USPS Testing Three-Wheeler To Replace Some Delivery Vehicles

October 2, 2008 by
Filed under: mail delivery, postal, usps 

Green lobbies and roofs, an electric-powered three-wheel delivery vehicle, a postal mini-van whose engine emits only water vapor and a new wind turbine that looks like a high-tech paddle wheel. These were a few of the energy conservation innovations featured at the kickoff to National Energy Awareness Month yesterday in Washington, DC.

PMG Jack Potter and Sustainability VP Sam Pulcrano talked to the crowd of several hundred employees, representatives from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency and congressional staff members about USPS efforts to save energy.

Potter said USPS has as a goal reducing energy use 30 percent by 2015. “We need to take whatever steps we can to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future,” he said, calling yesterday’s event “another step toward a culture of conservation here at the Postal Service.”

On display at the event were alternative-fuel vehicles, including the T3, a three-wheeler that runs solely on electricity for less than a penny a mile. It’s being tested in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona as a possible replacement for some traditional fuel delivery vehicles.

Participants also saw a hydrogen fuel-cell minivan that’s being tested, whose sole emission is water vapor, as well as a dual-fuel minivan that runs on electricity and ethanol.

Potter said USPS has identified 2,000 delivery routes that can be made walking routes, and is looking at adding to our bicycle routes.
 
Other efforts include a Utility Management System pilot project launched earlier this year that provides greater visibility into cost and consumption information for USPS facilities, allowing the Postal Service to better manage energy resources.

And USPS is testing an Aero-Cam wind turbine at the Kitty Hawk, NC, Post Office later this year.

“We’re building on a strong history of environmental stewardship,” said Pulcrano. “Every day brings a new challenge and a new opportunity to reduce our energy impact and improve our operations and systems.”

source: USPS News Link

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Comments

No Comments on USPS Testing Three-Wheeler To Replace Some Delivery Vehicles

  1. Anonymous on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 6:50 am

    2. hahahahhahahaahhahahaha

  2. Anonymous on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 10:19 am

    3. cool machine can i buy one

  3. Anonymous on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 11:04 am

    4. If the postal service wanted to go green, they would insist that the HCR used green truck, and not the junk they have on the road today.

  4. postal on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 12:15 pm

    5. what kind of volume is consistant with the space available for that bike?

  5. Jess on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 12:20 pm

    6. For 10 years I carried a walk-out. They made it a jeep job to save money. Now it can be a walk-out again, to save money.

  6. Anonymous on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 2:57 pm

    7. If they were really concerned with saving energy, they would turn off the heat in the indoor parking facilities in the winter. It would still be warm enough that the vehicles would start and allow for a comfortable environment to load vehicles. Also, at my Bloomington MN office this summer they must have set the air conditioning to about 58 degrees. It rarely stopped running all summer. You could have stored beef in there. Would have loved to see what the electric bill looked like $$$$$.

  7. jake on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 3:45 pm

    8. my uncle worked on an elec car for the post office for 25 yrs he retired 10yrs AGO what does that tell you about another study??

  8. Smirk W. Chimp on Fri, 3rd Oct 2008 2:24 am

    9. My fellow Americans; Everyone in my government is an idiot. Thank you.

    Idiot In Chief

  9. Los Angeles Carrier on Fri, 3rd Oct 2008 1:04 pm

    10. If the P.O. wants to “really” save money. This vehicle should be used to deliver our pivoting assignments. That way the P.O. really saves money on overtime and gas… Stupid idea, especially while Flats are coming presorted as well. Maybe the picture was cropped; the delivery vehicle is towing the mail.

