what happened to all the old UPS vans?
Discussion
Just on the search for a biggish van in decent condition, this got me to thinking that UPS vans are normally quite presentable as working vehicles go.
Now the van I was thinking of was specific to UPS with a big bulbous front, sliding drivers door etc and if I remember correctly Mercedes or Iveco underpinnings.
Does anybody know what happened to all of these vans as I have never seen one other than being used by UPS, whereas other large couriers ex fleet vehicles are all over the place!
Now the van I was thinking of was specific to UPS with a big bulbous front, sliding drivers door etc and if I remember correctly Mercedes or Iveco underpinnings.
Does anybody know what happened to all of these vans as I have never seen one other than being used by UPS, whereas other large couriers ex fleet vehicles are all over the place!
This
UPS has vans running with Mercedes, Volkswagen and Iveco Chassis. The Bodywork is done in Germany by Grumman Fruehauf under an agreement from Grumman Olson in the US.
The reason they don't come up for sale is that they are worth a fair bit for scrap i.e individual chassis and Alloy bodywork.
Also they may recycle the bodies on to a new chassis, also I think it may be to do with the "White van man syndrome" as there vehicles are easily recognisible.
UPS has vans running with Mercedes, Volkswagen and Iveco Chassis. The Bodywork is done in Germany by Grumman Fruehauf under an agreement from Grumman Olson in the US.
The reason they don't come up for sale is that they are worth a fair bit for scrap i.e individual chassis and Alloy bodywork.
Also they may recycle the bodies on to a new chassis, also I think it may be to do with the "White van man syndrome" as there vehicles are easily recognisible.
UPS vans deserve cult status.
Am I the only one to recognise the cab front section as the inspiration for the Darth Vader mask?
There are still some of the old style ones being used in our area. M & N Reg ones but in amazingly good condition. One of the drivers told me that they go back to a works to be recyled/rebuilt just like the London Routemasters.
All the ones I have seen close up are on Mercedes chassis.
Lovely story, but sadly I notice that all their vehicles newer than 2 years old are just LWB High top Sprinters.
Am I the only one to recognise the cab front section as the inspiration for the Darth Vader mask?
There are still some of the old style ones being used in our area. M & N Reg ones but in amazingly good condition. One of the drivers told me that they go back to a works to be recyled/rebuilt just like the London Routemasters.
All the ones I have seen close up are on Mercedes chassis.
Lovely story, but sadly I notice that all their vehicles newer than 2 years old are just LWB High top Sprinters.
This is my current steed aka Dirty Gertie
Mercedes running gear with a custom built body by Spier GMBH of Germany, There is plenty of these still about but they have been mostly been moved out to the country due to emissions regs in cities, London for example meant all the P80'/P75's had to be replaced by LEZ compliant vehicles.
You wont find them for sale anywhere, UPS run them into the ground to get their moneys worth, each vehicle due to them being custom built to UPS's specification costs close to £60k and they are built only for UPS, you wont find any other company using them, In Europe anyway. In the US they are readily available off the shelf as a list vehicle.
At the end of their life they are indeed scrapped, the bodies as someone said are all aluminium and as such don't rust, another reason they keep going for so long. They are routinely resprayed every few years as the brown does fade over time. UPS dont sell their vehicles mainly due to the image, if someone were to have a bad accident in an old UPS truck then despite it not being owned by them or having the name on it people will still associate it with UPS. Same reason when the Sprinters etc are sold off they are stripped of their internal shelving and resprayed white. UPS is very protective of its image and go to some quite extreme lengths to protect it.
That said however, i have seen a few very old ones converted into campers, these are dated from around 1980 and are LHD so probably came from Germany and weren't owned by UPS.
A guy at work noticed one in Oxford not so long ago
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=godstow&...
Mercedes running gear with a custom built body by Spier GMBH of Germany, There is plenty of these still about but they have been mostly been moved out to the country due to emissions regs in cities, London for example meant all the P80'/P75's had to be replaced by LEZ compliant vehicles.
You wont find them for sale anywhere, UPS run them into the ground to get their moneys worth, each vehicle due to them being custom built to UPS's specification costs close to £60k and they are built only for UPS, you wont find any other company using them, In Europe anyway. In the US they are readily available off the shelf as a list vehicle.
At the end of their life they are indeed scrapped, the bodies as someone said are all aluminium and as such don't rust, another reason they keep going for so long. They are routinely resprayed every few years as the brown does fade over time. UPS dont sell their vehicles mainly due to the image, if someone were to have a bad accident in an old UPS truck then despite it not being owned by them or having the name on it people will still associate it with UPS. Same reason when the Sprinters etc are sold off they are stripped of their internal shelving and resprayed white. UPS is very protective of its image and go to some quite extreme lengths to protect it.
That said however, i have seen a few very old ones converted into campers, these are dated from around 1980 and are LHD so probably came from Germany and weren't owned by UPS.
A guy at work noticed one in Oxford not so long ago
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=godstow&...
Found this thread whilst trying to work out what my local UPS van actually is! It looks like the old ones with a sliding door at the front and a big box section behind, but it's got a Mercedes badge on the front and is a 62-plate, being registered in 2012. It's pretty big, and looking up the registration number revealed it's a 4249cc diesel with 129bhp.
It looks pretty cool, but surely it costs a bomb to run compared with the Sprinter-sized things that all the other couriers seem to use? I'll have to ask the driver about it next time he delivers something.
Such a model is not listed on the Benz website.
It looks pretty cool, but surely it costs a bomb to run compared with the Sprinter-sized things that all the other couriers seem to use? I'll have to ask the driver about it next time he delivers something.
Such a model is not listed on the Benz website.from wiki
When UPS ground vehicles reach the end of their useful service life and are no longer roadworthy (typically 20–25 years or more, but generally when the body's structural integrity is compromised), they are almost always stripped of reusable parts, repainted in household paint to cover up the trademark, and then sent to the scrapyard to be crushed and broken up. The only exception to this policy is when a package car is repainted white for internal use, usually at a large hub. Prior to scrapping, UPS trucks and trailers are assigned an ADA (Automotive Destruction Authorization) number and must be crushed under supervision of UPS Automotive personnel, which records the vehicle's destruction, as UPS does not re-sell any of its ground vehicles.
When UPS ground vehicles reach the end of their useful service life and are no longer roadworthy (typically 20–25 years or more, but generally when the body's structural integrity is compromised), they are almost always stripped of reusable parts, repainted in household paint to cover up the trademark, and then sent to the scrapyard to be crushed and broken up. The only exception to this policy is when a package car is repainted white for internal use, usually at a large hub. Prior to scrapping, UPS trucks and trailers are assigned an ADA (Automotive Destruction Authorization) number and must be crushed under supervision of UPS Automotive personnel, which records the vehicle's destruction, as UPS does not re-sell any of its ground vehicles.
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