learn more about which vehicles deliver your mail every day
Since the 1950s, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been using different vehicles to deliver mail to millions of Americans every day. What’s unusual is that the USPS has only ordered two different vehicles in the last 65 years: the Jeep DJ and the Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV).
the dj jeep (or dispatcher jeep) featured a sliding door and right-hand drive to facilitate delivery of mail to postal workers, and use of this vehicle began in the 1950s. these jeeps were made of sheet metal They were thin metal and withstood a lot of wear and tear, but eventually the USPS had to replace the DJ with a vehicle that was more fuel efficient and could handle the grueling task of running long mail routes all day, every day.
Once the Jeep DJs were decommissioned in 1984, the USPS decided to establish criteria for the perfect postal vehicle and take it to vehicle manufacturers to see what they could create. There were several manufacturers that disputed his vehicle, but after exhaustive tests, the grumman llv was chosen.
the smithsonian national postal museum explains the details of the llv:
the body of the llv was manufactured by grumman, the chassis by general motors. The truck’s body is made of corrosion-resistant aluminum, weighs 3,000 pounds, can carry 1,000 pounds of mail, and has a tight turning radius. the postal service ordered 99,150 long-haul vehicles. At a cost of $11,651 per vehicle, the USPS contract with Grumman totaled more than $1.1 billion and was the largest vehicle order ever placed by the Postal Service. Long-range vehicles were produced at the Grumman plant in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. during the height of production, the company produced 100 postal trucks per day.
If you’re too young to remember the days of the jeep, then long-haul vehicles may be the only mail trucks you’ve ever known: little boxy white trucks with the USPS blue eagle on the side.
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right-hand drive jeeps: returning
However, right-hand drive (RHD) jeeps are not entirely out of the mail delivery picture, as they are still often used for rural postal routes. Jeep stopped making RHD vehicles for a while after the USPS stopped using them in the 1980s, but saw a need to continue later. They began producing RHD Jeep Cherokees and RHD Jeep Wrangler Unlimiteds in 2001 and 2003.
Currently, the USPS is set to launch its third new fleet in 2018. The last LLV was made in 1994, so its 20+ years of service is quickly coming to an end. The vehicle that will replace the LLV has yet to be announced, but the USPS has made it clear that they want to fundamentally change it, keeping only some of the LLV’s features, such as right-hand drive and sliding doors.
car and driver lists some of the changes expected in the new postal vehicle:
The new trucks will have safety features now standard on passenger cars and light trucks, including a frontal airbag, tire pressure monitors, a backup camera, daytime running lights and ABS. The postal service has also called for more fuel efficient and cleaner powertrains and is considering alternative fuel vehicles for a large portion of its fleet.
fifteen different companies responded to his request for design proposals. the replacement fleet will include approximately 212,000 delivery trucks and will cost more than $6.3 billion to manufacture.
to read more about rhd jeeps check out our blog: where oh where can i find a right hand drive jeep?