For comparison, Australia Post went with mostly 3-wheel electric bikes for local deliveries (3100 out of 4100 EVs in the fleet mid 2022). https://auspost.com.au/our-stories/inspiring-stories/sustain... there's a photo in the link. The low noise compared to the previous powered bikes is really nice.
Yeah - while it seems easy/logical to just swap a normal delivery vehicle for an electric version of it, you don't really have to do that & electric vehicles do come in many more shapes and sizes due to the might higher flexibility and scalability of the electric power system.
For example here in Brno, Czech Republic, the entry to the city center is nowadays quite restrictive for regular cars/vans - a lot of it is a pedestrian zone & its not really built for cars anyway, the street layout dating back to the middle ages in places or to the 19th century.
As a result, a lot of the deliveries happen via alternative means - for example when you order a pizza from the local Dominos, they will come with an electric scoter or on a bike. A lot of the food delivery happens via guys on small e-scooters (or even electric monowheels!) or just on foot/going by public transport. In other cases you can see a DHL cargo e-bike, etc. :)
The first picture at the top are mostly big electric cars. But scroll down a bit.
As shown in the second picture, the other electric cars that the Norwegian postal service use are much smaller. Almost like a quad bike with small wheels and a roof.
Around me (Boston USA area) there are ebike grocery deliveries (Getir) wizzing down every street. It's a great idea, although clearly the incentives are set up so that the delivery guys need to complete as many orders as possible, the predictable result of which is that these kids are driving dangerously the wrong was down one-way streets and cutting lights.
120kg load capacity (270kg with trailer), 50kph max speed, 50-100km range. Curb weight is 315kg, total vehicle weight is 510kg.
For comparison, the USPS NGDV requirements were for a vehicle that could carry a loaded Kyburz DKP (minimum payload capacity of 680kg in 155 cubic ft) at twice the top speed (97kph) for longer operating ranges (110km minimum), all with an 18-29°C cabin temperature range at ambient temps of −34°-49C.
I don't really understand why they went with a one-size-has-to-fit-all solution here when there's such a high variety of climates and terrains in the US.
Or is the idea to start with these where appropriate and develop other vehicles for more extreme climates?
Wow that is faster than I expected since they are 3 wheeled. Honda stopped producing 3 wheeled trikes because they were far too easy to tip over during cornering and many people died. These things look like they could do the same if not careful. I hope they give employees lots of training.
Yeah they use bikes in Switzerland but the temperature range (at least in The Valley part and not the mountains) is pretty narrow compared to the US. Basically -5C to 30C
One I see regularly has a semi official "50 kph speed limited" sticker and underneath another less official one: "you wish"
Compared to the old step through moped they had this new trike is a big improvement. It has shade and it carries far more mail. But it is bigger and I can see it may sometimes be less "agile" on badly maintained pavement and grass. The mopeds used to scoot around like zippy little dogs
Could you explain how the tricycles work, practically? Auspost delivers parcels, correct? That tricycle looks like it could fit about one days worth of package deliveries for my street. Then it would need to go back to the post office. Unless the post offices are very close together that seems really inefficient. Also, since Australia was not built in the 10th century, you can fit normal sized cars most everywhere, no? What am I missing?
The e-trikes replaced old motorcycles with saddlebags. The trike rides up onto the footpath and delivers directly into the mailbox. Usually letters and catalogues. They hop from letterbox to letterbox along the road and footpath. They are coloured fluroscent yellow, same association as high visibility shirts.
Packages are done by courier in a van or truck. Grocery deliveries are done by supermarket branded refrigerator trucks. Local fast food is done by the ubereats/menulog crowd.
A local automotive store will drop off parts by an employee in his car.
It sounds like americans get more packages delivered in one go, by the us postal office trucks?
It’s largely filled with letters and maybe small packages (e.g., my coffee subscription). Anything larger than a large book seems to still be delivered by someone driving a van. The trikes roam the streets going door to door, the vans operate more like a courier service.
Why only for cities? There's quite a few of them in the local small towns which were previously handled on pushbikes and small motor bikes.
There's lots of challenges with mail delivery depending on the area, density, business/residential ratio, and many other things. Those vehicles satisfy some situation. "the challenge" is not a thing.
