Trump Wants Postal Service to Charge More. What Do You Think?
Join us and tell your reps how you feel!
What’s the story?
On Friday morning, President Donald Trump criticized the U.S. Postal Service, tweeting it "should be charging MUCH MORE" for e-commerce package delivery.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017
Why does it matter?
Amazon regularly uses the USPS to complete what’s known as "last mile" delivery. According to a recent study by Citigroup, the postal service loses about $1.46 per box. In the fiscal year ending in September, the USPS reported a $2.7 billion net loss. Amazon reported a $1.176 billion profit for the same fiscal period.
However, Amazon also remains one of the postal service’s biggest customers. And as multiple outlets have pointed out, any price increase on postage would be passed along to e-consumers.
Though the USPS is a federal agency – one of the few outlined in the Constitution – it doesn’t receive any tax dollars. All income is generated by postage sales and services.
The cost of stamps will increase by one cent in January. And earlier this month, regulators moved to allow bigger jumps to stamp prices beyond the rate of inflation.
This also isn’t the first time Trump has used Twitter to attack Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos. Bezos owns The Washington Post, a frequent critic of the president.
What do you think?
Are e-retailers making the post office "dumber and poorer"? Should the USPS charge more to deliver packages? Should stamp prices increase beyond the rate of inflation? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.
—Josh Herman
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(Photo Credit: RiverNorthPhotography / iStockphoto)
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