For more than 37 years, the Grumman LLV has been an icon of American mail delivery. These trucks have been absolute troopers, lasting far longer than they were even designed to go. Now, they’re passing the torch to the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, which is finally getting into the hands of the postal carriers that keep America moving. There’s good news because the trucks are seemingly a hit out of the park with postal carriers absolutely in love with their ugly ducklings.
The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, or NGDV, has been a long time coming. It’s been nearly a decade since the United States Postal Service launched a bidding process on a new truck and the program has seen delay after delay. However, as the Associated Press reports, the first production NGDVs finally hit the road last month, closing the book on one era of postal delivery while cracking open some fresh pages of a new era.
Soon, the iconic Grumman LLV will be allowed to retire and in its place will be the Oshkosh Defense NGDV, which looks like something you’d see out of a Despicable Me movie or perhaps a Richard Scarry book. But, even better is the fact that, according to the AP report, mail carriers love that their trucks have finally been brought out of the 1980s, which is great because for how cool the Grumman LLV was, it had some critical flaws that were never fixed.
A Long Time Coming
It feels like car sites have been talking about the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle forever, and that’s in part because the process of creating the new mail truck has taken an entire decade.
According to the National Association Of Letter Carriers, the journey of the NGDV officially started in 2014. Back then, the USPS was sitting on a fleet of more than 135,000 Grumman LLVs and the youngest ones were 20 years old. The Grumman LLV was initially expected to service the postal service for 24 years, but these trucks have excelled in living up to their ‘Long Life Vehicle’ name. Prior to the LLV, the post office used to have existing vehicles modified for mail delivery duty, resulting in rides like the famous Jeep Dispatcher. The LLV was a shift from the USPS making an existing vehicle work to creating what it thought was the perfect mail truck for the era.
As the AP reports, mail carriers were totally pumped to be getting out of their Jeeps and into the LLV, which looked all-new, but was cleverly a repurposed Chevrolet S-10 with a snazzy aluminum body and built to survive some serious abuse. Now, the mail carriers of today are excited all over again because the postal truck has finally become a modern vehicle.
In 2014, the USPS reached out to the National Association Of Letter Carriers union, asking for input on what the new postal truck should be like. The postal carriers had a lot of input, too, as the existing Grumman LLVs didn’t even have air-conditioning for those sweltering days. Those old LLVs didn’t have much in the way of safety, either.
By 2015, the USPS got a rough idea of what it wanted and solicited design proposals from manufacturers. The USPS selected 15 prequalified companies to submit design proposals. As CNBC reported, General Motors showed interest in getting the contract as well, but it wasn’t on the prequalified list. In 2015, CNBC reported that it was estimated that the winner of the contract would see a cash infusion of $5 billion and that the USPS hoped that the production NGDV would cost in the ballpark of $25,000 to $35,000 per unit. At the time, the USPS was noted to have about 200,000 postal vehicles in use and it wanted 180,000 NGDVs to replace most of them.
That year, the U.S. Postal Service Engineering Department published a 49-page draft detailing what the postal service was looking for in its new trucks. The paper opens with:
This specification covers new commercially manufactured right-hand drive vehicles having a minimum of 4.38 cubic meters (155 cubic feet) cargo stowage capacity, and a minimum rated payload capacity of not less than 680 kilograms (kg) (1,500 lbs.). Unless otherwise specified, the body shall be constructed of any combination of aluminum alloy, plastic, or composite materials having the necessary structural characteristics to provide the level of service and life expectancy detailed in this specification. The body shall have a design goal of attaining a 20-year vehicle life cycle. The power train shall have a design goal of a minimum life expectancy of 12 years while withstanding the unique rigors of its intended use.
Other goodies contained in those 49 pages include a body designed to be easily and cheaply repaired, windshield wiper pivots engineered to withstand extended use, the elimination of crevices for mail to accidentally fall into, improved electrical systems to prevent fires, and of course, greater interior comfort for letter carriers. That’s just a slice of what the USPS wanted the manufacturers to hopefully incorporate into their designs.
Performance requirements are also interesting, as the USPS wanted the new truck to be able to cruise at 65 mph on flat ground, take no longer than 35 seconds to hit 65 mph, be able to maintain 45 mph on a 2.5 percent grade, and to be capable of driving up a 20 percent grade in both forward and reverse.