The linked one is more like a golf cart form factor. In the city areas they also use something resembling a regular ebike with pedels. Makes it easy to get on the footpath since most buildings have no parking.
Netherlands and Australia have different requirements for postal delivery bikes.
You should really look at the differences in delivery areas, parcel sizes, the location of the post box on a property. They are all different for different countries.
But you're absolutely correct. It looks like it can carry less than a simple cargo bike. :+1:
That's cool but would not work for much of the US. The NYC - DC area is a huge % of our population and that wouldn't work there at all for like 50% of the year really.
This will save a lot of money over time. Last time I checked in any detail, electricity prices per mile of transport per ton were about 25% that of fossil fuel prices per mile of transport per ton, and that was three years ago.
They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well, at least for the main trunk lines, and for city-wide delivery. Remote rural routes will likely be the hardest to electrify.
> electricity prices per mile of transport per ton were about 25% that of fossil fuel prices per mile of transport per ton
In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet.
> They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well
Reduced capacity from doing this requires additional vehicle time to haul the same amount of material. This isn't a single factor equation. Plus, over the road drivers sleep in their vehicles, and not always at truck stops. They're only allowed to drive for 10 hours, so it's not always as convenient as you might expect.
Consider the weight of 600 gallons of fuel vs. the reduced hauling capacity from using an electric truck and see why we're a ways away from this yet. Have no fear; though, the moment this is logistically favorable, they will switch.
> In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet.
You charge the mail trucks overnight, when they aren't being driven. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a postman out in the evening or nighttime. I also don't know about you, but I don't stand next to my car when I charge it at a rapid charger. (I stop where I can run an errand or use the bathroom.)
In comparison, it takes time to get gas. You have to go out of your way to get to the gas station, go up to the pump, pay for it, and then get back on your way. It always takes me 5-10 minutes to get gas.
So, time being money, what makes the most sense is to install a charger at every parking space that a mail truck occupies overnight, and getting rid of the trips to the gas station. The time it takes to plug the car in is negligible.
The economics of long haul trucking make electrification hard.
Fortunately, for local deliveries like the post office, constant stop-and-go means that regen braking can really stretch the range of electric batteries.
Sure, a long haul semi with multiple drivers is a use case that won't be filled by electric trucks anytime soon. But that's a fairly narrow niche. Even on long haul routes it's pretty normal for trucks to have only one driver and stop for several hours for a rest. With a megawatt charger and 500 miles of range on a charge, even long haul trucking is just a mild engineering problem.
For in town trucks the math works out very well, and very quickly. Which explains why there are already multiple entrants into that market niche.
Fuel is money as well. Recent diesel price inflation caused a lot of misery for truckers. A full tank of fuel costs way more than a typical trucker earns per day. And most truckers own their trucks and are under heavy debt. 600 gallons is a lot for a truck. Depending on where you get your diesel, you are going to pay 2-3 dollars per gallon at least. Closer to 5 in some places. So even a "modest" 150 gallon tank could set you back close to a 800$.
Recent price fluctuations due to the rise in oil prices have hit that sector really hard.
How many truckers will answer the question "would you like to save more in fuel cost per day than you currently earn per day?" with a "no?. Time loss for charging is maybe inconvenient but the price tag isn't that high for everyone.
Anyway, this stops being optional pretty soon after electrical trucks start undercutting transport prices because they simply have lower cost of course. But while there is still a choice, there are going to be smart truckers and broke truckers. They'll pay the difference out of their own pocket.
In any case, if the vehicle charges at night and has enough charge for the route, there is no time loss.
We're talking mail delivery here not trucking. They are not doing hundreds of miles per day. More like tens. With lots of drive a little, idle, drive a little, etc. driving. This has very poor fuel economy with an ice vehicle. An EV essentially has no energy cost when it is idling. At best you lose some energy to keep the AC and the radio going. Which isn't free with an ice vehicle either.
Mail and package deliveries are an ideal use case for EVs. Most commercial delivery companies have largely completed their move to EVs for this reason and are rolling out EVs as fast as they can get their hands on them. That debate is over and there never was much of a debate beyond "Would you like to cut cost? Yes!". Ancient history, the industry has moved on and the answer was conclusive. If you want to compete in that sector, EV is the only way. There's no case left for ice vehicles in that sector.
