So the USPS is getting new trucks and they look like ducks and maybe that sucks… or maybe it wucks. Like “works,” if a duck said it. Just give me this one please.
Anyway.
I don’t know how mean I can be here – there has to be something said for objective journalistic integrity – but I have a feeling most people are going to have a rather sarcastic reaction to the new design. I’m not so sure I can blame them – it has a kind of stubby little nose with a shortened hood and a boxy frame and super tall windshield, which gives the wheels a disproportionately large look compared to the rest of the silhouette. It’s sort of like a Nissan Cube but less millennial cool, which A) is discontinued (so maybe not so cool), and B) is not the car that had those giant hiphop hamsters running around, but I’m still going to link to it anyway.
Elon Musk must be breathing a sigh of relief right now.
The contract was awarded to Oshkosh Defense (which I was thrilled to find out is NOT the adorable kid’s clothing company, even though I personally think that would be hilarious if there was a factory making overalls for tiny humans alongside tactical defense trucks) and officially announced on February 23rd, 2021 to the tune of $482 million. Seriously though, someone is going to mix those up for the rest of all time and eternity; I’d never not think about my own baby pictures if some contractor from Oshkosh Defense showed up.
The release mentions that, “The historic investment is part of a soon-to-be-released plan the Postal Service has developed to transform its financial performance and customer service over the next 10 years through significant investments in people, technology and infrastructure as it seeks to become the preferred delivery service provider for the American public.” It’s called the NGDV – Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, which I happen to adore, and will pronounce as Nugduv, and you can’t stop me anyway. The old one was called the Grumman, by the way.
Some credit this as a radical change, and keeping in mind that radical doesn’t necessarily denote positive or negative, it seems like the perfect word to use here. Then there are those who correctly identify “a mixed bag of responses,” sort of like when you get a bag of candy at Halloween that has at least one thing no one likes. Some call it strange, while others defend it as something every new big vehicle should look like (this is where – as one of many – I found it called a “duck” which oh man do I love, quack quack).
We can also hit up the ever fair public opinion of Twitter, because why wouldn’t we?
This is how I would draw a car. That is not a plus for this design
I really can’t get over that last one. But I mean, whoa. That’s quite the spectrum. There’s less disagreement on pizza toppings I think. But luckily I think we’re safe there – Domino’s makes people drive their personal cars.
Taking a step back and putting snide commentary away for a moment, there’s some areas that should be discussed. First – and what should probably be obvious – there was a laundry list of requirements and restrictions from the USPS, which made Nir Kahn – design director from custom carmaker Plasan – offer up his own tweets that give some insight on dimensions and design:
I was involved in an early proposal for the USPS truck so I know the requirements well. They pretty much dictated the proportions – this package sketch shows that to meet the ergonomic and size requirements, there wasn’t much freedom 1/2 #USPS pic.twitter.com/Fk35g98Z83
Kahn mentions that “there wasn’t much freedom,” but also that “it could have looked much better,” and this sort of underlines the entire discussion I think – there were goals in place, and possibly some more aesthetically pleasing ways to meet them, but the constraints won out and drove (hehe) the design more than style did.
Certainly, there are other concerns – the ability for USPS drivers to reach a mailbox while seated is paramount. Others have pointed out that this design – with its large windshield and shortened front – should help with safety around small children (all the better if they are wearing Oshkosh B’gosh, because that implies they are tiny and may not be at all concerned with the dangers of streets). The open field-of-vision will aid in making sure drivers can navigate places that might be frequented by any number of pedestrians, so that’s a plus.
Further, if you get struck by one of these, you’ll basically “just” get kneecapped versus taking it square to the torso. The duck article is the one making this call, and I think there’s some merit there (though it makes me question how the USPS fleet is going to do against the SUVs and big trucks out in the wild). It then goes on to point out that this design has more cargo space, fitting into the idea of “rightsizing,” where the form and function of the vehicle meet in a way that is downsized, but still punches above its weight.
“From smaller fire engines to nimbler garbage trucks, making vehicles better scaled to urban tasks can make a huge difference, not only for keeping other cars moving on narrow streets, but also to ensure that humans on those same streets can access the bike lanes, sidewalks, and curb cuts they need to get around.”
I didn’t try too hard to find stats on crashes in mail trucks, but seems like something that should be addressed.
Maybe the biggest point here is that we sort of have to get new trucks – they are outliving their 24 year expectancy and catching on fire. On FIRE. I mean a mail truck might be the worst place for a fire. I’m not even sure I can’t think up a better answer… Ok maybe toilets would be worse.
The new vehicles can be either petrol or electric powered, have 360 cameras, airbags, and automatic braking. Oh, and air conditioning, which the old vehicles did not have. So yes, literally the worst place to have a fire. But due to the taller vehicles, someone can stand in them now! So escape is even easier! Hooray!