In 2016, the USPS whittled the list of proposals down to six: AM General with a powertrain from Emerald Automotive; Karsan with bodywork by Morgan Olson; Oshkosh Defense with powertrain by Ford; Workhorse with a body by VT Hackney; Mahindra; and Utilimaster. All were all given contracts to build prototype NGDVs, which were put through abusive testing. When the bid for a new postal truck launched the USPS estimated the trucks would be on the road by 2018. Yet, the postal service didn’t even get the prototypes until 2017.
Competition was fierce, but as Emerald Automotive suggested in a 2022 piece by Vice, only the AM General/Emerald and the Oshkosh/Ford trucks survived the testing without constantly breaking down. Some competitors didn’t even stick around either. Utilimaster threw up the white flag early on in 2017 while Mahindra managed to stick around until 2020. By the end of that year, just three were left with Karsan, Oshkosh, and Workhorse. In 2021, the USPS selected Oshkosh and Ford to deliver the mail of the future.
The contract won by Oshkosh called for the USPS to purchase between 50,000 and 165,000 vehicles, and use those vehicles to phase out the old LLVs over about a decade of time. The USPS also tossed Oshkosh $482 million to help bring the truck to final production spec.
Drama erupted after Oshkosh won the bid. Workhorse sued and then dropped the case. Later, it was discovered that the Oshkosh NGDV got around 8 mpg, no better than the LLV it was replacing, though the NGDV got that fuel economy with air-conditioning – a feature LLVs don’t have. Another bombshell landed in 2021 when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that only 10 percent of the NGDVs would be electric models because it would be too cost-prohibitive to buy more. This didn’t go over well with 16 states, six non-profit groups, a number of cities, the EPA, the Biden Administration, and more.
Each pressured the USPS with public messaging andd through lawsuits to order more EVs. The 60,000 unit initial order eventually increased from 10 percent EVs to 20 percent, to 50 percent, and then finally, as Car and Driver reports, to 75 percent. By 2026, the USPS says all of its new NGDV orders will be electric.
The trucks were supposed to launch in 2023 but were delayed until this summer. Finally, they’re hitting the road.
Mail Carriers Are In Love
As the AP reports, the NGDVs are out there and delivering the mail at last. The USPS also hasn’t backed down from its promise to make sure that most of the NGDVs are all-electric.
All of this is good news because, as the AP notes, the Grumman LLVs aren’t nearly as beloved by postal carriers as they are by myself and many Autopians. According to LLV operators, the machines are noisy, inefficient, and dangerously hot on sizzling days. As the AP notes, the LLVs are hot in other ways, too, such as the fact that nearly 100 of them caught fire last year alone. So, just about everyone wants them gone already. I asked my own letter carrier what he thinks about his LLV and he said, quote: “It’s slow and ridiculously hot.”
Sadly for the letter carriers around America, the death of the LLV will be slow. The USPS expects to have around 60,000 NGDVs on the road within the next few years and the rest of the LLV fleet will likely be retired within a decade.
The AP notes that right out of the gate, letter carriers just love the fact that you can see out of the NGDV and it isn’t a sweatbox. From the AP:
Even tall postal carriers can stand up without bonking their heads and walk from front to back to retrieve packages. For safety, the vehicles have airbags, 360-degree cameras, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors and anti-lock brakes — all of which are missing on the Grummans.
The new trucks also feature something common in most cars for more than six decades: air conditioning. And that’s key for drivers in the Deep South, the desert Southwest and other areas with scorching summers.
“I promise you, it felt like heaven blowing in my face,” Stonum said of her first experience working in an air-conditioned truck.
Others just love the fact that the new trucks don’t kill your back or break down from the AP:
Richard Burton, another driver, said he appreciates the larger payload area, which can accommodate bigger packages, and the fact that he doesn’t have to crouch, helping him avoid back pain. The old trucks also had a habit of breaking down in traffic, he added.
Brian Renfroe, president of the National Letter Carriers Association, said union members are enthusiastic about the new vehicles, just as they were when the Grummans marked a leap forward from the previous old-school Jeeps. He credited DeJoy with bringing a sense of urgency to get them into production.
