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Comment by starkparker | Hacker News Reader

They're Kyburz DXP trikes, specially designed for Australia Post: https://www.kyburz-asia.com/delivery-vehicles/dxp-au

120kg load capacity (270kg with trailer), 50kph max speed, 50-100km range. Curb weight is 315kg, total vehicle weight is 510kg.

For comparison, the USPS NGDV requirements were for a vehicle that could carry a loaded Kyburz DKP (minimum payload capacity of 680kg in 155 cubic ft) at twice the top speed (97kph) for longer operating ranges (110km minimum), all with an 18-29°C cabin temperature range at ambient temps of −34°-49C.

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I don't really understand why they went with a one-size-has-to-fit-all solution here when there's such a high variety of climates and terrains in the US.

Or is the idea to start with these where appropriate and develop other vehicles for more extreme climates?

> I don't really understand why they went with a one-size-has-to-fit-all solution here when there's such a high variety of climates and terrains in the US.

Makes logistics cheaper if you only have one model to take care of, and since these are bespoke vehicles you'll also save on costs because the factory only has to build one variation.

Dutch postal service PostNL has a wide variety of vehicles ranging from trucks to bicycles. And as far as I know, bicycles have always been a big part of the last few miles of mail delivery here.

https://www.postnl.nl/over-postnl/pers-nieuws/beeldmateriaal...

They have all these vehicles but what's actually being used in practice in the Netherlands for last mile deliveries?

I'm in the city center of a large Belgian city and 99% of my deliveries from both BPost and PostNL are still the regular white panel vans, even though both have local sorting centers.

Well, I can't find any numbers on that right now (although I'm sure they're on-line somewhere) but where my family lives in the Netherlands it's mostly bikes. One of my sister delivers mail on one too.

Perhaps the policy is different in Belgium?

It's entirely possible that Belgium is different. PostNL has also always had cars and vans, but I've also seen them use bikes of various types for as long as I can remember. Of course before the advent of cargo bikes and especially cargo e-bikes, bikes were of course mostly limited to delivering letters, but they definitely did that. Lately they've been moving to bigger and bigger cargo bikes, presumably in order to use less cars, even for larger packages.

But they also used bikes way back when they were still called PTT: https://www.transportfiets.net/2007/06/27/postfietsen-van-de... https://i.pinimg.com/474x/5c/00/9f/5c009f57703d05c367078d55e...

But on this search, I can even spot some Belgian mail deliverers on bicycles: https://www.google.com/search?q=postbode+op+fiets

I suspect that the rise of on-line shopping has also drastically increased the need for cars then

Oh definitely! Sending/receiving large packages used to be rare. Mail ordering has existed for a while, but didn't really explode to replace nearly all of retail until the rise of webshops.

And I've seen lots of discussions about whether it's wasteful to have things delivered to your door instead of buying it at a central shop, or that it's actually efficient to have a single van deliver all of that stuff instead of having everybody get in their own car to drive to the shop. I guess it depends on whether you need a car to go to the shop or not.

In any case, there's lots of experimentation with ever larger cargo bikes in order to try to keep city deliveries by bike. Still, we do get a lot of delivery vans in our street.

In Rotterdam, PostNL delivers the mail or packages that fit through the letterbox using someone on a bike (they're usually walking their bike, but that's beside the point I guess).

Packages are delivered by a PostNL guy driving a white van (or, more accurately, a subcontractor using their own rented non-PostNL branded van, but wearing a PostNL uniform)

In germany, in my smaller city, there's the usual bigger van handing out parcels but it is complemented by a fleet of smaller vehicles (e-bikes, those super small vans etc.) handing out letters and smaller packages. They probably sort it by size or something locally and distribute it onto the vehicles. The smaller vehicles visit me more often.

Given the lack of safe bike infrastructure in the U.S. I can't blame their postal service for not wanting to endanger the lives of their drivers though, so the lack of (cargo) bikes is hardly surprising.

I think a lot of it has to do with density. In the urban areas of the US mail carriers walk, lot sizes are small (8-10m) so getting on an off a bike every 30 seconds doesn't make much sense. In the rural areas it could me a mile or more between houses. They both can use the same truck, in urban areas they just park it in a central location and refill their bag as needed then drive it back to the shop when done.

