As the title states, I've got the opportunity to work for the post office but I've got to provide my own delivery vehicle. Part of me is like "ooooh oohh, perfect excuse to import some early 90's RHD goodness and use it.(or even some later rhd machine with a us equivalent)" but another part of me is questioning the longevity of that career move. I recently started back to school for electrical engineering. Both end up at about the same pay level in about 4 years or so. One has a retirement system, the other has a pay your own retirement system. (note either way, I'm finishing the degree this time)
Anyone have some insight on it?
I know new JEEP Wranglers can be ordered with RHD just for this purpose.
Is there any way you can apply for a cca position? They really treat the rural carriers uhh, bad! It would be worth any extra commute.
Appleseed said:
I know new JEEP Wranglers can be ordered with RHD just for this purpose.
Everything I've read has it that Jeep is no longer doing this. Otherwise yes, that's the road I would go.
tooms351 said:
Is there any way you can apply for a cca position? They really treat the rural carriers uhh, bad! It would be worth any extra commute.
Agreed but CCA positions don't really open around here. Believe me. I've looked.
Fueled by Caffeine said:
https://www.postalrhd.com/
Haven't seen that one yet. The one in KS for a pair of XJ's for 4k seems worth looking into. The RHD "conversion kits" scare the bejezus out of me. Looks like knee and leg pain if you're ever in an accident, and the idea of a V belt with no tensioner providing your steering.... "Janky, sketchy... " I've driven some questionable vehicles, but those just bug me.
Thanks to a favorable currency exchange rate right now you can pick up mid 90's Land rovers in Aus for ~4k. Getting them stateside is another issue. 2-4k a vehicle is what I've heard, and I'm wondering if I could get a pair into a shipping container and get it to Jax/miami/NC easy enough for not much more. Sell off one, or keep it for a back up and still be them for less than a 10 year old jeep with over 200k on it. Less mileage, legendary go anywhere ability, and on the upside of the bell curve for value instead of the downside.
codrus
UltraDork
10/1/18 3:49 p.m.
If you do take the job, my vote is for a RHD R32. :)
codrus said:
If you do take the job, my vote is for a RHD R32. :)
You and me both! though I've always had more love for the R33. Better lines IMO
That' cool, I just wanted to make sure you knew the difference. Every office is different so if there is a lot of rural routes up there it could be just as good as CCA, good luck!
our mail lady drove a personal vehicle. it varied from time to time but mostly it was just some cheap beater camry or something with a bench seat, she'd sit on the right and drive with her left leg and arm basically.
Cadman5
New Reader
10/1/18 7:40 p.m.
My son in law was a rural route carrier for 3-4 months and finally quit because they are treated horribly. Other people I have spoken to say that is the culture in the Post Office. The rural carriers have a route they are expected to finish regardless of how long or how much mail is involved, with no additional pay above their base. They are routinely short of carriers so all of the routes are too long and have too much mail for an 8 hour shift. When questioned, the supervisors just tell them to suck it up. I advise anyone I talk to about it to RUN away.
tooms351 said:
That' cool, I just wanted to make sure you knew the difference. Every office is different so if there is a lot of rural routes up there it could be just as good as CCA, good luck!
Yeah, I'm about a hour out from Tampa, and while there are some city routes around here, they rarely come open. (even cca positions are rare) Even in Tampa proper A LOT of routes are still "Rural".
I bet you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two. Management gets their monies worth out of rural and they are less maintenance than city carriers. Though I haven't carried on 12 years I doubt that has changed. If you have any postal questions feel free to ask, I'm in St Pete.
Our rural carrier used to drive their personnel vehicles. Now they drive the postal vans.
Probably frowned on now days, but as a kid they used Ford wagons with a RHD wheel bolted in and chained to the stock left hand wheel. I couldn't get into the pedals though.
In Fueled by Caffine's post, I'd go for the RHD Subie. If this gig doesn't work out, someone will buy that.
Dan
SVreX
MegaDork
10/2/18 7:25 a.m.
There is no way I would spend $4K or more to buy my way into a job that may or may not work out, and could then leave me with a car that was hard to unload.
Take the job. Drive something automatic with a bench seat. See how the job works, then take it to the next level.
In reply to SVreX :
Yeah, but automatic with a bench seat get's 13mpg rolling down the highway, not to mention is fricken HUGE.
That said, it's the route I will go. IF I take the position. I'm already working weekends for them driving their vehicles. I've got time to make the decision.
Having been involved with vehicle importation in a past job, the only NON-US certified RHD vehicles really coming in are, late 90's Jeep Cherokees.
Aside from that and a few RHD vehicles which were certified to US standards(Wranglers here and there, some Subaru Legacys), you are going to be looking at 25 years old to get past petitioning and conforming a vehicle and the costs associated ($X,XXX range if petitioning, conforming varies depending on whats needed). The petition process is expensive and it would have to be proven that the vehicle structures are the same as a US certified vehicle. If you go too new you have advanced airbag systems which would have to be retrofit in (not to mention TPMS and other required systems).
This is why you will see a lot of 1993 and older cars on the postal RHD sites.
Mr. Lee said:
In reply to SVreX :
Yeah, but automatic with a bench seat get's 13mpg rolling down the highway, not to mention is fricken HUGE.
That said, it's the route I will go. IF I take the position. I'm already working weekends for them driving their vehicles. I've got time to make the decision.
Chevy Impala or Buick Century would be pretty easy to find with a bench seat. It's not just trucks, at least not if you count split benches. Just get the two halves lined up.
Mr. Lee
UberDork
10/2/18 10:02 a.m.
In reply to Apexcarver :
Hence why I was looking at early 90's 4runners/land cruisers to bring over. Asking prices for stateside models with diesel motors are on the silly side, and they've got reputations for running for a good long while.
Currently this is all hypothetical, and educational at this point.
I was recently a CCA In the Ghetto of L.A. It was the worst job I ever had. I would never recommend it to anyone but if you must, its a job and could probably work anywhere there is an openng.
I have also converted quite a few vehicles to RHD for the job. Most of the kits were from a place called Postal Things
https://www.postalthings.com/right-hand-drive-kits
A couple were hand made.
25 years ago my wife was an RCA in New Mexico, she really liked the job (small PO, 85-mile route in the country, 400 addresses, very little traffic. Met the truck at 5:30 am, sorted the mail, delivered, home by 3 pm) because the people she worked with were nice and there wasn't a lot of other opportunities in that economically depressed area(all of her earnings, and a good bit of mine, went straight into our retirement house fund, which allowed us to move to rural Colorado in 1999). Fot her job we got a used Taurus for cheap and it worked well, big, around 17 - 20 mpg, bench seat, automatic. She is tall with long legs, so driving from the right side with one hand and foot wasn't difficult, the USPS trained you.
