During most of the 24 years I worked as a letter carrier, I drove one of those rattling LLV trucks for deliveries. In the summertime, there was only a small fan to push some air at the driver's seat area. Since the catalytic converter was located under the floor area where our feet would be placed, that added to our complaints. It wasn't unusual to work in a cabin area where the temperature could get up to 110F during a Kansas summer. Unfortunately for carriers the catalytic converter's location did nothing for us during the winter since the LLVs have no insulation, the defroster/heater unit is just a little bit better than useless, and only the noise from the heater made us feel better because the driver's side window would let the great outdoors into the truck. Since the LLV was built up from a GM S-10 pick up truck frame, traction on snow is still negligible. Studded snow tires were effective some of the time when they were available but management usually insisted we use chains. Besides being susceptible to breaking, they also contributed a lot of noise. I would bet that a lot of carriers suspect that the tinnitus that they have in retirement wasn't helped by the days they had to use chains to get around.

I've seen the pictures of the new delivery trucks that are slowly arriving at post offices and they look like a big improvement. Better visibility, easier loading, and the addition of A/C sounds great but unless I'm picking up my hold mail or mailing a package, I won't be seen in our local stations.