By JACOB BOGAGE | The Washington Post | Published: May 24, 2021
When Philip Rubio saw his new mail truck, the first thing he noticed was the missing rearview mirror. The Grumman "Long Life Vehicle" — the U.S. Postal Service's now-ubiquitous delivery van, which first hit the streets in 1987 — didn't have a back window. It didn't have an air bag. It didn't have air conditioning. The heating system was unreliable. But shoot, if it didn't look good.
"Everybody has their own LLV story," said Rubio, a retired letter carrier and a professor of history at North Carolina A&T State University. "I think it was a morale booster for letter carriers to see a new vehicles, to see a fleet, and to see something that looked good on the street."