Million gallons of gas per day ? No way.
A bill was drawn up by the republicans to thwart the electric vehicle purchase in the form of requiring the PO to PrePay Pension
Fund payments to 25 years in the future.
This would be paying for people who might work for the post office but,….
Haven’t been Born Yet!!!!
Trump did his pal DeJoy a service by putting him in charge of the PO.
As part of the wrecking crew.
Make it dis functional so the price to buy would go down , and then Wham,
Privatize it !!!!
Skin out the Pension funds fire half of the employees, lay off the other half, hire new people back at lower wages without the Union.
A win win win for the Republican instigators.
Your people I’m guessing.

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

At .10 / dollar.

woodguru

Good points in terms of the added benefits of better gas mileage. To me it just seems like a no brainer to apply a sense of that being a major criteria along with a tried and true engine that can stand up to a daily stop and go grind. And actually part of the deal should be an ease of maintenance and engine swap out, but 8.9mpg is a non starter in this day and age...I think literally everyone knows we can do better than that. It just seems like intentionally bad gas mileage was an intended feature for some reason.

The first thing a privatized entity would do is swap engines out to something that cuts the fuel used to half and save hundreds of millions a year. I can hear it as part of the prospectus for how they will save money.

And I will add that I do not resent companies paying employees well, I think all big highly profitable companies should be forced to bring that standard up. Working for the government shouldn't pay three or four times as much as other similar jobs for huge corporations. It's not raising minimum wage jobs I'm talking about either, it's mid level ones. All companies seem to be worried about is executive pay...pay them less and workers more.

woodguru

The postal service was not destroying itself, congress was jerking everything they could around to where they were hamstrung...with an open intent to privatize it. They have already made runs at that. Part of the financing package a private corporation thinks it is entitled to is the substantial retirement funds, let a private entity do what they want with those and they are in danger of going down the tubes. Oops we're losing too much money, we can't make it work, so sorry....retirement funds gone.

The postal service has opportunity after opportunity to make more money, and congress has blocked them, they haven't wanted them to be able to make money.