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Comment by tduberne | Hacker News Reader

One requirement seems to be that the driver can access the mailbox without leaving the vehicle. So the equivalent in Europe would be the bikes (or, nowadays, electric scooters) that are used to deliver mail. They are typically specifically designed for the postal service.

So it might be less different than it seems at first.

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I believe that this is the only correct response to this question.

In the UK, we have letterboxes in our front doors. Nobody can drive up to them (mine is up two flights of steps!). So, last-yard post delivery is done on foot, and vehicles are used to deliver the postmen (and in urban areas, postmen will travel from the delivery office by foot or bicycle). The vehicles can thus be normal vans.

In the US, they have mailboxes on posts by the kerb. Postmen can drive right up to them to deliver the post. There, it makes sense to have specialist vehicles.

I suspect Sweden and Spain are like the UK, and not the US, in this respect.

> I suspect Sweden and Spain are like the UK, and not the US, in this respect.

Not really. The country side in Sweden at least have mailboxes on the kerb for everyone, it's really common. And the mail workers still seem to manage dumping the mail into there without leaving the car, without having a specialty designed car for it.

Same thing with the Swedish cars. That's why they're right hand drive unlike other cars.

https://cdn.arbetet.se/app/uploads/2016/04/09235113/01-Brevb...

I'm wondering- Sweden drove on the left until relatively recently (they switched in 1967), even though most cars were left-hand drive. Did this mean that the Swedish postal service was more likely to be set up for mail to be delivered without the carrier having to get out of their car- as they would probably be driving an LHD car on the left anyway?

Where I grew up, the rural mail carriers drove their own vehicles. Ours drove his (Subaru wagon I think) from the middle of the bench seat - gas and brake with the left foot.

Some others in the area imported RHD vehicles.

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