I've never understood the usefulness of vans or sprinters in our industry. As a former Home delivery driver and a current UPS driver, I can bare witness that a "real" package car is about 1000x better to use for delivering packages than vans or sprinters.
well, they(
Express) are going to be lighter with smaller boxes/envelopes/bags... but couldn't they just used up-fitted domestic cargo vans instead? the mpg of those diesel-powered sprinters really outweigh the maintenance costs (parts from Mercedes Bens ~ 3 times > Ford/GMC parts)
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Agrees that with a real step-van setup, your day is so much more efficient; i was under 9 hours the whole past month when put into a standard step-van setup with sliding side doors/ bulkhead door...
as for the newer Ford E450 chassis with Utilimaster bodies... i just calculated the MPG of those gas engines.
it was a whopping 7-8 MPG! now vs the Isuzu Reach or Mercedes/Freightlinger Sprinter's mpg, for a contractor, was it still feasable to get these vans ???
I knew it was cheaper; a few contractors can buy 2 of them vs one Reach... and i guess the local mechanics already worked on thousands of Ford/GMC vehicles to have less down-time...
I'm small enough to squeeze between the shelves of the sprinter & when on a rural route with less than 120 stops, it's sufficient... but lately the sprinters & upfitted GMC vans i saw on my terminal are being "bricked out" like a boxtruck & the pass-thru bulkhead will stay closed, making these vehicles less efficient than a standard box-body vehicle.