One of the most iconic mail vehicles of all time is the humble postal Jeep. Ask any mail nerd about their favorite truck and the postal Jeep would probably be second only to the more legendary Grumman LLV. Sadly, America has been without a proper mail jeep for a long time, and step van builder Morgan Olson wants to change that. Meet the new Morgan Olson Kestrel work truck, and oh yeah, the postal Jeep is back. Chances are, if you’re driving one of these, you’re getting paid to drive the coolest new Jeep in America.
The Morgan Olson Kestrel was recently unveiled at the National Postal Forum, which is a thing I didn’t know existed until now. The National Postal Forum, which concluded on April 30, calls itself the “Premier Mailing and Shipping Conference” where players in the mail space show off their latest innovations. Presumably, the National Postal Forum is the most times you’ll probably hear “if it fits, it ships” outside of a post office.
On May 8, Morgan Olson went to social media to talk about what it brought to the mail show. Parked next to a Morgan Olson C250e electric delivery truck was this, the new Kestrel. People on social media were so shocked that they thought it had to be a joke or a render. But, dear reader, this ride is so very real and so awesome.
Resident postal Jeep man David Tracy tells me that this is not a revival of the iconic Jeep DJ like his old Project POStal. In case you’ve forgotten what that rustbucket looked like, check it out:
Instead, David points out that this is more of a spiritual successor to the modified Jeep CJ8 Scramblers used for postal service in Alaska.
As the story goes, sometime around 1984, the U.S. Postal Service commissioned approximately 230 Jeep CJ8s to be built for evaluation on rural postal routes. These Jeeps had a metal roof that Jeep called the World Cab and the roof wasn’t meant for the domestic market, from Curbside Classic:
CJ-8 bodied Jeeps were produced both in Australia (sold as the Overlander) and Venezuela – with both countries receiving a fixed hard top version dubbed the “World Cab” by Jeep. World Cab CJ-8s were never sold to the North American public, though the US Postal Service purchased 230 right-hand drive examples for rural Alaska mail delivery vehicles.
Those Jeeps still show up from time to time, often in a somewhat corroded state. As for the United States Postal Service, it hasn’t officially used purpose-built Jeeps for mail service since the Dispatcher was retired. Amazingly, the folks of Curbside Classic did find a DJ still in use as a mail vehicle in 2012! That’s not to say that Jeeps aren’t in use in the postal service today. I’ve seen plenty of postal Wranglers out there. But they’re not anything like this.
Morgan Olson, a company best known for its aluminum step vans, is announcing something big with the Kestrel. This truck starts life as a regular Jeep Gladiator, and everything in front of the B-pillar is unchanged. But things immediately get really cool right behind the front seats. Morgan Olson adds an aluminum box on the back, and the idea here is to give businesses much of the durability and versatility of a step van, but in a smaller form factor.
This box is apparently light enough that the Gladiator should stay close to its original weight of around 5,000 pounds. The truck’s payload is also largely unchanged, as a Kestrel can haul a hefty 1,700-pound load. Reportedly, the 137-inch wheelbase is unchanged, but the truck is eight inches smaller than a normal Gladiator at just 210 inches. Nice!
Morgan Olson says that the Kestrel is named after the falcon because it is known for “known for its precision and efficiency.” The company also notes that the box is customizable, and in addition to delivery service, it expects some customers of the Kestrel to be emergency services. Chances are, if you’re going to drive one of these bad boys, you’re getting paid to do it. The truck can even be ordered in right-hand drive.
A Jeep Gladiator Forum member who went to the National Postal Forum alleges that Morgan Olson says that the new truck will cost around $80,000, or nearly double the price of a base model Jeep Gladiator Sport S. Of course, this isn’t really a product for you or myself to buy, but vehicles that could be bought by your local fire department or, maybe by a rural postal operation.
I will note that even though the trucks at the National Postal Forum had clearly USPS-inspired liveries, we haven’t seen any announcement from USPS about these trucks yet. So, who knows if you’ll see one of these delivering mail one day. One thing’s for sure, and it’s that the Kestrel is the coolest version of the Jeep Gladiator and it’s already on my bucket list for things to drive.
Hat tip to The Drive!
Uhhhh no. High entry? Standard doors? Terrible space management? Super high load bed? Cool concept, I’m sure they’ll sell hundreds, but in general … no.
It’s nice, but the Jeep Gladiator is pricey to start with, and doubling the MSRP is a big ask. But since the postal customers who will ultimately be footing the bill for this won’t be consulted, full speed ahead!