According to the USPS, "The longest rural delivery route is in Clarinda, IA. The carrier travels 181.4 miles daily and delivers to 234 boxes." It seems like most electric vehicles should have no problem covering that in a single trip and I assume this was something they tested before ordering.
> In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet.
If the time wasted charging/refueling is super valuable you can fix this by provisioning a few more vehicles than there are drivers, or having hot swappable pre-charged batteries and provisioning a few more of those than there are vehicles. Then your recharging/refueling time drops down to a couple of minutes max because you're either swapping batteries out or hopping in a different truck.
Implementing a battery-swap system at major truck stops seems plausible. The semi would pull in, its battery pack would be pulled out by a light crane and slotted into a charging unit, and a fresh pack would be installed, no stop-over time needed.
I also wonder whether semis on certain well-defined long-haul routes (I-80 etc) could be partially automated, such that the driver could sleep in the back of the cab much of the time. Not sure if the technology is really there yet, though.
> Have no fear; though, the moment this is logistically favorable, they will switch.
I think the thing that makes this logistically favorable is electrification of major highways. What I worry about is that this requires coordination between government agencies and car and truck manufacturers and it requires political will to make it happen and find the funding. We could start building it right now, or we could sit on our thumbs for the next twenty years.
(There are several different ways to electrify highways. My preference would be to use something like the system they're testing out in Sweden that uses power rails in slots embedded in the road surface. Cars/trucks have a device that swings down and makes contact. Overhead lines are cheaper, but aren't practical for cars to use. Induction charging is another option but it's much more expensive and power delivery isn't great if there's no physical connection.)
Solar and Wind electric production costs are still dropping by 10-15% a year same for batteries. A lot of people and countries don't realise the electricity revolution that is coming. Cost of production for a lot products will start coming down with cheaper electricity.
They don’t realize it because they don’t get any of the benefits. Electricity costs are rising across the country almost without exception.
Meanwhile California is paying other states to take electricity because they generate so much excess power during the duck curve (while simultaneously having rolling blackouts)
I think the problem with long haul trucking is just getting the range. Are we close to having enough battery capacity to allow drivers to meet their hours-per-day limits? If not electric won’t be economical for operators.
Local delivery is a much clearer fit for electric, even in the short term. We see that here.
Stop-start traffic and local delivery is much clearer, but from what I've seen of the energy calculations on Tesla Semi, it actually makes sense for bulky vs. heavy shipments on flat, warm routes, as long as there is appropriately sited charging infrastructure. Especially good for consumer-facing and high margin fleets, which is why Frito-Lay is an ideal launch customer. Even if it doesn't make absolute sense today, it probably will in 5-10 years.
Daimler Truck, one of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, has unveiled its first heavy-duty, battery-electric truck – the Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul – with a new e-axle and a range of 500kms.
Electric truck maker Janus has debuted the first battery-powered prime mover in Australia and has plans to set up battery swap stations up and down the eastern seaboard within months. .. a first taste of the company’s plans to electrify long haul truck fleets using only batteries.
Catenary on main trunks, combined with a requirement that all trucks have some battery range, would be super interesting. Trucks could be extremely efficient without needing to carry their own energy sources
Also this may not be true for the US now but in parts of Europe the charging cost for driving an EV has at times already surpassed the gas cost for regular cars. And that was despite the war also leading to increased oil prices in Europe at the same time, thanks to the EU's climate policy and certain countries shutting down coal and gas power plants without even having enough alternate capacity yet. Germany was the king of that, they're shutting down nuclear, coal and gas power plants at the same time :)
If you think that sounds idiotic, that's politics for you. I wouldn't count on this never happening in the US, a lot of people support "climate action" without caring about the details or understanding anything about any of this on a technical level.
The mailman stopping and starting the engine at every mailbox is so ridiculously wasteful, not just of energy but also time. That’s an additional 15-20 seconds between mailboxes fiddling with the ignition and transmission. In various neighborhoods I’ve lived in all the mailmen did this. Looking forward to EV delivery trucks to make life easier for the drivers and not having to hear that screeching of the ignition at every house.
