About 8 months ago, I got a handwritten letter through the mail on a blank piece of paper with one sentence: "File a FOIA with USPS for LLV truck fires." 4,000 pages of documents later, here's the story: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3ezx4/post-office-delivery-trucks-keep-catching-on-fire
— Aaron W. Gordon (@A_W_Gordon) July 7, 2020
Since May 2014, at least 407 of the USPS' Long Lasting Vehicle (LLVs) have been damaged or destroyed in fires, or approximately one every five days, according to documents obtained by Motherboard via a Freedom of Information Act request. Motherboard reviewed 3,954 pages of documents regarding the LLV fires.
The LLVs were purchased between 1987 and 1994, and each vehicle was manufactured to last for an average of 24 years, according to a 2015 USPS presentation.
In 125 cases, the trucks were so thoroughly destroyed that the investigators were unable to identify a probable fire cause. Of the remaining 282 fires where investigators could identify a likely cause, the only pattern was that there was no pattern.
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