Our local delivery route is handled by subcontractors who bid out to the USPS. The former delivery folks used RHD 2 door Wranglers (4wd), but lost the route a couple of years ago to a couple who pair up in a Nissan Titan.
I would love to see my mail carrier roll up in one of these!
Wonder why they didn’t make it out of a Maverick hybrid instead? Roughly the same utility, but far better gas mileage.
It may be partly due to the need for a 4wd platform in some locations. AWD Maverick hybrid didn’t appear until this year.
I’m guessing the cost of modifying a unibody platform, vs the body on frame of the Gladiator, is very likely a factor.
If they market the cab conversion parts they’d sell. Just seen another company makes a single cab conversion kit.
I’m pretty sure they’re using the Jtruk kit from GR8TOPS
I must have it. I WILL have it.
This thing would be the absolute cats ass for my very long, very package heavy route.
I was planning on taking a chance on trying the Slate wagon when it’s time to replace my Cherokee mail car, but this could eliminate that from the running if I could get one down to the 50k range.
Cool! Sounds like yours is the perfect use case for this!
I’ve come down from my lunchbeer fueled excitement and realized that while it would be amazing if the USPS picked these things up (especially routes like mine that have miles of gravel/unplowed secondary roads/ RIDICULOUS driveways)
I’m probably just going to do what everyone else does and get a used wrangler.
at $50k price point though you might be better off trying to build your own. Can’t imagine there is much of a chance to knock $30k off the selling price
Sure, but a guy can dream, no?
I have to grudgingly concede that this is awesome.
Bigger isn’t always better, but you can get a brand-new, full-size pickup/work van with a service body for $10,000-20,000 less.
This thing looks cool but that’s where the usefulness of the Gladiator ends.
Unless you live somewhere (ie rockies) where there are unpaved roads and terrain. Also, snow. And dragons*. Throw some proper studded snow tires on that, and assuming it has the upgraded AWD capable transfer case, you’ve got a pretty unbeatable machine for mountain roads.
*When it snows at high altitude, and rains at lower altitude, there’s ice somewhere in the middle. It’s always in the middle of a very sharp turn overlooking a crevasse or immediately adjacent the stone face of a cliff side. Thar be dragons.
That’s all nice but you can do the same with any other mid-size pickup as well. The Gladiator is the coolest looking for the job and has the heritage of previous mail Jeeps behind it, but I don’t see why they couldn’t use an extended (or chassis) cab version of other trucks. It doesn’t seem like Stellantis is cutting them much of a deal in purchasing if they’re advertising this at $80k.
I’m all for this though if it leads Stellantis to create a chassis/regular cab version of the Gladiator.
They could use another truck, but it wouldn’t look as cool and that would be sad.
Absolutely they could. I don’t think a mail carrier would be going anywhere requiring a solid front axle, and that’s about the only real difference between the Jeep and any other midsize truck. Jeep did it though; where are the Colorados, Rangers, etc.?
What do you mean where are the Colorados and Rangers? They’re everywhere.
With the box on back.
In the same place this Morgan Olson-modified Jeep is:
concept only.
As a former volunteer fire fighter, this would make an absolutely great Fire Chief or Support Squad. It would surely have beat having a bunch of random stuff rolling around in the back of a Suburban. I’d imagine a spec where you could have safety boards in the back of the utility box, carry extra air bottles / tools, a full component of tools, and maybe a quick medical packout.
Fingers crossed that my local VFD gets one of these at some point.
Nice!
No need for the USPS livery, the future is apparently random people showing up in a Hyundai Sonata at 6am on my doorstep with Amazon and Walmart deliveries. Maybe this is what they meant when they promised “Drone delivery” because those people look like they’re just going through the motions at their third or fourth job.
They probably are – companies won’t give people enough hours for full-time and absolutely suck the souls from their workers. Rough out there for so many.
The last Uber I got was a security guard on his way home from a 12-hour overnight shift. It was a 2-star ride in a smoke-filled, beaten-up Mazda6, but of course I gave him 5 stars because ratings don’t matter anymore.
My work-from-home-office overlooks the driveway mostly (and security cameras), so I usually see the delivery vehicles as they are pulling in (uless I’m heads-down in a doc). I try to get out and up the sloped driveway to meet them to shorten their path down to deliver and up to return to their vehicle of choice. I can’t think of one who was surly in the past few years.
