I understand why the airlines have in house maintenance but wonder why USPS does not. Are LLVs particularly hard to work on? Is this a cost effective practice?

Our local post office does in-house maintenance and repairs. In fact , I have seen our Postmaster changing a starter on a USPS vehicle on the side of the road. I suspect that decision is made by the local postmaster.

Its not difficult, the problem is waste disposal. Joe's oil shack doesn't have the same requirements as the USPS for used oil and the like. It becomes a hazmat issue for USPS.

They do, and it's constant on +30 year old trucks that are driven everyday.

Some of the larger offices do have in house maintenance.

usps has a VMF, Vehicle Maint Facility in RVA, surely in other major cities as well

I always assumed it was done "in-house," not at the little post offices, but in a larger one or some kind of central or regional facility. No mail vehicle ever came into any of the shops I worked in.

My mailman drives his own Jeep.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

LLVs

Grumman Long Life Vehicle.

One of the few USPS items that lived up to it's name.

As to the OP, the maintenance depends on a few factors:
1. Location. The USPS has maintenace facilities near it's major facilities. In more spread-out or rural areas, it may be less expensive to contract out that it would be to transport the disabled vehicle.
2. Ownership. Some if the LLVs are actually privately owned by the rural carier, and are not allowed to be repaired in the USPS facilities. They are supposed to be marked as "rural Mail carriers" but that does slide a bit as enforcement is questionable.

quote:

Ownership. Some if the LLVs are actually privately owned by the rural carier, and are not allowed to be repaired in the USPS facilities. They are supposed to be marked as "rural Mail carriers" but that does slide a bit as enforcement is questionable..

Correction. LLV's cannot be legally purchased by anyone, including USPS employees.

Any that are "on the road" in private hands are hen's teeth and have been obtained unofficially (against USPS policy).

Second, there is no "requirement" for RCA or RRC to have "Rural" markings on a vehicles, but are encouraged to have USPS markings that may include "Rural", as well as flashing amber/amber-white flashing lights and any other signage to help be visible.

(This is not an Official USPS position/policy message...)

Interesting. I know that there was a number sold back before the life extension policy was enacted.
I know of 2 rural carriers that own them (vs converting their car to right hand drive). They look identical to regular llv except for the license plate being a real plate and the ID number at the top being painted over.

Our local fleet consists of non-conventional USPS vehicles like right hand drive Toyota Previas. I can only imagine that with these civilian vehicles that they probably have a contract with a local maintenance shop.

My first LE agency had a full maintenance facility, but my second, which was much smaller, had agreements with one oil service shop, one tire shop, and a couple of higher level maintenance shops. It is very possible, like with my two LE agencies, it may depend on the size of the USPS facility.

My favorite comment was "driving an LLV at 90 mph must feel like re-entering from orbit".

haven't watch Regular Car Review for a while. And the old privately owned CJ7s carriers were always head turners. Still safer than my 72 VW bus (former airport shuttle).

My understanding is that USPS workers are not to drive LLVs on the interstate.

Our small town has a local auto repair shop, do basic maintenance, anything serious they send a truck and trailer up from Wichita to haul it to the USPS facility. My mailman has one of the newer Ram Promasters. 4000 miles the front tires were smooth as glass, same rear tires looked like new. That thing must be hard on front tires.

The Pro-Master vans are front-wheel drive, so the tires get a lot of wear. Depending on what the vehicle is used for, there could be very little weight in the rear, so the rear tires last much longer.

My office is serviced both by VMF, located in Marin County, and a local repair shop that has a contract to service the offices in Sonoma County. The local shop is a joke—they’ll take a vehicle for days or weeks, then return it without performing many of the repairs for which they originally took the vehicle. And they still charge for all the “work” they did. But they keep the contract because demand for work is so high that other shops stay away.

Even though VMF is an hour away, they maintain off-site hubs, where a couple vehicles will be kept at a local Post Office so they’re closer to the vehicles they service. My office sees our VMF guys more often than the local shop guys.

quote:

Originally posted by Calif Phil:
Our small town has a local auto repair shop, do basic maintenance, anything serious they send a truck and trailer up from Wichita to haul it to the USPS facility. My mailman has one of the newer Ram Promasters. 4000 miles the front tires were smooth as glass, same rear tires looked like new. That thing must be hard on front tires.

Those hidious things will do good to get seven years much less the thirty to 40 the LLV's have gotten!

The USPS uses retreads and after that first set wears out...lookout!

quote:

Originally posted by goingbroke:
The USPS uses retreads and after that first set wears out...lookout!

Show your proof. I drove a Pro-Master for the past 2 years and all my tires have been new, non-retread. Even the LLVs get new tires. Over the course of use, there's too much wear on the sidewalls so it's easy to see that old tires are swapped out for new ones.