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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 4:07:16 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by millring on Apr 17, 2024 4:07:16 GMT -5
Fairly comprehensive but seriously in need of a translator. 1. The USPS believes it is entitled to $100B from the federal government. 2. Amazon already considers itself a "partner" with USPS. The feeling is not mutual. 3. At a time of terrible uncertainty, the USPS intends to go forward with an untested electric fleet that won't work for rural delivery OR parcel delivery -- parcel delivery being the future for the USPS. 4. Watch the ballot delivery angle to be a big part of the story going forward. www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/04/15/biden-usps-amazon-aid/
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 6:15:45 GMT -5
Post by brucemacneill on Apr 17, 2024 6:15:45 GMT -5
Fairly comprehensive but seriously in need of a translator. 1. The USPS believes it is entitled to $100B from the federal government. 2. Amazon already considers itself a "partner" with USPS. The feeling is not mutual. 3. At a time of terrible uncertainty, the USPS intends to go forward with an untested electric fleet that won't work for rural delivery OR parcel delivery -- parcel delivery being the future for the USPS. 4. Watch the ballot delivery angle to be a big part of the story going forward. www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/04/15/biden-usps-amazon-aid/I'm sure the DNC has the mail in ballots all printed up and filled out and boxed for shipment. They're efficient that way.
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Post by howard lee on Apr 17, 2024 6:22:03 GMT -5
Fairly comprehensive but seriously in need of a translator. 1. The USPS believes it is entitled to $100B from the federal government. 2. Amazon already considers itself a "partner" with USPS. The feeling is not mutual. 3. At a time of terrible uncertainty, the USPS intends to go forward with an untested electric fleet that won't work for rural delivery OR parcel delivery -- parcel delivery being the future for the USPS. 4. Watch the ballot delivery angle to be a big part of the story going forward. www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/04/15/biden-usps-amazon-aid/I'm sure the DNC has the mail in ballots all printed up and filled out and boxed for shipment. They're efficient that way.
They have also transported tens of thousands of little green men from Mars to really stuff those ballot boxes on Election Day, so watch out.
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 7:29:40 GMT -5
Post by brucemacneill on Apr 17, 2024 7:29:40 GMT -5
I'm sure the DNC has the mail in ballots all printed up and filled out and boxed for shipment. They're efficient that way. They have also transported tens of thousands of little green men from Mars to really stuff those ballot boxes on Election Day, so watch out.
They don't need green aliens from Mars. They have DNC officials trained and experienced in ballot stuffing in all the polling places and ballot counting places in the country.
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 8:26:22 GMT -5
Post by epaul on Apr 17, 2024 8:26:22 GMT -5
Why do you hate your fellow Americans, your country, so?
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 8:28:02 GMT -5
Post by epaul on Apr 17, 2024 8:28:02 GMT -5
(oh, I don't hate my fellow Americans, I just hate the 80% or so that aren't like me and are just pretending to be Americans)
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 9:48:49 GMT -5
Post by brucemacneill on Apr 17, 2024 9:48:49 GMT -5
Why do you hate your fellow Americans, your country, so? Well if you mean Democrats they quit being Americans decades ago and turned Communist globalists.
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Post by factorychef on Apr 17, 2024 10:02:43 GMT -5
I have a steel building full of blank mail in ballots if you want a few Bruce.
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 10:20:04 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by coachdoc on Apr 17, 2024 10:20:04 GMT -5
I'm sure the DNC has the mail in ballots all printed up and filled out and boxed for shipment. They're efficient that way.
They have also transported tens of thousands of little green men from Mars to really stuff those ballot boxes on Election Day, so watch out.
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 10:59:16 GMT -5
Post by brucemacneill on Apr 17, 2024 10:59:16 GMT -5
I have a steel building full of blank mail in ballots if you want a few Bruce. Figured you did. We vote in person.
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 11:21:43 GMT -5
via mobile
paleo likes this
Post by factorychef on Apr 17, 2024 11:21:43 GMT -5
You had know idea I did. You are a bitter old man.
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Post by millring on Apr 17, 2024 13:04:25 GMT -5
I meant that in the sense of justifying our existence in a world that doesn't use mail enough anymore to justify paying for one of the largest institutions in existence. Mail in ballots puts the USPS back on the relevance map.
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USPS
Apr 17, 2024 20:33:05 GMT -5
Post by epaul on Apr 17, 2024 20:33:05 GMT -5
In fairness to Bruce, we're all old and a little sour.
(I just found out the Caitlin Clark jersey I paid $175 for is backordered... till Dec. And if I cancel, I lose my spot in line. Grrr!)
Time for a little Scotch.
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Post by drlj on Apr 18, 2024 7:21:58 GMT -5
I have a steel building full of blank mail in ballots if you want a few Bruce. Figured you did. We vote in person. I do that 5 or 6 times every election.
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USPS
Apr 18, 2024 9:17:54 GMT -5
Post by PaulKay on Apr 18, 2024 9:17:54 GMT -5
Speaking of electric vehicles for package delivery. Our Amazon delivery truck for our area is now an all electric Rivian vehicle. I believe these are suppose to have a 150 mile range. So I think the statement that electric vehicles aren't good for package delivery is inaccurate. I think it is probably more that the electric vehicles the "post office is planning for" are not good for packages. I would be curious to know how those are working out for Amazon though. Do they need to constrain routes to be within range, or plan for recharging during the day?
