Made In The Valley - The First, And The Last, Mail Trucks

For the past two years, the USPS has been actively looking for it's next truck design. But as of  May 2020, the first standard mail trucks, and the last standard mail trucks, were designed and made right here in the Central Susquehanna Valley.

Update - the new mail trucks, mostly electric models, are rolling out in 2024. 

Read about them in an article by the Sun Gazette, here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2024/01/nelson-caulkins-photographer.html

Up until 1921, the postal service used a mish mash of trucks.  Essentially - whatever they could find.  By 1921, the 4,000 trucks owned by the Department consisted of 43 different types of trucks by 23 different manufacturers. The cost to maintain parts and train mechanics to service all the vehicle styles was draining the budget.

So in  an attempt to standardize the fleet, the postal service purchased their vehicles from just three companies, Company Commerce, White Motor Company, and Ford Motor Company.  "Of the three, it was the Ford Trucks that became the heart of the fleet".
The Mifflinburg Body Company (formerly Mifflinburg Buggy Works) was one of five companies designing and making the bodies for Ford.  In 1931, the Mifflinburg company  made over 1,000 bodies for mail trucks.

Those original trucks were never meant to stay on the road as long as they did - but with the great depression, and then world war II - bailing wire, talent, and luck kept them in service.  

In Finally, in 1950, new designs were being tested.  Many were vans, similar to todays UPS trucks, but in 1953 it was a Willys Jeep that was chosen.  Their rugged reliability in World War II made them the favorite.

The jeeps ran until  1984, when the USPS decided to set up criteria for the perfect postal vehicle and take it to vehicle manufacturers to see what they could create. There were several manufacturers who vied for their vehicle, but after exhaustive tests, Grumman, with their Montgomery Pa Plant, won with the Grumman LLV Design.

 During the height of production, the company was producing 100 LLV -  Long Life Vehicles - per day, for the postal service. And those vehicles lived up to their name.  As of 2020, they are still the mail truck of the USPS.

  In 2018 the Postal Service was scheduled to pick a new design, but the decision has been pushed back repeatedly, leaving, for now, both the first, and last, standardized  postal vehicles to be from our valley.

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Find More Local History and Stories Here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html

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