Some of the youth in America are starting to pressure the government into redesigning and evolving mail delivery vehicles. Odds are, most of them only know the one model, and current champion of parcel delivery, the Grumman Long Life Vehicle. Produced for less than a decade, and time proven on the road for the last 30+ years. You just can't kill the LLV.

Originally designed and built in the mid-late 80's, and well past their projected lifespan, the flawed but reliable LLV continues to run. That's not to say they don't break down and need fixing once in a while... like most vehicles, they need repair and retro-upgrades along the way. That's the argument in Washington these days.

Back in 2009, the government actually spend half a billion dollars to repair every LLV in the USPS fleet, and as you see them putting around still, they're living up to their name. You see, it would cost an estimated $4.2 billion to replace the fleet with something modern, and if you know anything about government, that $4.2 billion price tag most likely wouldn't be a drop in the pond. Plus, what do you replace them with?

Millennial are confident that modern electric/retro style is the way to go. Milk trucks built by Tesla in a nutshell. But there in lies a problem. While electric cars are a fantastic thought, they are expensive to purchase, and often more expensive to maintain. Anybody with an early-model hybrid knows all too well how much a battery pack costs, and it's not a quality matter. Even the best batteries only have a limited lifespan of cycles. And since we're talking about practicality in design, throw the milk truck idea out the window. I find it shallow and pedantic.

Instead, if we're going full-tilt and replacing it, why not bring back the USPS Jeep. Toss a dependable, long lasting, fuel sipping three or four cylinder diesel motor in it. They have plenty of cargo space, look cool, and odds are, citizens will be able to snag these subsidized Jeeps at auction for pennies on the dollar later. Still, as cool as that'd be, at $21.4 trillion in debt, the question remains of how do we pay for something like this?

 

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