I agree I was in a very very humid jungle like atmosphere near Cambodia and certain EV cars work better in this environment than others where u can adjust certain parameters so that humidity doesnt wear and tear certain components

Wow that is faster than I expected since they are 3 wheeled. Honda stopped producing 3 wheeled trikes because they were far too easy to tip over during cornering and many people died. These things look like they could do the same if not careful. I hope they give employees lots of training.

Yeah the weight distribution looks like it's pretty top-heavy when fully loaded, doesn't it? And it's not like it's a Carver that compensates for all of that whenever you take a turn (sadly), so I'd be very cautious while driving it.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK4wzBYmTIo

[1] https://www.carver.earth/en/

It looks like the battery is in the bottom of the vehicle. Since batteries are really heavy I assume the weight distribution won't be too bad.

I can say they do give Australia Post riders lots of training.

I have a relative who did rider and driver training for learners. As well as the general public, they also ran Australia Post training courses which were large, regular, and took a lot of time.

Why does that need to be specially designed? It looks general purpose to me!

I heard of state tenders where they basically have some minimum requirements that have to be met and otherwise choose the cheapest option. For a large amount of vehicles it is probably cheapest to design one that meets all the minimum requirements exactly.

When Seattle started with light rail, they ordered custom cars that were "specially designed for the Pacific Northwest". Nobody was ever able to explain what was special about the PNW and light rail cars. But hey, it cost a lot of money!

There were two major differences from the stock Kinkisharyo cars, one technical, one political:

- Most North American light rail systems use 750V electrification, Sound Transit used 1500V to reduce the number of substations.[1]

- The cars arbitrarily had to be assembled at Boeing in Everett "because of a 'Buy American' requirement written into the Kinkisharyo International contract ... Federal grant money is being used to help pay for the light-rail fleet, which means a percentage of the rail cars must be built in the U.S. and that final assembly must take place in Sound Transit's service district".[2]

Seattle's cars also used 70% low-floor access for ADA accessibility and included more bike racks, which isn't unique now but were both relatively novel at the time.[3]

1: https://web.archive.org/web/20150924022530/http://www.global...

2: https://web.archive.org/web/20070524112643/http://www.herald...

3: http://www.kinkisharyo.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/S...

Yeah they use bikes in Switzerland but the temperature range (at least in The Valley part and not the mountains) is pretty narrow compared to the US. Basically -5C to 30C

> Reliable deliveries with all-weather protection. The roof over the DXP AU provides great visibility and protection against the wind and rain.

Calling BS on this. Anything more than a light drizzle (or any kind of wind + rain combo) and that driver is getting wet.

You know they have to get out to deliver letters and parcels? They have a solution and it's called a rain coat.

True, but full cover would probably reduce the amount of exposure from, say, 80% to 10%, during a bad day.

> They have a solution and it's called a rain coat.

So you're agreeing with previous commenter that the description is incorrect?

Additional protection would keep them 99% dry instead of 90% dry even in a storm. Right up to the point where they have to deliver a letter, where they would be 0% dry.

It's more important to be able to get in and out easily.

I'm wondering whether you agree with the commenter that the claim about the vehicle in this regard is likely exaggerated.

"Protection" does not mean absolutely proof against. But even more, "calling BS" implies that the statement is not just wrong, but deceptive, and I completely disagree with that premise. (Which is additionally a claim it would be idiotic for them to make for an occupant likely wearing a rain coat.)

I feel like being pedantic for a moment. Our suburban posties don't get off the bike to deliver the letters, they ride up alongside the letterbox and deliver the letters right from the vehicle, as can be seen in the link in the GGP comment. They also deliver small parcels that will fit in a standard letterbox.

You are quite right though, as soon as the rain starts, they're in full wet gear. Bright yellow, you can't miss them.

Suburban parcel delivery is specifically taken care of by Startrack, an Auspost subsidiary, usually in a trusty Toyota Hiace van.

Photo for reference. If it rains they're ready.

https://kagi.com/proxy/Australia-Post-trials-three-wheeled.j...

Sure. They used to use motorcycles though. So the comparison is a little more favourable against a postie bike

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