How about USPS stop twice-daily and Saturday mail delivery? I don’t know if it’s still the case in the US but a few years ago I was visiting my sister in CA and they had Saturday regular mail delivery. Cutting that would cut USPS overhead costs by at least 10%.
What sorcery is this?
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'Sir -
I believe the inhabitants of London are under the impression that Letters posted for delivery within the metropolitan district commonly reach their destination within, at the outside, three hours of the time of postage. I myself, however, have constantly suffered with irregularities in the delivery of letters, and I have now got two instances of neglect which I should really like to have cleared up.
I posted a letter in the Gray’s Inn post office on Saturday at half-past 1 o’clock, addressed to a person living close to Westminster Abbey, which was not delivered till 9 o’clock the same evening; and I posted another letter in the same post office, addressed to the same place, which was not delivered till past 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Now, Sir, why is this? If there is any good reason why letters should not be delivered in less than eight hours after their postage, let the state of the case be understood: but the belief that one can communicate with another person in two or three hours whereas in reality the time required is eight or nine, may be productive of the most disastrous consequences.
I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
7 May,
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Oh, I know it’s possible. I just didn’t think the USPS had done it in living memory.
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The USPS is going to run its routes whether it’s carrying Amazon packages or not. Amazon helps subsidize their fixed costs.
But possibly not for long.
" Amazon Has a Business Proposition for You: Deliver Its Packages
…One of Amazon’s test participants in its new offering, Olaoluwa Abimbola, said that after arriving from Nigeria, he spent years working at a desk job and, more recently, driving for Amazon Flex. Now, he said, he was excited to be running his own company, which has 40 full- and part-time employees.
“This means the world to me,” Mr. Abimbola said in front of a gray Amazon Prime truck behind the Admiral’s House. “This opportunity provides a future for my family, for my daughters. I’m living my dream and having the time of my life.”
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Meanwhile, in Canada:
“Since 2007, the peak point of mail volume, the Crown corporation has seen the inflation-adjusted cost of each unit of mail delivered increase by 19 per cent. To deal with these rising costs, it increased the price of a stamp from 52 cents to 85 cents (when sold in packets). Adjusting for inflation, this translates into a 44 per cent price increase.”
From https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jasmin-guenette/canada-post-monopoly_b_11544976.html
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Or are other carriers overcharging? Case in point: bought my wife a gift from Seattle. Shipping via UPS ground to Alaska was over $55.
Same package, Priority Mail: $18.
The latter rate I can more afford for a package under 4 lbs. The former, I just could not.
If you happen to live outside major population centers, private carriers set their prices to holy hell are you serious?
If anything, I suspect USPS keeping prices low helps keep the private carriers slightly more in line.
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“USPS is Amazon’s “delivery boy” and doesn’t make money from Amazon’s business.”
Can someone please explain to me how the USPS doesn’t make money from Amazon’s business? Indeed then they must surely have an unsustainable business model. Do they make a profit from anyone else’s postal usage? I have to admit that perhaps I am missing something as I do not live there and do not regularly use the service.
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Well, Amazon’s model is to pass it on to the seller who then makes a decision based on their pricing model whether to pass it on to you. Where it’s an Amazon house brand, it’s not likely that we’re dealing with cost-based pricing anyway, since Amazon uses these brands for leverage.
But either way, that’s not a great reason to have the USPS subsidize the already profitable Amazon.
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For a time, I tried selling my book, cd, and old video game collection on Amazon. Aside from one or two rarities, it was never a profitable endeavor, when I took into account the packaging and the time to mail the item. And then there’s the automatic pricing where there is always going to be some other seller that will undercut your price no matter what you charge. It’s an algorithmic race to the bottom.
Amazon always got their cut though.
I have no idea how anyone manages to make any money selling a book for a penny.
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They do make money from Amazon. The real issue from an income standpoint is that First Class mail, which is historically the bulk of USPS profits, has declined in volume. An increase in package shipping prices is an attempt to compensate for this.
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This is a ridiculous argument. If it were somehow compulsory, then fine, sure, it’s predatory. But this is an entirely voluntary service that one decides to subscribe to.
Sure, I shop more on Amazon because I have prime. I do this partially for convenience, but also because I evaluate every single purchase to see if it makes sense.
I’ll criticize amazon for many other things, but not for offering a service that has value, that one can choose to use or not at any point.
Also, climate change? Come on. This is spurious, entirely. This is the kind of unhinged thinking that the opposition seizes upon to showcase progressive irrationality.
Y’all young’uns might not recall the 1970s, but those days I seem to recall delayed, damaged or even just lost mail was quite a bit more common. USPS has gotten a lot better over the years, and I have tons of respect for them.
If something That Man tweeted actually turns out to be helpful to them, I’m cool with that. Doesn’t make his other stuff less horrible of course.
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Well I half agree with Trump. Amazon seems to have a sweatheart deal with the USPS. Which is fine, as long as the USPS is making money on it.
Amazon actually is pretty good for CONSUMERS because their mark up is so little. It really is amazing how much they make with such thin margins. Not that they don’t have issues with some of the ways they do business.
I also dislike his meddling by addressing specific companies with his opinions. He has incredible sway with what he says, but was we all know, 99% of what he says teeters between bullshit and horribly misinformed.
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I seem to remember the USPS being in serious financial trouble a few years back and it seems to me that Amazon shipping and online purchases saved the USPS.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon responded by creating/expanding their own shipping company. They’re already doing it to a certain extent, hiring people through their Amazon Flex program to deliver in major cities. I would not be surprised at all if Bezos didn’t put USPS right out of business just like he’s done with every other business that has been foolish enough to get in his way.
And good on Bezos if he does. When your failing business is propped up by companies like Amazon, it’s a stupid move to bite the hand that feeds you.
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I admit that I just don’t know enough to have an informed opinion on whether Amazon is underpaying or not. (I suspect that Trump doesn’t either) It is certainly possible that they are underpaying but how you account for fixed costs can be complicated. My fear is that if they raise the prices too high, Amazon will rely on cheaper carriers for most of their shipments and then only use the USPS for shipments to places like Alaska and Hawaii, which are big money losers for them.
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That probably wouldn’t help much of anything near that much. A large part of the USPS cost structure is the ludicrous pension prefunding requirement (not likely to change) and fixed costs. It would also increase shipping times by more than eliminating other higher traffic days (Having two non delivery days in a row means packages shipped at the end of the week would sit longer). Also twice daily residential service was stopped in 1950.
