[KK7NIL]

Did you not read the article?

The NGDVs aren't Sprinter vans, they're purpose made mail delivery vehicles, with ergonomics and cargo space setup for that, which makes a massive difference for the drivers, especially when it comes to repetitive motion injuries, which is a huge cost for USPS.

Amazon went away from commercial vans to purpose made vehicles built by Rivian for many of the same reasons and they've been widely praised by the drivers.

[SoftTalker]

UPS brown trucks (they call them “cars” internally) are also custom made. They don’t even resell them when they are at EOL they crush them.

[ggreer]

The Rivian vans are commercially available.[1] Like the NGDV, they have a side door and an 80 inch interior height so that nobody has to stoop while in the cargo bay.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivian_EDV

[reaperducer]

The Rivian vans are commercially available.

If you follow the link in your link, you'll see that while new Postal Service trucks are $60,000, the Rivian vans START a $83,000†, and it's simply not possible for the driver of one of those vans to reach a mailbox from inside the vehicle, which is how vast majority of what the new Postal Services will be used.

Paying a 40% premium for less capability? That doesn't sound smart.

† https://rivian.com/fleet

[ggreer]

I was just saying that the vehicle is commercially available, not that it was a better option for the US Postal Service. But $83,000 is the retail price. Anyone buying in bulk will get them for significantly cheaper. The $60k for the NGDV is the discounted price for a bulk buy of 50,000, and it's for a mix of ICE and EVs. The ICE vehicles are significantly cheaper to manufacture, so the EV price is probably close to the Rivian's bulk price, and the Rivian has significantly greater capabilities.

[KK7NIL]

> Rivian has significantly greater capabilities.

According to you, some random tech bro CEO who hasn't delivered hundreds of letters a day for decades and is just looking at cost and going "hey, this isn't the cheapest option, it must be one of those darn government projects meant to subsidize those annoying poor people!"

In reality, the USPS studied several other options in use by post offices around the world, from commercial vans to tricycles: https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2023-01/...

They've since published further reports on things like how to tighten up the manufacturing contract, opportunities to use EV's, etc etc: https://www.uspsoig.gov/focus-areas/focus-on/next-generation...

But hey, I'm sure you know better!