A series of delays pushed back the introduction of new vehicles from their 2018 projected date, with poor initial prototypes and the pandemic being major setbacks. Aggressive bidding led to extended deadlines, which had been narrowed down to a small list of candidates that included Workhorse (who unfortunately suffered a large stock plunge following the announcement). It’s been in the works for at least six years.
In the end, I don’t think we can discount all the advantages here – more efficient vehicles that are safer and provide drivers with modern amenities. That’s a LOT of good. I think once the initial goofy shock is over, the design will be accepted. Everyone thought Nintendo’s Wii was a hilarious name (still pretty much is regardless of being in the public book of acceptable nomenclature), and Cybertruck sales are brisk, so I think we can set a lot of this aside. The Edsel these are not.
So hey, new USPS vehicles in 2023, like an exceedingly late birthday present. All I want to see is a bunch of baby ducks following one of them around oh please let that happen. The USPS kind of has an identity crisis in the modern era, so maybe a funny little cute silly boxmobile is just the right way to get some attention.
Jesse Friedman
February 6, 2012 at 1:04 pm
If anyone was wondering about the "no-follow" issue, there is plenty of info out there talking about the value of these types of links including https://www.socialseo.com/blog/an-experiment-nofollow-links-do-pass-value-and-rankings-in-google.html – a good read if you are interested in this.
Ken Brand
February 6, 2012 at 2:02 pm
The notion that qualified buyers make their home buying decisions by visiting 3rd party aggregators is in my opinion, inaccurate, misleading and uninformed. At least in my market.
Yes, buyers all across planet earth visit the web (online real estate sites) to dream, entertain and educate themselves. When it comes time to seriously shop, the vast majority of qualified home buyers turn to a real estate agent to help them.
If the consumer has found properties online that they're interested in, they share their findings with their real estate agent, who then includes them along with other matching properties found in a detailed MLS search. Whether a buyer has visited all three of the current leaders (Realtor.com/Trulia/Zillow), or none of them, consumers rely on and expect their real estate agent to scour the well source of property data, the local MLS.
At the end of the day, hits and views are window dressing and hype designed to extract advertising and enhance your OWN listings advertising dollars from brokers and agents. The reality is, if a properly is supremely showcased in the local MLS, showing agents will include them in their showings, whether the properties ever show or viewed anywhere else online.
The excluding your sellers from our 3rd Party sites is a disservice to the seller is the same true sounding but untrue argument that newspaper, billboard, grocery store carts, park benches and magazine advertisers used to use. The guilt trip is sales spin, imo.
Having 3rd party aggregators display a sellers listing or not, does not effect the sellers selling price or days on market. Local market conditions and how the seller's property is positioned (price, terms, condition, location) relative to competing properties is what determines the seller's outcome. Of course it's the listing agents job to provide the intelligence necessary to positon the sellers property in a manner that accomplishes the goals of the seller.
As I understand it, the conversation rate for internet leads is generally in the abysmally low single digit range. If 3rd Party sites were such awesome exposure tools, the results would be much higher, wouldn't they? The "you're missing out on exposure, which hurts your seller" doesn't ring true when so few qualified buyers buy the property they inquire about.
As you point out, if the 3rd Party Aggregators disappeared we'd all be competing with each other instead of 3rd Party players. Exactly! Brokers and agents would be better served spending the millions of dollars currently spent on online position ads, zip code buys, enhancing their OWN listings and chasing strangers and tiny-tiny conversation rates, to create wow-worthy websites. If 3rd Party players disappeared tomorrow, the real estate industry would have millions of additional views to compete with and collectively millions of dollars to do it.
My 2 cents. I'm not a hater, but I'm not a believer either.
Michael Corley
February 6, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Ken, you hit the nail right on head.
Freidman can expound on the value he believes 3rd pty real estates sites provide brokers and agents, but the argument rings a bit hollow.
3rd pty real estate sites profit from the free content offered by users (brokers, agents and visitors) by selling views with small benefits to brokers.
Jesse Friedman
February 6, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Ken, you bring up some good points and by no means is there any replacement for the knowledge of a realtor. The internet serves as one of the means to find the right one and much of the time, customers are more comfortable using a site not tied to any one brokerage to start with.
This is just a discussion point. Lets say the 3rd parties were out of the game, I would imagine the majority of top rankings would then be had by National Brokers resulting in little to no exposure to the smaller firms. Obviously everybody is out to make a buck, at least the syndicators remain an independent resource for an agent or brokerage to utilize.
Jonathan Benya
February 6, 2012 at 3:41 pm
No follow tags aren't considered "Black Hat" in my book. Would I like the do-follow tag? Of course. Do I expect it? NO!!!
