Rural Mail Carrier seeks advice on Pruis

Hmm, I seem to recall that there is a prius chat member who is a mail carrier... the car got a little beat up, from bumping mailbox posts, I assume, but they were happy.

Start/Stop driving is where the Prius does an excellent job. I'd suggest immediately replacing the OEM tires with REAL all-seasons, or swap good snow tires with good summer tires each year.

I'd make a wild guess and say that, if you drive reasonably similar to other postal carriers I've seen, you might get by on 2 gallons of gas per 53 mile day... at $4 per gallon, that's a savings of $24 per day... or $600 per month (5 days a week and 4 weeks a month). Hmm, that's about a Prius car payment.

Of course, your mileage may vary, and other offers may apply. Offer not valid in Kentucky, Wyoming, or Alpha Centurion. See store for details.

 

Check out posts by Timm from Wisconsin.

http://priuschat.com/forums/wi-wisc...g-wisconsin-state-local-forum.html#post350783

http://priuschat.com/forums/wi-wisc...wisconsin-state-local-forum-2.html#post354925

http://priuschat.com/forums/wi-wisc...wisconsin-state-local-forum-2.html#post355935

http://priuschat.com/forums/wi-wisc...wisconsin-state-local-forum-2.html#post477636

He claims an improvement on his mail route from 8 MPG with his old car to 38 MPG with his Prius.

If you see a similar improvement you'll be looking at less than 1.5 gal per day.

You may want to try sending a message to Timm to see if he has further information he can share.

 

Re: Rural Mail Carrier seeks advice on Prius

Every time the local mail truck comes by and I hear its farty
little exhaust pipe vrooming as it hops from box to box, I think
how much better that driver's life would be with a hybrid. Pure
electric to drift between all the short stops, and kicking in
just the right amount of ICE for the longer shots. It is *totally*
the right application.
.
It might be a little difficult finding a right-hand-drive version
of the Prius in this country, though.
.
_H*

 

Re: Rural Mail Carrier seeks advice on Prius

I'm sure a mailman would love to have time to "drift" between mailboxes.

How about a Honda CT110 postie bike? These things are bullet proof but will require cold weather gear.

 

Re: Rural Mail Carrier seeks advice on Prius

But how many packages can you put on it? Securely locked against theft?

 

While I think a Prius would be great for the stops and starts of delivering mail, I wonder if it is high enough. Could get tiresome reaching up to all those mailboxes.

 

Yeah, but I think the largest issue is whether OP is able to and can get used to driving in the right passenger side seat while the steering wheel, gas and brake pedels are on the left driver side.

 

They do it all the time.

Tom

 

I'm not sure every person can. I can see how it may be much more difficult, if not impossible, for a shorter person.

BTW, is it legal for someone to drive like that? Hard to imagine that it is.

 

daisyday, I have driven my 2007 on my route for a year. My route is about 73 miles with a 10 mile round trip to the Post Office. 19 miles of dirt or something a day. The rest is part urban and part highway delivery. Right now I am approaching 36000 miles with an overall average of 42.96 mpg. Every tank of gas is in an excel spreadsheet. First thing, I haven't touched the brake pads and probably won't for another year or two. The route mileage is about 21000 per year. Gas mileage is nice, but the safety of the Prius is even better. Every box all I hear is silence. Cars approaching from front or back are easily heard and avoided. People can shout and be heard if they forgot to mail a letter. I have option 1 for the backup camera and the smart key, love them both. Other rural carriers have moved the console back to get their left leg to the pedals. I made my own conversion for brake and gas. I sit on the right and drive, buckled in, with my left hand. Your EMA might cover the payments. Mine covers payments, gas, oil, tires, insurance, tags, taxes, etc. Want to know more? And I'm Jerry, Hi !

 

I wonder if you could order an Australian spec Prius and get a permit for mail deliveries?

This is done here with rubbish collection trucks, they get left hand drive vehicles from USA. Also street sweepers so why not mail delivery? Only problem is selling it when it's time for a new Prius.

Duel control pedal conversion wouldn't be hard to do and driving instructors have it done all the time, the steering is another story.

Godiva, I was thinking mail rather than parcels.
This is a CT110 postie bike with smaller bags than the ones I am used to seeing. As you can see they have good power for a 110cc bike and they are often ridden for 70k to 80k km before sold at auction. Even after this they sell for a good price, it seems they are imposible to kill.

 

The right-hand drive models I've seen from some global importers had 50000 to 60000 miles on them. Didn't want to lose that much warranty. Rural mail carriers in the U.S. are exempt from seat belt laws if they don't have a steering wheel on the right side. The exemption is only from the first delivery to the last, then we must drive from the left side with seat belt on.

 

Lol, don't take it the wrong way, but I think that's pretty funny. Would have thought that they'd make you put a big sign on the rear -- something like the WARNING STUDENT DRIVER signs you see.

 

Most days it is pretty funny. I've had a bright flashing yellow light on the roof and signs on the back and sides of the vehicle. And still these people wonder what I'm doing on the side of the road with mail in my hand. Not to mention old ladies and gentlemen who can't bear to cross the center stripe to go around me. In a fatalistic way I am sure that someday one of these dumb-dumbs will take me out. I just can't figure out when. Jerry

 

Lol, now I realize one reason why I find the whole thing kinda funny:

When I think of someone driving a car from the passenger seat, it reminds me of the picture of Rosemary Woods (Nixon's secretary) demonstrating how she may have accidentally caused (erased) that 18 1/2 minute gap in the Watergate Tapes.

Rose Mary Woods Dies; Loyal Nixon Secretary (washingtonpost.com)

 

Tom, here's one more laugh. I did the stretch for a year, then drove right hand mail jeeps (what a piece of crap) for 6 or 7 years. My worst memory of driving from the right with left hand steering is getting a cramp in my left leg. Now you're really stuck. You have to stop, but the leg you need has a mind of its own. The pain screams up your leg, you have mail or packages in the way of getting your right foot to the brake. So you creep along at idle and try to work it out. Or your foot is on the brake and cramping while you dive for the shifter to slam it into park. In the Prius I lean left for tight turns but otherwise drive with my elbow on the console. Cheers, Jerry