I really noticed how much better the air near me (in the UK) was during the first lockdown, when there really wasn't much vehicle traffic in the suburban area I live in. I go for a walk every morning, and the air was noticeably better then. As the cars started to reappear, I began to notice just how smelly they are.
I now have an EV as my family's main car, and it was driven in part by this (obviously obvious!) realisation.
I know right. It’s one of those mysteries. Maybe they thought it saved gas, like in the old days when great grandpa would deliberately stop the engine at intersections. (Which by the way is common now in some modern cars and startles me.)
One argument against is that it's forbidden in many places (at least in Europe) for a car to idle on the street. It's obviously not always enforced, especially on a mailman, but the spirit of this regulation still makes sense
I guess density of housing is a big factor. Where I live they postlady parks her van centrally ish near the post box, collects that then fans out on foot delivering stuff. But some rural roads you've got a long distance between properties.
In American suburbs where there’s a mailbox in front of every house, the mailmen will roll up to each one. They don’t even need to step off. Go to next, stop their Grumman LLV, sort the mail for that address, reach out and stuff, repeat.
right. i live in a high-density old building with ~60 apartments. our USPS mailperson generally spends about ~20-30 mins back and forth between their truck and the wall of mailboxes in the building.
I think you may be under-appreciating just how loud an internal combustion engine is without mufflers. I suspect that the big issue with LLVs isn't that they are particularly loud (they are louder than a typical modern consumer-oriented car fresh from the factory, for sure, but pretty similar to other purpose-built delivery vehicles), but that they have a very distinctive tone. You hear it once a day, every day, so it becomes something your mind picks up on as a pattern.
Between the mailboxes isn’t merely twisting the key to start. It’s the sum of starting, removing parking brake, shifting to Drive……(…)…shifting to Park, turning off the engine, set parking brake.
My neighborhood delivers the mail on foot, while the truck is parked most of the day. The delivery man walks more than a Pacific Crest Trail thru-hiker.
Seems to be at the discretion of the delivery person. Our usual one walks a lot, but there's one sub that literally drives to every house, hops out, delivers.
There's a glimpse of the Amazon delivery dystopia on tiktok where the driver shows the monitoring camera and goes through the rules the system enforces. (Favourite ones: can't drink water while driving (even if stopped), can't touch centre console (e.g. for airconditioning, radio).)
Because of the delays due to rules (vehicle in park before unbuckle, seat belt buckled before moving, door shut), and the huge penalties for forgetting a rule even once, it is common for drivers to park and then run back and forth to the truck.
Most American humans and pets know the distinctive sound of an LLV trolling around the block delivering the mail. EVs are Ninja-like by comparison. I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing, but it's gonna be a different world.
As the owner of two EVs, with neighbors that have various EVs and hybrids, I am actually kinda miffed at the new regulations. For a typical appliance car like a Corolla, Camry, or similar, the engine is all but inaudible unless the car is stationary. Once it is past walking speed tires quickly become what you hear.
This need to make EVs loud sucks because I was really looking forward to a quieter environment. But no. Now I can tell you exactly when my neighbor two houses away is backing his Tesla into the garage, but not when his wife comes & goes in her Tahoe.
I am all for reducing noise pollution. It's quite a transformative experience to move from a lower floor apt where you are bombarded with sound up to a higher floor where the only outside sound comes from birds.
I had this thought recently too. I was wondering how a USPS vehicle being nearly silent could impact elderly who know the sound of the vehicle to know when mail has arrived. It could result in elderly making additional trips to the mailbox increasing their risk for injury in the event of bad weather. Or could they miss getting their medication because they do not think mail was delivered. Where I live mail is not always delivered on the same time even weekly. Without hearing the distinct sound of the mail truck barreling down the road I would probably have to check the mailbox more than once a day.
I’ve been wondering what the most repairable vehicle might look like, and I guess the USPS already put a lot of brain power into that problem. I presume this is ugly because it’s both purpose built and highly repairable.
This ugly look will grow on folks who will nostalgically bemoan going away of these "ugly but trusty/distinctive/unique character/all familiar/<add nostalgic adjective>" trucks when they are replaced with a new design 10 years down the line.