The absolute shit vehicles that are pulling up dropping packages, with folks who look truly in a difficult situation to match, is really messing with me. The gleam and shine of the tech depends on “enabling” those folks to “work” for what must be extremely tight margins…
I must be in a different area than you as about a quarter of the drivers who show up are driving much newer Lexus’ or higher trim cars. It has made me wonder just how well the gig is paying and if its worth it for a much newer and nice car
I think you may be looking at it from the wrong end. Those people aren’t affording a Lexus due to the job. They are doing the job to keep up with the payments on the Lexus (and other stuff). More likely those people are in even worse shape than the others. Your drivers are delivering mail, food, and Amazon in order to pay the monthly payment on their Lexus or whatever because their “normal” job either disappeared or other expenses kept rising. The others with the beater Sonata likely has the car paid for and is scrounging to pay the rent. Same exact thing, just one is doing it to hopefully improve their situation and the Lexus mom is doing it to maintain her situation.
I can’t even argue any of that sadly.
I hope that in 30 years, DT’s kid will be doing a “I need to get this running in two days” on one of these.
I think you could push that to 50 years and David would still be the one trying to get the rusty postal Jeep to MOAB, with ENHRN telling the grandkids to go out and make sure grandpa isn’t doing anything the doctor told him he can’t do anymore.
David with a beard down to his knees.
Cool looking truck but it would suck to work out of. Delivering mail out of right hand drive, tall, passenger Jeeps actually isn’t all that great. The window sill is too high, openings a bit too small and the fenders stick out a lot farther than the window, making reaching the box more challenging. Been there.
Even the Mercedes Metris is better, the other vehicle we use aside from the LLV and the Metris is mostly crap to work from too. At least it has modern safety features.
The dressed this floor model in USPS livery but were too lazy to convert it to right hand drive. So much for knowing their targeted customer. They couldn’t work with Stellantis to get the parts or convert it? Even one of the aftermarket kits to install a second right hand wheel & pedals would be better than nothing.
It used to be that the rural mail carriers used their own vehicles with LHD, a bench seat and a column shift, driving from the right seat using only their left hand and foot. I occurred to me when the subject of bench seats came up the other day, that bench seats and column shifts are pretty much extinct, even in pickups where you would expect them to still be the default.
Can one of the Autopian readers who is USPS knowledgeable tell us what carriers who use their own cars drive these days?
I live in an area where there are lots of homes served by contract carriers. For awhile Subaru offered a RHD postal carrier edition and while my carrier didn’t use one some in my area did. Most recently I’m seeing RHD Wranglers. For a while we had someone who was doing ours in a 3/4 ton Chevy van. Not sure exactly how he was driving it but he was on the right.
Many years ago a guy I knew who’s wife was a contract carrier and he a mechanic so he had 3 DJ for her. The primary ride, the back up and a parts truck.
My dad lives in a rural area where the mail carriers source their own vehicles.
Ideally, they may install something like this.
Alternatively, they may make their own RHD conversion. This is less than ideal, though not as suboptimal as using a LHD and driving on the wrong side of the road with hazard lights on.
A rural mail carrier in my area here in remote southwestern New Mexico uses a diesel Mitsubishi Delica. Right hand drive, of course. Coolest postal vehicle I’ve ever seen.
As mentioned, Subaru did sell RHD Legacies in the ’90s for mail service, and you can buy a brand new RHD Wrangler for postal service today, with some dealers keeping them in stock on the lot even.
Growing up, we lived in a typical suburban neighborhood, but since it was outside of city limits, it was serviced by a rural carrier. He had a Chrysler Caravan he’d modified himself with a set of pedals on the passenger side and a kind of tiller connected to a steering wheel knob on the actual wheel. It was a total kludge, but he only used it in the neighborhoods and would jump over to the driver’s side for actual street speeds.
In my area, I see a lot of imported JDM vans for rural mail delivery, like Delicas and such.
When I ran mail on a rural route as a sub, they required us to have our own delivery vehicles, but our office had enough LLVs to cover the routes during non-season. In season, we needed our own vehicles to run the auxillary routes. But that was a decade-ish ago. Even then, they were trying to get everyone in an LLV just for insurance liability reasons.
Now my old office has a fleet of dying LLVs (failing drivetrains, even fires, are the most common issue), a bare bones maintenance budget & service crew at the local hub, and still no timeline for rolling out the replacement vehicle.
Yeah, but it’s no Studebaker Zip-Van.