  10. EX Carrier from Hollywood on Sat, 4th Oct 2008 7:29 am

    11. Had to put my donut down to reply to yet ANOTHER assine postal brain…ok…I see a “seat belt” ???? wrapped around over her shoulders…have the hair brained idiot who THINKS he has brains, explain a couple things to me…in a head on collision, HOW does that belt lock and keep you from flying FORWARD (provided the contraption doesn’t flip forward itself) and you smashing your face into the handlebar? Next…what is preventing you from having feet slip out from under you if you are hit of you go over rough street, and then you fall off backwards..and you neck is caught up in that STUPID belt! Then…tell me..does a BIG giant umbrella pop up when it rains to keep you dry..on the top only of course..since the forward movement will have rain coming right back on you UNDER it..and then chances are MIGHTY HIGH that the umbrella would be blown to bits in the 1st 100 feet anyway, from the wind force as you drive, or any wind nature cares to provide. Now..call me stupid, but if they THINK those LITTLE “saddlebags” on the side will hold mail for OVER 600 stops..they have rocks in the head…and how do you keep the mail dry? What a bonehead invention! Not to mention the increased injuries that will happen in accidents with OTHER vehicles, because there is NO protection ..you will be hit just as if you were a pedestrian! GEEE..maybe that’s how the PO plans to get rid of excess employees..that sure would avoid having to pay them unemployment if they laid them off….

  11. Wisconsin retiree on Sun, 5th Oct 2008 3:01 am

    12. If someone higher up has a relative working at this company, the PO will buy them. They have purchased other things that don’t work before and stuck us with them, then it is OUR job to make them work. But don’t take any longer.

  12. MoreBloatedManagament on Thu, 9th Oct 2008 1:31 am

    13. Yay!!! Our Vice President of “Sustainability” is really earning his 220,000 dollar salary!

  13. May have been born last night but stayed up all night studying!! on Thu, 9th Oct 2008 8:01 am

    14. If they want to get rid of jobs why don’t they start with the ones whose job it is to come up with these half wacked ideals. Some people in the postal service are a waste of time, money, and oxygen due to the fact that they hinder progress 100% of the time and help 0%. If you want numbers for your books try those figures out. They doesn’t add up to “good bonuses for this year” or much progress that’s for sure, but somehow those dead weights seem to hold on like the blood sucking leaches they are to a job someone much more productive should be doing, or else a job that is so insignificant it shoudn’t even be a job to start with. I know they do a drug screening when you are initially hired, they my want to start random testing for those who are already employed along with mental evaluations from time to time because the way things are ran just don’t add up to common sense. I guess it’s true….common sense is hard to come by!

  14. LA Writer on Tue, 11th Nov 2008 10:58 am

    15. I am a writer in Los Angeles who is currently writing a detective story about a letter carrier. The story does not have as much to do with the USPS itself than it does with the main character, who is a dedicated, hard-working veteran of the postal service. I would like to get in touch with some postal workers (carriers, managers, sorters, etc.) who would be open and interested in answering some non-intrusive and general questions about day-to-day duties for the mere purpose of verisimilitude. If anyone is interested please contact me at smt323@yahoo.com. Thank you.

  15. elsie on Fri, 21st Nov 2008 6:41 am

    16. This is one of the most ignorant ideas the post office has come up with in the 24 years I have worked for them. They say it only goes 25 mile an hour and for safety reasons, they will only go half that. I wouldn’t think that they would even be street legal. If they want to go electric, there are two companies that make electric vans. Smith electric vehicles, based in the UK, it gets 150 mile rang and can go 50 mph.
    The other one is Modec. It has a 100 mile range and can go 50 mph. It costs $41,000.00. Both of these vecles would be safe to drive. They also have large flat roofs that could be used for solar panels to help charge the batteries. If a carrier was on a route that was park and walk, it would probably produce enough electricity that way to not cost anything after the initial purchase. The T3 not only doesn’t appear safe it doesn’t even appear to be workable. A person would still have to use it as a park and walk or you would have serious problems with trying to keep the mail dry. Also, I do not see how it could be used anywhere that gets cold. It would be a strictly warm weather vecle. I know people carry mail on walking routes in the cold, but walking helps to keep you warm. I know, been there done that.

  16. Jim Class on Sun, 30th Nov 2008 2:42 pm

    17. didn’t they look at the SegWay thing few years back too.

  17. joe chap on Wed, 21st Jan 2009 9:50 am

    18. reading these comments from across the country is amusing because the same idiotic ideas are a constant here in mass. i dont know what to say. the carriers at my post office have made a list of some of the totally idiotic ideas management has come up with over the years and in fact we have made up some incredibly idiotic imaginary ideas of our own that have come to pass. as one person put it, “it used to be amusing and now its getting boring.”

  18. Anonymous on Fri, 8th May 2009 6:56 pm

    19. I think she’s smiling cause she’s gonna steal it!!!