Postal Letter

Why United States Postal Service's small cars have right sided steering wheels?

Why United States Postal Service's small cars have right sided steering wheels?

Public Comments

1. The mailboxes arent in the road?
2. Mail boxes are on the right side of the road I suppose. Sometimes they can just drive right up to them and put them in the box.
3. It's easier for them to reach the mail boxes.
4. so they can exit the car onto the curbside.
5. So the mail carrier can insert mail into roadside mailboxes, to the right side of the vehicles.
6. Think about how they pull up to a mailbox and deliver the mail without getting out. If the wheel was on the left they would be going against traffic.
7. so they don't have to walk around the truck... because the mailboxes are on the right hand side of the road..
8. So the driver can step out of the vehicle without having to worry about passing traffic. Also it makes it easier to deliver to Rural route mailboxes.
9. So that when they deliver mail, they can put it in the mailbox without getting out of the vehicle.
10. b/c the mail boxes are on the right side of the road. (they cant go against the traffic and be car to car delivering mail, so they put the steering wheels on the right side b/c the mail boxes will be on the right side when they pull up to the house).
11. so they don't have to get out of their trucks when they put the mail in the mailbox....
12. The mailman needs to reach the mailbox on the right side of the road without leaving the driver's seat.
13. Are the "small cars" you are referring to ones like Subarus and Saturns? Those are purchased by rural mail carriers to deliver mail. Subaru no longer sells them in the US market and I think Saturn is no longer in business, so they probably won't be making them, either. Plus, they have some Jeep Wranglers and Cherokees available in RHD (right hand drive). I think Jeeps are still available and there are some companies that import Jeeps (mostly Cherokees) from Japan back to the US to use as mail vehicles. Some rural carriers use left hand drive vehicles, but they have an odd system, where they learn to use the left foot to control the brake and gas, then drive with their left hand. The "traditional" mail vehicles used by city carriers (the white ones you see mostly in towns) are called LLVs (Long Life Vehicle) and FFV (Flex Fuel Vehicles). These are all right hand drive and were built specifically for postal use. Some LLVs have been sold to rural carriers and can be seen outside of the larger cities now.