Thursday, June 24, 2010

Vehicle replacement being searched for by US Postal Service

Most autos in the US Postal Service really need this. They were designed with a 24 year life cycle and are just getting old. Agency reports say that replacing the entire fleet with similar automobiles would cost $ 4.2 billion. Is replacement the only option?

Article Resource: U.S. Postal Service looking for car replacement By Car Deal Expert

LLVs Postal Service

LLV stands for Long Life Automobiles and is the kind of truck the Postal Service uses. The trucks had a 24 year life cycle. That 24 year lifecycle is coming to a close. The Postal Service Inspector General explained that, over the next eight years, the Postal Service would spend more repairing the cars than replacing them.

The price of repairing all of the USPS vehicles

In 2009 alone, the Postal Service spent $ 524 million on LLV repair. Generally, repairing the automobiles instead of replacing them has been a good financial decision. The average repair bill for each LLV is about $ 5,600, with some repair bills going as high as $ 40,000. The vehicles don’t generally require any kind of specialized maintenance, though the right-handed driving setup can cause more expensive maintenance at times.

How to replace the LLV fleet

The cost to benefit comparison of continuing to repair the LLV fleet is quickly turning upside down. In the next eight years, the postal service will really lose money if it repairs rather than replaces any cars that have a repair bill that cost a lot more than $ 3,500. It would cost $ 30,000 per truck for straight across replacement.

Trying to test alternatives for Postal Service vehicles

New alternatives for the Postal Service are being researched. The USPS has offered a $ 50,000 reward to firms for providing a working prototype of a USPS automobile by August. Letter carriers in numerous other areas are testing three-wheeled electric vehicles, bicycles, and also some more traditional minivan-style vehicles for delivering the mail, rain or shine.



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