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USPS
Apr 18, 2024 11:55:37 GMT -5
via mobile
Dub and epaul like this
Post by aquaduct on Apr 18, 2024 11:55:37 GMT -5
Speaking of electric vehicles for package delivery. Our Amazon delivery truck for our area is now an all electric Rivian vehicle. I believe these are suppose to have a 150 mile range. So I think the statement that electric vehicles aren't good for package delivery is inaccurate. I think it is probably more that the electric vehicles the "post office is planning for" are not good for packages. I would be curious to know how those are working out for Amazon though. Do they need to constrain routes to be within range, or plan for recharging during the day? On first glance I'd say you're probably right. 150 miles is a healthy range for limited distribution centrally charged driving. However, I'd suggest that there are probably some caveats to that. The first is that advertised range estimates, particularly for such politically charged things as EVs, are usually pretty generous if not bordering on outright fraudulent. The second is that range in an EV suffers if it's cold. Bad winter weather could make them largely useless. And finally, an EV's inherent weakness is the relative inability to do work in the physics sense of the word. In other words, the heavier the load the vehicle is carrying, the faster the battery dies. Now, I suspect Amazon probably has a handle on that. The USPS as a highly political organization might not have given it the same thought investment.
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USPS
Apr 18, 2024 14:33:00 GMT -5
Post by epaul on Apr 18, 2024 14:33:00 GMT -5
When I started my new car search this winter, I was initially set on getting a hybrid, until I learned while the increased purchase cost of a hybrid would apply in full to me (more than full, as it turned out), the hoped for savings in fuel costs wouldn't.
There have been enough complaints up here about lower than expected mileage with hybrids that the Honda dealership in town has a Honda Hybrid Fact sheet on display that explains that owners can expect significantly lower gas mileage during the winter. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, at a temperature of 20F, a conventional gasoline-powered car will experience (on average) a 15% drop in gas mileage, while a hybrid gas/battery powered car will (on average) experience a 30-35% decline. (battery runs down quicker, takes longer (and more gas) to charge).
And it isn't as if 20F is cliff where all goes to hell, batteries begine to show a noticeable decline in performance once temps drop below 50F. The lower it goes, the worse it gets.
Well, sheesh, for me that basically meant that for half the year, that Honda Hybrid CR-V I was looking at would get the same mileage (or slightly worse, especially on highway miles) as a regular CR-V... and, in my case, with the exact same trim level (loaded), a hybrid CR-V would have cost me close to $4,000* than the conventional CR-V EX-L I ended up getting.
I would have to own that hybrid CR-V 83 years for the gasoline savings (at 10,000 miles a year) to make up that $4,000.**
* The MSPR on a CR-V Hybrid is $2,500 higher than a conventional CR-V. The additional $1,500 (in my case) came in bargaining leverage. I was able to get $1,500 knocked off my conventional CR-V while dealers weren't budging on the hybrids. The opposite. Many dealers are tending to put (unwanted) dealer options on the hybrids they had in stock, options that raised the cost anywhere from $500-$1,500 (which they they would discount slightly and advertise in the paper as "Below Dealer Sticker!").
**estimated. But it will take a long time for a mileage improvement of 4 mpg at 10,000 miles a year to cover that $4,000 initial expense plus the lost interest/opportunity on that 4 grand during the years of use. If 80 years is high, 30 years is low.
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USPS
Apr 18, 2024 14:45:29 GMT -5
Post by epaul on Apr 18, 2024 14:45:29 GMT -5
That got off track. Long story short. EV's and Hybrids are tested in ideal (or nearly so) conditions. There is a difference in range and mileage results between rolling around a test track at 70 degrees with no heat or AC running and going down a gravel road with the heater blasting at 20F. Or worse, 0F.
There are situations EVs will work well, and there are situations where they just don't.
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Post by millring on Apr 18, 2024 14:56:55 GMT -5
Speaking of electric vehicles for package delivery. Our Amazon delivery truck for our area is now an all electric Rivian vehicle. I believe these are suppose to have a 150 mile range. So I think the statement that electric vehicles aren't good for package delivery is inaccurate. I think it is probably more that the electric vehicles the "post office is planning for" are not good for packages. I would be curious to know how those are working out for Amazon though. Do they need to constrain routes to be within range, or plan for recharging during the day? Actually, the new vehicles DO take parcel delivery into account and have a sizable and accessible cargo area. My misgivings about them are much the same as my ire at the comparisons of the family car's mileage to that of the "gas guzzling" LLV (words used by an article advocating the electric vehicles). The problem lies in the fact that the postal vehicle isn't driven like the family car. Take the 150 mile range advertised. The family car goes 150 miles in under three hours. The mail vehicle will be out on a 20 mile route for three hours. Now, an electric vehicle won't be running the whole time, so perhaps a 150 mile range is going to be sufficient. Maybe even generous. I don't know. And it seems nobody asked. But, really, the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that everyone who matters in the decision making is completely overlooking the thing that made the LLV such an fantastic postal vehicle. Really, the team who came up with them should have been awarded the congressional medal of honor for outstanding frugality with public money. Yes, they're coming into a lot of criticism now -- for their condition. But think about that. These vehicles are still in service some 30 years after their manufacture. They lasted so long because they were designed to last long. I have my doubts that longevity is even in the consideration for the new vehicles. They are going to be harder to work on (the number of mechanics trained to service electric/computerized vehicles comes at a premium) and considerably more expensive to work on. They were not designed with the same simplicity in mind that engineered the LLV. The designers of the LLV kept them simple and reliant on the availability of parts most likely to remain available for a very long time. The new vehicles aren't just electric motor driven, they are also computer controlled with LOTS of additional electric add-ons that are going to go bad VERY quickly. The Post Office suffers the problem that it focuses on the urban delivery and is VERY myopic about the rural delivery. How could it not be? ...everyone involved in the decision making lives in urban areas. The rural delivery is out of sight out of mind. But, honestly, if the USPS can convince the government that the government needs to pay the USPS back the $100,000,000,000 for pre-paying retirements etc, then like the farmer who wins the lottery and sez he'll keep farming 'til the money runs out, we should be a-okay.
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