I don’t know the answer to your question specifically but I will say that many specialty vehicles have the seats in all sorts of unusual locations because of the task they perform and it is irrelevant where in the world they are as far as I know.
Rubbish trucks are a good example of this, often being drivable from either side (at least where I am). That allows the driver to better see their colleagues and bins on the roadside while driving in the suburbs, but switch to the regular position for driving to and from a landfill site.
Hi, I drove a LLV for a couple years! It’s actually so, when they stop at a mailbox, they don’t have to leave or lean across the vehicle to reach out to a mailbox on the right side of the road. It is also easier to hop out for packages, as you said, but if I recall the volume of packages was much lower when the vehicles were designed, so they were more focused on delivering letters from one mailbox to the left.
Another fun fact, LLVs are one of the only street legal vehicles in the US with a shorter front wheel axle than the back! This makes turning much tighter so the driver can pull a full U-turn on any standard road without needing a Y-turn, since visibility is pretty awful behind the vehicle when backing up. This also makes them pretty fun to drive.
I don’t know the answer to your question specifically but I will say that many specialty vehicles have the seats in all sorts of unusual locations because of the task they perform and it is irrelevant where in the world they are as far as I know.
Rubbish trucks are a good example of this, often being drivable from either side (at least where I am). That allows the driver to better see their colleagues and bins on the roadside while driving in the suburbs, but switch to the regular position for driving to and from a landfill site.
Also USPS (mail trucks in US) have steering wheel on the opposite side as they frequently stop and leave the vehicle to deliver the mail.
Hi, I drove a LLV for a couple years! It’s actually so, when they stop at a mailbox, they don’t have to leave or lean across the vehicle to reach out to a mailbox on the right side of the road. It is also easier to hop out for packages, as you said, but if I recall the volume of packages was much lower when the vehicles were designed, so they were more focused on delivering letters from one mailbox to the left.
Another fun fact, LLVs are one of the only street legal vehicles in the US with a shorter front wheel axle than the back! This makes turning much tighter so the driver can pull a full U-turn on any standard road without needing a Y-turn, since visibility is pretty awful behind the vehicle when backing up. This also makes them pretty fun to drive.
And in rural areas they will convert regular vehicles like jeeps to RHD