Because it was for (non-military) government use, it naturally sucked. No air con (but you got a tiny fan!), a dinky heater that didn't really help, the chassis of a Chevy S-10, a 3-speed auto, and the engine from a Fiero. But the parts were easy to source and cheap.
The very "function" look will take some getting used to.
I haven't figured out the styling around the front lights and grill. It doesn't seem as function-driven as the rest of the appearance, which I guess might be adding to the front looking odd.
I guess they are saying it’s “functional” but lacks “form”. These are distinct things which do not imply one another. What we value is of course subjective.
The design looks like it would have very good visibility. It's a huge problem with most vans and trucks where you have these huge blind spots in front.
These delivery vans are 100% function over form. They have exact specs on how much the driver has to see of the surrounding area from the driving seat and the car is designed around that.
I think in the states the cost in lives might be significant if we did that.
If you look at USPS annual reports to congress they have ~27k motor vehicle accidents a year with a fleet of ~236k vehicles (~216k delivery).[1]
So possibly 10%+ of their vehicles are involved in accidents each year.
If we look at occupant fatality rates for vans (what usps currently use) they're one of the safest vehicle types.[2]
Meanwhile if we look at motorcycles the fatality rate is nearly 10 times higher.[3]
Bicyclist numbers look better at first glance but that's probably because the rate is by total population and not registered vehicles (because you don't have to register a bicycle).[4]
I know in my state (Louisiana), riding a bicycle on a road with other vehicles is considered notoriously unsafe.
Anecdotally I've had friends who reported incidents of people opening doors of moving vehicles to purposefully hit cyclists (and if you search american news media you'll see reports of intentional 'dooring').
It sounds like there could be selection bias in those numbers, so I’m not sure that can be extrapolated. I’d expect that the percentage of vans driven by professional drivers is relatively high, compared to motorcycles.
I see Amazon's electric trucks in Berkeley quite often. I wonder how that fleet is working out for them. Of course the mail in my city is delivered primarily on foot.
I have no idea for certain, but I would guess really well.
Mostly because I saw one of them for the first time ever in Seattle about 3.5 months ago. At first it was just one, then I saw another one a week later. The frequency kept increasing to the point where I see multiple ones every time I go on a short grocery trip a few miles away. They expanded to the point where they are everywhere here now, and I doubt they would continue expanding it so aggressively if it wasn't working out.
EVs are still not campervan ready unless you have no plans to boondock (i.e you will always have a connection to the grid when you stop for the night).
If you use solar for recharging, best efforts (with a huge unfolding PV array) get you maybe 100 mile hops. That might be enough for some folks, but it's probably not going to be generally satisfactory (and, btw, it is a huge PV array that is required).
Readit News
For example here in Brno, Czech Republic, the entry to the city center is nowadays quite restrictive for regular cars/vans - a lot of it is a pedestrian zone & its not really built for cars anyway, the street layout dating back to the middle ages in places or to the 19th century.
As a result, a lot of the deliveries happen via alternative means - for example when you order a pizza from the local Dominos, they will come with an electric scoter or on a bike. A lot of the food delivery happens via guys on small e-scooters (or even electric monowheels!) or just on foot/going by public transport. In other cases you can see a DHL cargo e-bike, etc. :)
True. For example, this Norwegian article from 2021 has two pictures in it.
https://fagbladet.no/nyheter/posten-stanser-kjop-av-fossile-...
The first picture at the top are mostly big electric cars. But scroll down a bit.
As shown in the second picture, the other electric cars that the Norwegian postal service use are much smaller. Almost like a quad bike with small wheels and a roof.
120kg load capacity (270kg with trailer), 50kph max speed, 50-100km range. Curb weight is 315kg, total vehicle weight is 510kg.
For comparison, the USPS NGDV requirements were for a vehicle that could carry a loaded Kyburz DKP (minimum payload capacity of 680kg in 155 cubic ft) at twice the top speed (97kph) for longer operating ranges (110km minimum), all with an 18-29°C cabin temperature range at ambient temps of −34°-49C.
Or is the idea to start with these where appropriate and develop other vehicles for more extreme climates?
Calling BS on this. Anything more than a light drizzle (or any kind of wind + rain combo) and that driver is getting wet.