“We’re excited now to be at the point where they’re starting to hit the streets,” Renfroe said.
There’s more to love, too. The ICE trucks have a Ford EcoBoost 2.0-liter four making 250 HP and 206 lb-ft of torque, which means they can run circles around the archaic LLVs. An eight-speed transmission backs that engine and it’s expected that there will be both 2WD and 4WD variants of the NGDV. Most of them will have a Bosch electric motor with 200 HP of peak output and 94 HP of continuous output. These will be fed from 94 kWh batteries and they will be operated on routes no further than 70 miles.
Sadly, it’s not all good news. The 2022 NGDV order called for the procurement of 50,000 units at a price of $2.98 billion. Neither Oshkosh nor the USPS has given exact pricing on the NGDVs, but if that order is anything to go off of, the NGDVs came in at far more expensive than originally projected.
Still, if letter carriers are happy, and it sounds like they are, then it’s probably money well spent. These trucks are totally function over form, in an endearing way, and they’re delivering the mail far better than their predecessors. Maybe, one day the NGDV will be as much as a mail icon as the LLV.
(Images: USPS, unless otherwise noted.)
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That works out to $60k/truck, which isn’t cheap but doesn’t feel crazy for a custom-made high-duty-cycle specialty vehicle like this. Presumably the cost will come down over time as volume increases, too.
I agree – given the dedicated purpose, lifetime, and volumes that they’re looking at, this doesn’t sound ridiculous for the first 50k. That also doesn’t break out ICE vs BEV versions, which will by necessity increase the cost both for the engineering of two drivetrain systems and the cost of the battery for one of them – 94 kW-hr will be probably $12,000 or more on its own.
Are these crash-tested & emissions certified in the same way passenger cars are?
I believe low volume cars don’t have to be crash tested, that’s why you don’t see Corvette crash tests.
Corvettes aren’t really low volume and they are crash tested – just under 54,000 in 2024.
From consumer reports-
“Most of the vehicles without ratings are low-volume models, sports cars, luxury vehicles, or large vans. The expense is too great for NHTSA and the IIHS to test all vehicles, so choices are made based on car sales volume and testing budgets.”
Also, NHTSA’s own website says the Vette has not been rated:
https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2023/CHEVROLET/CORVETTE
I also found this from a Corvette window sticker:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.corvetteforum.com-vbulletin/301×241/crash_test_ad6b41edea827303d3bb2ea02722fcf4d4c7b03a.png
Emissions certification probably isn’t necessary – the drivetrain is mostly off-the-shelf Ford bits. The testing looks like it was pretty comprehensive all around, so it likely was crash tested, but since it’s a commercial vehicle that isn’t available to the public I don’t think it has to meet the same standards as a lot of other cars.
Good for them, frankly.
I largely like the design for its practicality, and I recognize it has to be low to reach mailboxes and such. Also fewer chances for slip-and-fall accidents as well as I’ve seen on taller delivery vans.
I’m also glad that it got delayed in a weird way. Those that will have the 2.0L EcoBoost will be better served, as the early ones had some teething issues. The latest (2020-ish?) seem largely sorted, maybe even some of the older ones (the significantly revised “twin scroll” version was introduced in 2015). That said I wish they had port fuel injection to mitigate carbon build-up, though.
As for a nickname, to me it looks kinda like a tall “trucker” cap with wheels. That doesn’t really yield any nicknames, and NGDV isn’t as wieldy as LLV and FFV. Time may tell.
Here’s to you kid. May you outlive your predecessor.
I’ve seen Autopian and others constantly bagging on this vehicle’s appearance….and while I’m all for mocking ugly cars, I just don’t get it here. This is the epitome of needing functionality over style. I’m happy fewer postal carriers will be in danger of heat stroke and MVA fatalities in a woefully out-of-date vehicle.
Wants air conditioning…..
Designs vehicle with enough glass it could be a greenhouse…
?!
I get the visibility and height requirements but it seems like some of that glass could not be there and it’d still be fine. Like, maybe the entire bottom 1/3. I’m not aware of them needing crazy visibility all the way to the ground on that side… so?
And maybe tint the F out of the top 1/3, and use glass with UV blockers, or maybe even mirror it a bit? I know passenger cars can’t get away with mirrored/tinted windshields, but I think a governement vehicle designed for mail might be able to.
