Post office blames U.S. government -- not Amazon -- for billion-dollar loss

[HipChick]

Postmaster says losses reflect an ‘inflexible, legislatively mandated business model’ and systemic marketplace trends


The U.S. Postal Service placed most of the blame for the $1.3 billion it lost in its second fiscal quarter on “inflexible” government policy, and some of it on inflation and a decline in first-class mail, but it did not blame any of it on delivery deals made with customers, including, notably, Amazon.com Inc.

The net loss for the quarter ended March 31 widened from $562 million in the same period a year ago. The “controllable” loss, which excludes items that are not recurring and outside of management’s control, was $656 million, after a profit of $12 million last year.

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USPS said it would take “urgently needed legislative and regulatory changes,” as well as continued management actions, to return to financial stability.“Despite growth in our package business, our financial results reflect systemic trends in the marketplace and the effects of an inflexible, legislatively mandated business model that limits our ability to generate sufficient revenue and imposes costs upon us that we cannot afford,” said Postmaster General Megan Brennan.

That seems to differ from comments made by President Donald Trump last month. Trump said the USPS was losing “billions of dollars” because of a “Delivery Boy” deal with Amazon AMZN, +0.03% , under which, he said, the post office lost an average of $1.50 on each package delivered for the e-commerce giant.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/post-office-blames-us-government-not-amazon-for-billion-dollar-loss-2018-05-11?mod=mw_share_facebook

[cbreezen]

1. My only problem with the USPS is that they no longer...

provide a postmark/cancellation for folks who use stamps. There is no way of knowing where your mail came from or how long it's been floating around out there (no date). In fact, you have no way of knowing whether anything that shows up in your mailbox was actually sent to you by the person or entity designated by return address.

The checks I mail out never disappear, but the mail I'm supposed receive doesn't always make it.