Lawrence Rhodes via EV wrote:
I was around when a pilot EV program in Alameda was scrapped because the postal workers wouldn't plug in the vehicles. They all died in a week. That's one story. We dismantled the chargers. Vans were auctioned off. Here is the result: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3ezx4/post-office-delivery-trucks-keep-catching-on-fire
It's a common story. USPS has donem many EV trials over the years. In most cases, the workers "sabatoged" the programs one way or another.
I got my ComutaVan due to a failed USPS trial in Indiana in 1980. Some friends and I bought four of them from a scrapyard; all basically new (less than 2000 miles on them), but deliberately disabled in various ways.
My dad was a mail carrier, so I also had his "take" on it. The union management was vehemently opposed to EVs, and the national newsletter full of vitriol about them. So USPS management basically rammed the EV trials down their throats. This created a hostile situation, where the workers *wanted* them to fail, to "show the bosses that they can't push us around".
In the few cases where management *did* get a buy-in from the workers, the trials went much better. But the problems of short range and higher cost for the vehicles still made it an uphill battle.
Lee Hart -- If happiness is on your mind, here's a daily list to find: - something to do - something to look forward to - someone to love - someone to take good care of - and misbehave, just a little -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
