The United States Postal Service, beloved for its adorable dog costumes, beautifully designed stamps, and being an American tradition, is redesigning its iconic mail delivery trucks.
The new truck, which will come to a neighborhood near you starting in 2023, will be designed and manufactured by Oshkosh Defense, a tactical vehicle manufacturer. The proportions of the new design, which has a slim, low-to-the ground front hood and super-tall carriage and front window, has caused some critics to note that it looks a bit cartoonish (either Pixar or Big Mouth, take your pick). Those kinds of comparisons don’t exactly read “sophisticated.” But initial reactions aside, experts say there shouldn’t really be a controversy.
The chassis are flexible: They can work with both electric batteries or standard engines, which can be retrofitted later. The new fleet of between 50,000 and 165,00 vehicles will be a mix of both.
The tech features are great, but usability is the biggest factor in the updated design. First, the chassis: It appears to be askateboard chassisthat’s common in electric vehicles. Consider the users in this situation: Postal workers are in and out of their vehicles all day; a low chassis makes this much easier on them. That’s a great start, according to Nick Ross, a creative director atTeague, an agency that focuses on industrial, aviation, and automotive design.I asked the Teague designers what they made of the disproportionate—dare I say, dorky—look of the vehicle. “I wish it were dorkier,” Rule says. “The cues that don’t feel correct in the current design is that it is trying to be something not utilitarian.” Ross agrees, adding that the ingress and egress should be a priority for a vehicle like this, and he’d like to see it even closer to the ground, with a kneeling feature or a ramp, like the Hannah autonomous bus Teague designed.
Ultimately, Rule believes this new fleet’s biggest impact could be on commercial electric vehicles more broadly. “When it comes to commercial vehicles, they have this pathos of growling power and rugged dependability,” he says, noting that people don’t typically equate electric vehicles with those qualities. “[But] the mail truck is neighborhood-oriented, it’s service-oriented, it’s community-oriented, and it’s an icon of dependability. So there’s a huge opportunity in this particular commercial vehicle becoming electric, and that could help change mass perception of commercial [electric] vehicles. For me, it carries a lot of symbolic weight.”
Recognize your company's culture of innovation by applying to this year's Best Workplaces for Innovators Awards before the final deadline, April 5.