What a Mail Truck Means

Reflecting no political divide, most of us like the US Postal Service.

According to Pew Research, it is one of the federal agencies we view most favorably:

Where are we going? To why a mail truck is more than transportation.

Mail Delivery

The Past

As our first postmaster, Ben Franklin established our home mail delivery system. By adding wagons that traveled at night to the normal daytime routes, he cut in half the delivery time between New York and Philadelphia. Similarly, when carriers started sorting letters on the trains that carried them, the mail moved faster. Next, we took a giant step with pneumatic tubes. In cities that included Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, the new technology carried the mail at 35 mph.

These pneumatic tubes launched mail canisters:

Now

Called the state-of-the art in 1987, Long Life Vehicles (yes-that is their name) compose most of our mail truck fleet. These Long Life Vehicles have no AC, little heat, no airbags.

The Long Life Vehicle:

These were the 1985 requirements for the Long Life Vehicle:

The Future

Gradually being introduced, new trucks have arrived. The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle solves the older vehicles’ inadequacies. The improvements include air bags, AC, back-up cameras, anti-lock brakes, and stand-up storage space in the rear. Originally gas-powered, 75% of the vehicles will be electric because of a lawsuit. Whereas the LLVs averaged 10 miles a gallon, the electric vehicles have a 70-mile range.

A USPS image of its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle:

Our Bottom Line: Information Infrastructure

For a market system to function efficiently, it requires the fast moving accurate data that an information infrastructure carries. Providing that data, the composition of our information infrastructure ranges from smartphones to the mail truck and the 14,000 charging stations that are planned.

During the 18th century, speed depended on overnight wagons. Now also, data depends on overnight delivery:

My sources and more: For today’s post, Pew had the US agency research. Then, the NY Times had the up-to-date facts on the new mail trucks. However, we should note that Reuters reported that the Trump administration might cancel the electric vehicle orders. In addition, today, we included several sentences from a past econlife post.