There’s a good chance the glass already has some laminate layers for UV ray and noise suppression. Oshkosh makes vehicles for primarily desert environments, so I’d like to think that was a “duh” inclusion.
It’s shocking (npi) that the plan originally was for so few electrics, since fixed-route parcel delivery’s an ideal use case for them.
In the Mean time USPS bought literally all of the remaining Mercedes Metris vans and slapped an Eagle logo over the Merc Badge.
“you can see out of it and it is not a sweat box” is a low bar but I look forward to seeing these in my neighborhood.
I wonder if Newman likes his?
“Of course nobody needs mail!”
My dog doesn’t approve this, how is she going to know the mail was delivered without the rattle of the mailbox truck?
Wanna defray some of the increased cost? Open up sales to the public. Everything the mail carriers like is enjoyed by pretty much every commercial outfit going. That kind of cargo area that you can stand up in screams camper rig. I’ll bet you can put seats back there for too many kids too.
Oshkosh’s site even alludes to it being available as a delivery vehicle, but of course there’s no info about such an option.
Probably would need to be the procurement manager for some company with a big fleet for them to even answer the phone, haha.
Rob Schneider approves.
I’ll deuce, er, second that. Not exactly a big allow, if you get what I mean.
My carrier couldn’t be happier. His LLV was so rattly and loud you could hear him coming from two blocks away.
I think it’d be nice to add that they were able to buy more EVs only after the government kicked in on the order of $3 billion – had nothing to do with the lawsuits. The original plan was (as usual) to have the USPS fund everything itself.
That’s only about $10 per person in the US
This thing is so damn near perfect… it sucks that they had to go and overdo that fascia. It would look amazing with some sealed beams and a basic grille.
Yeah, I don’t understand how it ended up looking like a platypus. It feels like they tried to reinvent the van and ended up with the front end of a sedan for some reason that I don’t get.
Basically the requirements conflict with beauty. The driver has to be quite low – then they don’t have to get out to put mail in a mailbox, as seen in the lede image – but the car has to be very tall – walking around upright in it is a huge thing. So you’re combining what’s effectively a car seating position and a high-roof van layout. Add to that some pretty intense visibility requirements and then you get a van with a sedan front end.
Thanks, that helps. I still can’t help but think it could be a flat front, but I’m no designer.
Flat front would push the engine into the cabin, and walking around space was a big part of the brief.
Yes, but this way there are LED projectors now, which is a massive improvement over the candle-like sealed-beam halogens of the LLV & FFV. Being smaller they should – hopefully – be less prone to damage.
I was thinking, the egg crate grill is what is wrong. The rest of the vehicle is spot on.
Disagree. It looks goofily great!
Looks like it would make a great mini-RV
https://www.theautopian.com/turning-the-grumman-llv-postal-vehicle-into-a-camper-was-a-stupid-idea-so-were-doing-it-again-with-the-new-oshkosh-ngdv/
I have absolutely no problem with “form follows function” design. That being said, I have no clue what purpose the top foot of the windshield serves. You certainly don’t need it while driving, and it definitely increases the cooling load on the new A/C, Bigger is more expensive and requires both longer wiper blades and wiper arms to clear it. I guess it helps to look out if you’re standing up, in the back, but this isn’t a city bus, either.
I think the full windshield is necessary, the distance between driver and windshield looks to be far less than in your average car, so if it wasn’t excessively tall they likely would not be able to look up to see stoplights or anything else up high.
The linked AP article has a video including a clip from inside the cab while driven. It’s not as high as it looks.
Looking at the video, the top 6″-8″ top of the windshield isn’t just tinted, it’s opaque! It hides some upper storage space, with visors mounted on the bottom. Compare the tops of the front and side windows (from inside), using the side mirror arm for reference. The only potential reason I can see for it would be cameras or sensors associated with the collision avoidance systems.
It’s a “Beavis”, by Oshkosh Defense. Tell me you don’t see it….https://beavisandbutthead.fandom.com/wiki/Beavis
I was gonna say it looks like Duckman, but yeah beavis is also pretty spot on
I was trying to come up with some clever remark about the Habsburg jaw, but this works too.