Compared to the old step through moped they had this new trike is a big improvement. It has shade and it carries far more mail. But it is bigger and I can see it may sometimes be less "agile" on badly maintained pavement and grass. The mopeds used to scoot around like zippy little dogs
Packages are done by courier in a van or truck. Grocery deliveries are done by supermarket branded refrigerator trucks. Local fast food is done by the ubereats/menulog crowd.
A local automotive store will drop off parts by an employee in his car.
It sounds like americans get more packages delivered in one go, by the us postal office trucks?
There's lots of challenges with mail delivery depending on the area, density, business/residential ratio, and many other things. Those vehicles satisfy some situation. "the challenge" is not a thing.
You should really look at the differences in delivery areas, parcel sizes, the location of the post box on a property. They are all different for different countries.
But you're absolutely correct. It looks like it can carry less than a simple cargo bike. :+1:
They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well, at least for the main trunk lines, and for city-wide delivery. Remote rural routes will likely be the hardest to electrify.
In shipping and logistics, time is money. Fuel can be dispensed in the US at a maximum of 10 gal/minute. Factor that against the largest charger you can find and see why the single cost difference doesn't matter yet.
> They should really move all long-haul trucking to electric as well
Reduced capacity from doing this requires additional vehicle time to haul the same amount of material. This isn't a single factor equation. Plus, over the road drivers sleep in their vehicles, and not always at truck stops. They're only allowed to drive for 10 hours, so it's not always as convenient as you might expect.
Consider the weight of 600 gallons of fuel vs. the reduced hauling capacity from using an electric truck and see why we're a ways away from this yet. Have no fear; though, the moment this is logistically favorable, they will switch.
You charge the mail trucks overnight, when they aren't being driven. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a postman out in the evening or nighttime. I also don't know about you, but I don't stand next to my car when I charge it at a rapid charger. (I stop where I can run an errand or use the bathroom.)
In comparison, it takes time to get gas. You have to go out of your way to get to the gas station, go up to the pump, pay for it, and then get back on your way. It always takes me 5-10 minutes to get gas.
So, time being money, what makes the most sense is to install a charger at every parking space that a mail truck occupies overnight, and getting rid of the trips to the gas station. The time it takes to plug the car in is negligible.
Fortunately, for local deliveries like the post office, constant stop-and-go means that regen braking can really stretch the range of electric batteries.
For in town trucks the math works out very well, and very quickly. Which explains why there are already multiple entrants into that market niche.
Recent price fluctuations due to the rise in oil prices have hit that sector really hard.
How many truckers will answer the question "would you like to save more in fuel cost per day than you currently earn per day?" with a "no?. Time loss for charging is maybe inconvenient but the price tag isn't that high for everyone.
Anyway, this stops being optional pretty soon after electrical trucks start undercutting transport prices because they simply have lower cost of course. But while there is still a choice, there are going to be smart truckers and broke truckers. They'll pay the difference out of their own pocket.
In any case, if the vehicle charges at night and has enough charge for the route, there is no time loss.
We're talking mail delivery here not trucking. They are not doing hundreds of miles per day. More like tens. With lots of drive a little, idle, drive a little, etc. driving. This has very poor fuel economy with an ice vehicle. An EV essentially has no energy cost when it is idling. At best you lose some energy to keep the AC and the radio going. Which isn't free with an ice vehicle either.
Mail and package deliveries are an ideal use case for EVs. Most commercial delivery companies have largely completed their move to EVs for this reason and are rolling out EVs as fast as they can get their hands on them. That debate is over and there never was much of a debate beyond "Would you like to cut cost? Yes!". Ancient history, the industry has moved on and the answer was conclusive. If you want to compete in that sector, EV is the only way. There's no case left for ice vehicles in that sector.
Trucking will follow.
If the time wasted charging/refueling is super valuable you can fix this by provisioning a few more vehicles than there are drivers, or having hot swappable pre-charged batteries and provisioning a few more of those than there are vehicles. Then your recharging/refueling time drops down to a couple of minutes max because you're either swapping batteries out or hopping in a different truck.
I also wonder whether semis on certain well-defined long-haul routes (I-80 etc) could be partially automated, such that the driver could sleep in the back of the cab much of the time. Not sure if the technology is really there yet, though.
