US cities pay too much for buses

Ever since I first looked at the Oshkosh NGDV for the USPS I couldn't help but wonder WHY there was a need for a custom vehicle?*

European parcel delivery firms and postal systems (Deutsche Post DHL, La Poste, Royal Mail, PostNL and all the non-legacy competitors) generally do not commission purpose-built vehicles, they buy off the shelf small vans and light commercial vehicles.

* of course I do know why, "because jobs and politics"...

The USPS is an US federal agency. At one time it even had a cabinet level position though not so any more. Its not private like in most countries. At the scale they buy these vehicles, it probably makes sense to get a custom one. Even Amazon has custom EVs built for them.

How common are individual streetside mailboxes elsewhere in the world. That's really the only thing where I could see a real need for specialized vehicles for, otherwise for neighborhoods that have on-foot delivery or centralized boxes I totally agree any ordinary delivery van should be just as good for USPS as it is for UPS, FedEx, Amazon, etc.

> Even Amazon has custom EVs built for them.

Eh, sort of. Amazon partnered with Rivian to help design the EDV and had an initial exclusivity agreement as long as they ordered a certain number of them, but this agreement has since been terminated so anyone can buy them now. The USPS actually tested one in early 2024.

USPS has drastically different approach to mail deliver and pickup than most countries. Including as mentioned street-level mailboxes for both pickup and delivery, and general idea that really rural mail gets delivered direct still.

In comparison, polish postal system although it's pretty much standard european approach:

- postal trucks deliver mail between post offices

- in cities and more built-up rural areas, on-foot postman delivers mail from post office

- in very sparse rural areas or for households far from village center, mailboxes are placed in centralized location and you have to go to pick up them on your own.

Mail pickup is done from dedicated sending boxes usually on outside of post offices, sometimes one might be placed further away in rural areas. No curb-side pickup.

Such differences mean that normal cargo vehicles can be easily used between post offices, and even for rural areas you arrive, park once, handle unloading, and drive again, instead of constantly starting and stopping to access road-side mailboxes.

Its not clear what your point is? Both USPS and Amazon got heavily customized vehicles made for them. In the US the USPS is a government agency so any kind of government contracts get heavily securitized by the public but nobody cares what trucks Fedex and Amazon buy just like in countries where the mail service is privatized.

The frame and overall design of these buses is not custom (and often changes little year to year). The drivetrain, accessories, and so on are selected from options.

I don't know how it is done in the rest of the US, but in my state rural mail services are 95% of the time delivered using the mail carrier's personal vehicle, not the custom mail trucks. I usually only see them inside towns or moving between post offices.

> instead of constantly starting and stopping to access road-side mailboxes

Q: What's the (average) distance between deliveries to road-side mailboxes?

I'm thinking of the average driving time between them, compared with the time to get out of a vehicle, put mail in a mailbox, and get back in the a vehicle...

I know "mounted delivery routes" sound and feel more efficient, but just how much more efficient are they actually?

We should note that USPS letter volumes are falling (just like everywhere else in the world) and somehow parcel/packet delivery services do not need to have "mounted routes", the delivery crew appear to be able to just get out of their vehicles(?)

IMO a LLV or NGDV is a custom-designed vehicle for USPS, the EDV is a delivery-optimized electric step van that happens to have been designed with the input of one specific delivery vendor.

USPS normal letter volumes are falling, but due to various stupid crap they are forced to deliver a lot of junk mail at low price. Political issue rather than technical.

The difference for parcel services is that, statistically, they do not deliver a parcel to everyone every time, making it way easier to do "p2p" because you're not canvassing a whole street.