Let's be honest with ourselves. 3rd party sites create greater exposure. If you don't like the way they get that exposure, then you can choose to not support them, but what's more important here: Your exposure, or Your client's property exposure?
Agents have been ingrained with the concept of "your listing, your lead", but at the end of the day, is it more important to sell the listings you have or corner the buyers yourself?
Ken Brand
February 6, 2012 at 4:15 pm
I hear you Jesse, and I agree, we're all in a competition for profit. Here's another concern I have about 3rd Party players. They're in a competition too, not only with brokers and agents, but each other as well. The race is for relevance, and therefore views and visitors. The pool of potential viewers is finite, if we want more, we have to take it away from somewhere/someone else.
To succeed 3rd Party Players have to leverage disruption and destruction, they (just like brokers and agents) want to and have to become the go to source for real estate information.
I DO NOT want Trulia, Zillow or Realtor.com to become the authority on real estate. It''s already happening, CEOs for all three are routinely quoted on the National News (on and offline) as the experts in the real estate market (That's our fault, where are the Big Broker leaders; PRU, CB, KW, BH&G, Re/Max, etc., why aren't they taking the leadership role? Tsk-tsk) Consumers place more faith in a dumb ass and often wildly inaccurate Zestimate, which creates conflict and suspicion when factual and realistic analysis is presented by an informed real estate agent, than they do local experts. Why does this happen?
Because the consumer believes that an "Independent Source" provided the information so it must be true. After all TRZ isn't trying to sell anything. What the consumer doesn't know is that the "independent source", in this case Zillow, can promote themselves as unbiased and independent, and only trying to help the consumer, when it's really it's all and only about attracting viewers – accuracy, the truth and reality be damned. Although they are Independent, mostly unaccountable and perceived as unbiased, nothing could be further from the truth.
To top it all off, we send them everything they need (listings data, blog posts, Q&Q and our advertising money) to ultimately make brokers and agents appear less and less relative to real estate.
Another example is the agent/consumer so called Q&A opportunity. Seriously, how can an agent answer a consumers questions about the a real estate market in a state, city or neighborhood they've never worked in? It's sounds like a consumer friendly tool, but it's not. The consumer Q&A forums foster more misinformation, that wise advise. This practice continues because it has nothing to do with helping the consumer, it's about getting the brokers and agents (in addition to their listing data and advertising money) to add SEO in the form of content and the thin hope that maybe a contributing agent might generate a lead. It's a strategy to attract viewers away from wherever to them. So much for Independent and unbiased motivation.
I know. Shame on agents for answering questions they're unqualified to answer, and shame on 3rd Party players for pretending to help. It's an SEO, attention-getting sham for 3rd Party Players and a unanswered prayer for magical leads for brokers and agents.
It's the same play when 3Party players add all these wonderful social media share buttons so agent can disintermidate themselves by sending their audiences to a 3rd Party site. An on and on.
I don't fault 3rd Party players for their brilliant marketing and efforts to become the authoritative real estate source, I just think it's unwise to help them displace me.
And lastly, I'm not concerned about Broker competition, if worse came to worse, I could always affiliate with the winner. But you know what, I can't affiliate with Trulia, Zillow, or Realtor.com. They win by overshadowing all brokers and agents as the authority and go to place for real estate information.
Once they seize Top Of Mind Awareness at the Independent and unbiased Go To Real Estate Source, real estate agents will move down the food chain and become as important and relevant as Apple factory workers in China and the 3rd Party Players will be Apple. This has happend before, it's called the RELOCATION business – some fees are 40% now. It didn't start that way, but if you participate, you're doing all the work for peanuts because you let a 3rd Party player become the Go To authority for relocation.
Again, my 2cents. Just some thoughts on how I believe brokers and agents are clogging their arteries with hype and hope.
Alex Cortez - Wailea Realtor
February 6, 2012 at 6:12 pm
First, saying that no-follow links are 'black hat' SEO strategies is wildly inaccurate. It is completely normal and expected for webmasters to put the no-follow attribute on links as deemed necessary.
Now to the question regarding syndication and the value proposition of the big aggregators, not placing a listing on the 3 most visited real estate sites in the US is not only a disservice, but could be interpreted as negligent. Do I expect to sell a listing merely because it's listed on Zillow? Absolutely not. But although to me there's no quantifiable evidence that listing on Trulia, Zillow, Realtor, etc. will help in selling a listing, there's also absolutely no harm in syndicating.
Thomas Johnson
February 7, 2012 at 1:15 am
TRZ are just…infomercials. The Vegamatics of real estate. The brokers and MLS boards that sold their data for at best a pittanc, now realive they have been sliced diced and julienned, but wait there's more! Once they get investors' billions, their behavior will worsen as they must justify their fluffy valuations.