As the following back-of-the-envelope analysis will suggest, the Postal Service could be making as much as a billion dollars a year off the Amazon deal.
Talk about Fake News: How a flawed Citigroup analysis led to Trump’s bogus tweets about Amazon and the Postal Service
BY STEVE HUTKINS President Trump is continuing his Twitter attack on Amazon over its deal with the Postal Service. Yesterday Trump tweeted, “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country… … Read More
PRC rejects Discover NSA and the Postal Service’s “subjective intuition”
For the first time since they were created in 2002, a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) has been rejected by the Postal Regulatory Commission. Yesterday the PRC turned down the Postal Service’s request to add a NSA with Discover Financial Services to its market-dominant list. This is quite an unusual event. Since the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, the PRC … Read More
“We Deliver for Amazon”: The Postal Service’s New Priority
A former postal worker in Greensboro, North Carolina, named Paul Barbot has written two excellent articles for Alternet about his experiences dealing with Amazon deliveries as a City Carrier Assistant (CCA). The first of them — “The Horrific New Marriage Between Your Post Office and Amazon Sunday” — was published in February, when Barbot still worked for the Postal Service. … Read More
Postal Service begins expanding into 1500 Staples
The Postal Service announced back in July that it was ending its pilot program to put mini-post offices in Staples stores. The 82 postal counters it had set up last October would be transitioned to the Approved Shipper program, which has been around for years without causing much controversy. (The Postal Service explained the transition in this blog post.) At the … Read More
Giving Away the Store: The Postal Service discounts the mail
MARK JAMISON In her book Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, Susan Crawford describes how the American public has been imprisoned by monopoly arrangements in the delivery of broadband and wireless Internet services. Using pricing and discount strategies, communications corporations have colluded to circumvent competition and make private fiefdoms out of what should … Read More
Premature motion: PRC dismisses bid to view non-public Amazon docs
MARK JAMISON Almost three months ago, I filed a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission seeking access to documents filed under seal in the docket that dealt with the Postal Service’s deal with Amazon to deliver its parcels on Sundays. Last week, the PRC finally responded to the request. The Commission ruled that my motion was “dismissed without prejudice” as being “premature,” meaning I … Read More
Why I did it and what’s at stake: Shining the light on NSAs
BY MARK JAMISON A couple of weeks ago I filed a motion with the Postal Regulatory Commission requesting access to the documents related to the Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) on the program to deliver Amazon parcels on Sundays. As I write this, the PRC has not yet ruled on my request, but regardless of what happens, I hope a useful … Read More
It’s Sunday and the Postman Cometh: Mysteries of the Amazon deal, continued
The arrangement between the Postal Service and Amazon to deliver packages to members of Amazon Prime on Sundays continues to make news, but details about the deal remain scant. In a post a few days ago, we speculated about how much the Postal Service might be making, and we took a look at a PRC docket that might have been … Read More
Mysteries of the Amazon deal: Why the Postal Service is skimming the cream on Sundays
Last week the Postal Service announced that it would be delivering packages for Amazon on Sundays, but only to Amazon Prime members (or those willing to pay extra), and only to customers living in New York and Los Angeles. The premium service will eventually be extended to some other big cities, but it’s not likely that those living in medium-sized … Read More
To NSA or not to NSA? The Valassis Question
BY MARK JAMISON I would earnestly warn you against trying to find out the reason for and explanation of everything…. To try and find out the reason for everything is very dangerous and leads to nothing but disappointment and dissatisfaction, unsettling your mind and in the end making you miserable. — Queen Victoria to her granddaughter Why would the Postal … Read More