I bet you have to sit down to drive this. Not like the mighty Zip-Van.
Another thought – with the exception of a RHD option, the new base Tacoma SR extended cab would seem to offer an easier (and better) starting point (no cab modifications required, and it’s built in Texas, so USA). The Tacoma also offers a higher payload and better predicted reliability.
Just one word: Slate
I agree, though it would need to be the future AWD version that Slate supposedly left design envelope room for, since the purpose of the rural mailtrucks is to have 4×4 and handle remote areas in bad weather.
That’s four words
Doubt it would be any good at mail carrying, but as service vehicle in a mine or remote worksite it would be pretty cool. Work Jeeps always look right. As for a mail carrying vehicle, I think a lightly modified Toyota JPN Taxi would be the best all-around USPS delivery vehicle.
Looks like Grumman Olson is trolling for Postal business- they must know the LLV replacement is way behind production rate and the Postal Service is gettin’ desperate. The Transit they showed next to this makes more sense, pretty close to what Oshkosh is supposed to be building and relatively spacious. The only place I can see for the Jeep is on rural routes where the loads are lighter, but having to get outa the cab several times a day to access the cargo box is a deal killer. A RHD minivan or SUV with a tray in place of the passenger seat and easy access from the drivers seat to mail behind the front seats makes more sense.
If I were in the exec suite at Stellantis I’d be on the phone to them immediately to buy a couple thousand of the cabs alone, have the skunkworks knock together some Gladiator 6 1/2″ pickup beds for them and see if there’s really a market for them.
This. So this. I had an extended cab Ranger I absolutely loved. Now everything is a full four door. I need bed length more than I need back seats.
Gladiator production is currently shut down, I believe.
I’m not sure why they kept the rear fender flares. For this use case, making the box 4″-6″ wider would seem to make far more sense (and still completely cover the rear tires).
I also question why there are two roll-up doors on each side. It would be simpler and more durable to eliminate the side doors on the back 30%-40% of the box and just use the back roll-up door.
I saw it the other day and was generally puzzled with the concept. The rural carriers get a deal every so often to buy right hand drive wranglers. It looks more like a jeep service truck then a mail or package carrier. They really just need a kei van that’s what alot of rural carriers have turned to. You can only slide across a lesabre seat so many times a day.
And people wonder why manufacturing left the US…
Help this make sense. Is it because you can’t buy a two-door, cab-only Gladiator, so you’re paying to convert a normal one to that configuration before even STARTING on the utility box?
Also, if my in-law’s Gladiator is any indication, this will be by the side of the road with engine and transmission failure by 15k miles.
It does sound like yes they are buying a 4dr Gladiator, pulling the bed and getting out the sawzall.
At that point, it almost seems easier to make an AWD or 4wd Metris.
Except that the Metris is now dead, at least in the US.
Why couldn’t the Postal Service just buy a Gladiator and put a camper shell on it? Save what, about $30k-$40k if you buy in any kind of volume?
Well the Postal service isn’t buying these at all, so……
I used to run Circulation Departments for newspapers for 30 years. If I saw this pickup with a camper top in my new job I always eliminated them. Climbing in and out of a small metal box with no temperature control is the equivalent of slave labor. Try climbing in and out of that in 90 degrees 20 times a day. This is a garbage delivery truck.
Judging by Ben Franklin standing next to it, I don’t think anyone is climbing inside that cargo area. My assumption would be packages would be accessible from the outside via the numerous roll up doors.
That also is a bad design. The ergonomics for reaching around the wheel wells are not great. The reach in length from the rear is also too long, and that gets worse if you get the version with the tiny shelves. Plus there’s the issue that you’re assuming the packages will stay stacked upright instead of shifting or even falling, which means when you open those slide doors there’s a chance they could fall out.
The DJ-5s, Kurbmasters, LLVs, FFVs and NGDVs were all designed so that boxes could be stacked and loose mail could be racked. They did this by providing rails to mount shelves and nets in order to keep mail from moving. Other pictures from elsewhere for the Kestrel show only two tiny shelves between the wheel wells and the rear door, so it looks like you’ll just be placing stuff wherever and hoping it stays put.
Proper shelving would be an extra cost option in order to keep the base price so low…
Since 90% of what the USPS delivers is basically garbage (mailers and sale papers and political nonsense), then this seems to fit the need. Seriously, I routinely dump most of what shows up in my mailbox directly into the recycle bin without even looking at it.