Plenty of time to recharge vehicles.
If anything, local delivery vehicles are the best thing for EVs as they're inherently daytime use only.
https://www.januselectric.com.au
I think the thing that makes this logistically favorable is electrification of major highways. What I worry about is that this requires coordination between government agencies and car and truck manufacturers and it requires political will to make it happen and find the funding. We could start building it right now, or we could sit on our thumbs for the next twenty years.
(There are several different ways to electrify highways. My preference would be to use something like the system they're testing out in Sweden that uses power rails in slots embedded in the road surface. Cars/trucks have a device that swings down and makes contact. Overhead lines are cheaper, but aren't practical for cars to use. Induction charging is another option but it's much more expensive and power delivery isn't great if there's no physical connection.)
Meanwhile California is paying other states to take electricity because they generate so much excess power during the duck curve (while simultaneously having rolling blackouts)
The US is not as densely populated as Europe, so outside coastal areas much less land has a train station even within 200 miles radius.
Local delivery is a much clearer fit for electric, even in the short term. We see that here.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/9/18538030/germany-ehighway-...
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If you think that sounds idiotic, that's politics for you. I wouldn't count on this never happening in the US, a lot of people support "climate action" without caring about the details or understanding anything about any of this on a technical level.
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People don’t appreciate the difference EVs make just by shifting the pollution burden of traffic away from the human environment.
I now have an EV as my family's main car, and it was driven in part by this (obviously obvious!) realisation.
close to minimum wage, the last thing you want is for your vehicle to be driven away by a thief
Because of the delays due to rules (vehicle in park before unbuckle, seat belt buckled before moving, door shut), and the huge penalties for forgetting a rule even once, it is common for drivers to park and then run back and forth to the truck.
https://jalopnik.com/watch-an-amazon-driver-explain-the-comp...
Historically: It's by section of the route. Each route is supposed to have designated walking or riding sections.
That might have changed recently though.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/26/2018-03...
This need to make EVs loud sucks because I was really looking forward to a quieter environment. But no. Now I can tell you exactly when my neighbor two houses away is backing his Tesla into the garage, but not when his wife comes & goes in her Tahoe.
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https://www.ford.com/commercial-trucks/e-transit/
Because it was for (non-military) government use, it naturally sucked. No air con (but you got a tiny fan!), a dinky heater that didn't really help, the chassis of a Chevy S-10, a 3-speed auto, and the engine from a Fiero. But the parts were easy to source and cheap.
I haven't figured out the styling around the front lights and grill. It doesn't seem as function-driven as the rest of the appearance, which I guess might be adding to the front looking odd.
If you look at USPS annual reports to congress they have ~27k motor vehicle accidents a year with a fleet of ~236k vehicles (~216k delivery).[1]
So possibly 10%+ of their vehicles are involved in accidents each year.
If we look at occupant fatality rates for vans (what usps currently use) they're one of the safest vehicle types.[2]
Meanwhile if we look at motorcycles the fatality rate is nearly 10 times higher.[3]
Bicyclist numbers look better at first glance but that's probably because the rate is by total population and not registered vehicles (because you don't have to register a bicycle).[4]
I know in my state (Louisiana), riding a bicycle on a road with other vehicles is considered notoriously unsafe.
Anecdotally I've had friends who reported incidents of people opening doors of moving vehicles to purposefully hit cyclists (and if you search american news media you'll see reports of intentional 'dooring').
[1] https://about.usps.com/what/financials/annual-reports/fy2022...
[2] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/8126...
[3] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...
[4] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...
AIUI, the US Post Office does everything in one.
Mostly because I saw one of them for the first time ever in Seattle about 3.5 months ago. At first it was just one, then I saw another one a week later. The frequency kept increasing to the point where I see multiple ones every time I go on a short grocery trip a few miles away. They expanded to the point where they are everywhere here now, and I doubt they would continue expanding it so aggressively if it wasn't working out.
If you use solar for recharging, best efforts (with a huge unfolding PV array) get you maybe 100 mile hops. That might be enough for some folks, but it's probably not going to be generally satisfactory (and, btw, it is a huge PV array that is required).