Posted on 04/25/2020 4:56:55 AM PDT by SanchoP
33 posts and we finally got to a salient post. Subsidizing Amazon shipping via the post office is creating a monopoly and trashing retail across the USA. Allowing a monoculture to spring up very similar to the rise of Chinese manufacturing. We will look back on this shipping subsidy and rue the day it was allowed.
This is all about volume. Anything you buy in quantity, you get a better price. That applies to goods AND services.
I have no idea what kind of deal the USPS has with Amazon, but I do know eBay.
Based on a 2 pound package, the USPS gives a discount to sellers of from about 7% to 24% (the 24% is for cross country Priority mail). Most discounts top out at about 13%).
FedEx gives discounts of from about 15% to 38%.
UPS gives almost nothing, 0% to 5%.
Honest sellers pass those savings along to the buyer. Others pocket the savings, sell less, and get complaints for overcharging.
FedEx is killing the post office on larger/heavier package, the USPS has the advantage for smaller/lighter packages. USPS is still the best for international shipping.
So, is FedEx wrong for giving the most generous discounts?
What happens when the rates are raised? The increase is passed along to the buyers (even if shipping is “free”, which is never actually the case), and a certain number of buyers won’t buy at all, or seek other options.
Anybody know what kinds of deals Amazon gets?
No one, because if they quadrupled their price Amazon would never use them at all.
People say that the USPS loses money on every Amazon package. Others say they make money. I think that the USPS has no idea which. So many costs for the USPS are fixed and have little or no relation to the amount shipped. Between retirement costs and current buildings, the USPS loses billions if it doesn't ship a single letter or box. They cry when they have too little mail and now they cry they have too much.
The Post Office is obsolete ~ gone the way of Blockbuster...
And keep in mind that anti-trust law is aimed at protecting the CONSUMER, not competing businesses. If Amazon is cheaper than its competitors, then the Feds would have a hard time demonstrating that the consumer has been harmed in any way.
The US taxpayers should not subsidize Amazon through the Post Office. That is wrong.
Oh, absolutely. Then it is a nightmare getring through and tracking them down. They are incredibly disorganized when it gets to packages at the local level.
I agree with those remarks.
The postal service was original conceived with a purpose of simply delivering letters and packages between citizens and some mail order houses.
Today I can see the USPS flooded beyond capacity in terms of employees, facilities and equipment for all the in-home buying people do off the internet.
Then we have the businesses being run out of business because of this.
The answer might be to raise package shipping rates to make the Amazon and like purchases pay a fairer share. But then that screws the average citizen just mailing birthday and Christmas packages.
UPS has a service called My Choice Premium for $15/year. It allows for upgrades of UPS SurePost "last mile" packages from the post office to my house so that UPS delivers it the whole way. Saves a day on the delivery time. Plus allows the package to be delivered on another day, etc.
Wish FedEx had a similar service, but doesn't look like they do.
1) you assume that the Amazon rates are sufficient to cover variable costs,
2) long term, the Postal service’s fixed plant should be sized to handle profitable business, not business which can only be generated at a loss.
Right now you type in a zip and get a shipping rate that's more or less the same everywhere. At some point they will refine it to an address and calculate that the truck will have to drive 5 extra miles to drop just that one package. They'll have to raise the rates a couple bucks just for fuel, plus more for the driver's time.
How does USPS or UPS deliver a case of bottles of drinking water and not lose money?
If I shipped the same thing to the guy at the end of the street it would cost me, what $40?
Can I ship the same dimension load of junk to the guy at the end of the street as it costs bulk mailers?
The issue is the little guy is almost subsidizing the big guys shipping rates.
Don’t get me wrong, I use eBay and Amazon regularly, but let’s lay the blame where it belongs.
“Being supported by tax dollars, there is little oversight, no accountability, and way too much overhead.”
True for every gov dept., gov financed and gov run entity.
USPS, though, belongs to POTUS (see below), and Trump is a businessman. POTUS will clean house in Trump Term 2!
“The United States Postal Service (USPS; also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, including its insular areas and associated states.
It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.”
-wiki
Every Amazon order I’ve ever received came UPS. I guess that varies on different routes, but I’d rather have smaller packages delivered by the USPS; too many larger vehicles aren’t good for gravel driveways.
I’ve seen USPS routinely delivering Amazon packages on Sundays. There is no way USPS is making money doing that, and no way Amazon would pay USPS DT rates for that shipping.
It’s completely wrong for US taxpayers to subsidize Amazon through USPS.
Amazon will just start their own delivery service if the PO jacks up their rates to Fed Ex/UPS levels. Their competition, small businesses, won’t be able to afford to do that. Who benefits from Trump attacking USPS? Amazon.
They dont want to raise their prices because then they wouldn’t be the poor poor postal service thats about to go bankrupt without a government bail out from the rats in congress
Saturday mornings are the busiest time. When I go in then I have to wait in a long line. Pick some weekday afternoon to close counter service. You could even do it on a rotating basis so if you must mail something today and your local office is closed you can drive to next one.
I’m sure Amazon would buy the USPS if it came with that yearly $billion subsidy.
The USPS is losing money and want an emergency bailout.
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