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Trump targets Amazon in call for postal service to hike prices
U.S. President Donald Trump targeted Amazon on Friday in a call for the country's postal service to raise prices of shipments in order to recoup costs, picking another fight with the online retail giant he has criticized in the past. "Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
The U.S. Postal Service, which runs at a big loss, is an independent agency within the federal government and does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses, according to its website. The organization makes up a significant portion of the $1.4 trillion U.S. delivery industry. Other players include United Parcel Service Inc and Fedex Corp.
[...] Amazon has shown interest in the past in shifting into its own delivery service. In 2015, the company spent $11.5 billion on shipping, 46 percent of its total operating expenses that year. In October, Bloomberg reported that Amazon was testing its own delivery service to move products more quickly out of its overcrowded warehouses and make more of them available for free two-day delivery. However, Amazon said at the time that it was using the same carrier partners to offer the program as it has used for years, including the U.S. Postal Service, UPS and FedEx.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @06:36PM (1 child)
You're making the assumption that all shippers pay the same rates for delivering a package via the USPS. However this is not the case. USPS has entered into contracts with Amazon that gives them sweetheart deals on delivery services. Giving better rates to only Amazon means other companies are at a decided disadvantage.
What is going on now is only Making Amazon Great, Still. The country is more than just Amazon. Well, not yet anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @11:43PM
Cheap crap from China, and the yankees pay for it when they ship with USPS between them or to other countries (just in case you wondered why posting boxes goes up every now and then). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/09/12/the-postal-service-is-losing-millions-a-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/ [washingtonpost.com]