
Amazon gets priority while mail gets delayed, say US letter carriers - 80mph
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/07/21/first-class-and-priority-mail-delayed-in-favor-of-amazon-parcels-according-to-portland-letter-carriers/
======
nomercy400
The real issue here is the fact that the USPS is overloaded and requires extra
government attention. If you don't properly fund and support you public postal
service, you don't get on-time mail deliveries. Maybe that is the issue.

This has little to do with Amazon. Amazon is paying the USPS according to
their contract. If the contract from 2013 is unsatisfactory, then it should be
renegotiated by USPS. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a 10-year deal, and has
hefty fines for late deliveries.

A journalist should be able to request the contract and see why USPS is now
overloaded: Is it because USPS is not receiving enough funding from the
government, or because the contract with Amazon is really bad for USPS. It
sounds like the fact that Amazon is shipping so many parcels is a symptom, not
the (systemic) cause of why parcels aren't shipped on time. If the USPS is to
blame, then who made this deal and what were their reasons? Was it a national
deal? Why is it a problem now? Why wasn't this anticipated? And how can it be
avoided in the future?

Aren't contracts of the government with private parties publically accessible?
I mean, you, the taxpayer, pay for the contract so you should have access to
it, as well be able to check on the government's workings. At least, that's
how we do things in europe.

~~~
ptero
> The real issue here is the fact that the USPS is overloaded and requires
> extra government attention.

I agree with this, and this attention needs to come in more ways than extra
$$. As others said, USPS is stuck in a weird state: need to be self-funded
with no authority to set prices. So the gov't needs to either subsidize some
things or let USPS compete.

However, to fix USPS some of that attention needs to come in the form of hard
kicks and forced reorgs. USPS is a dinosaur with a lot of inertia against
improving efficiency and modernization. That causes problems, costs a lot of
money and drives customers away. USPS is also notorious for advocating for
spam senders (who give USPS a lot of revenue) and against people they are
supposed to serve. Those are all problems that external "attention" should
resolve.

As an anecdata, I was occasionally involved with field testing campaigns which
include significant shipping for next day delivery a couple of thousand miles
away (something would break or some new hardware would be needed and will be
shipped from home ASAP). This provides a non-insignificant revenue to the
shipper. We tried USPS, but it just did not work. With FedEx we get accurate,
near real time package tracking, so the minute the package is dumped at our
hotel we see it and someone can drive out and pick it up. With USPS, their
system was showing delivery at the end of the _following_ day. Maybe something
changed in the last few years, but I doubt it.

~~~
dkuntz2
USPS is efficient and self-sufficient, congress has just done everything
possible to make it look like they're failing.

If they didn't have to prepay pensions (something no other government agency,
or private company in the world is required to do, or does), they'd be in
great shape.

~~~
dodobirdlord
In fairness, pension pre-funding should be an expectation of all government
agencies and private companies with pensions. But the way it was introduced
was absurd, IIRC USPS had 10 years in which to pre-fund 50 years of pensions.

~~~
pulisse
75 years. USPS is congressionally mandated to fund the pensions of postal
workers who have not yet been born.

~~~
Rebelgecko
I've seen this claim elsewhere but IMO it's ridiculously misleading. It's
technically true that USPS is mandated to fund pensions for people that aren't
alive yet. However, they're not required to actually start putting the finds
away _until_ those people grow up and start working for USPS.

~~~
r00fus
The absurdity is that it’s not required of any other agency or private
company.

~~~
Rebelgecko
EVERY company (either private or publicly traded) in the US that offers a
pension is legally required to do one of two things:

1\. Pre-fund the pensions of employees who aren't born yet

OR

2\. Stop offering the pension before they hire the people who haven't been
born yet

Some companies chose to do 2, but without an act of congress the USPS is
locked into option #1. This is tautological for any long lived pension plan.
It will eventually serve people who haven't been born yet. I don't see why
people are so surprised by it.

------
ThePhysicist
Well, maybe we need a "delivery neutrality law" as well. In Germany it's the
same story, DHL treats Amazon packages with utmost care and always delivers
them on time, while anything else gets deprioritized. Guess the delivery
companies don't have much choice here as Amazon packages make up 20-30 % of
their parcel business now (at least in Germany), especially since Amazon is
building up their own logistics in larger cities to compete with them.

~~~
cbmuser
Your statement is rather misleading.

First of all, any people outside Germany need to know that "DHL" in Germany
refers to the regular parcel post of the former German national post. What
other countries outside Germany call "DHL" is actually called "DHL Express" in
Germany and they are a separate subsidiary of Deutsche Post World Net. They
have their own fleet of delivery cars and also local parcel depots.

Secondly, it's important to note that in Germany, Deutsche Post DHL delivers
95% of all packages within Germany on the next day. This means, that your
insinuation that non-Amazon packages are not delivered fast is untrue.

And, thirdly, Amazon pays for their packages being prioritized. Amazon calls
this delivery service "Amazon Prime", at DHL, these packages are internally
called "PRIO" (it's also on the label) and Amazon actually pays for that.
Other types of packages include "VIP" which is used for packages with valuable
content.

And since Amazon pays your the prioritization of their packages, every other
customer can do that as well with DHL guaranteeing that your package gets
delivered on the next day.

However, since 95% of all DHL standard packages in Germany are delivered on
the next day anyway, most customers aren't using this particular service.
There is simply no gain since a standard parcel ("Paket" as compared to the
even cheaper "Päckchen") already comes with tracking and insurance up to 500
Euros.

Please keep in mind that in the US, regular packages take 2-3 days which is
why choosing priority shipment in the US makes a huge difference as compared
to when ordering from Amazon Germany.

~~~
AmericanChopper
The idea of paying for a superior level of service is exactly what net
neutrality is supposed to prohibit, so your response just kinda lends
credibility to the parent comments analogy.

~~~
fpgaminer
Service tiers make total sense for mail, even under a "neutral" system.
Sometimes people need, for example, guaranteed next day delivery. So, if
Amazon wants to pay extra for that service tier like everyone else ... what's
the problem?

The real issue is if Amazon gets that service at a discounted rate. They
probably do, and I can see arguments for why we wouldn't want them to be able
to. But I can't see arguments against service tiers.

Besides, service tiers exist under net neutrality. I can choose to buy a 1Mbps
connection, or a 1Gbps connection. The latter gives me a clear advantage. Yet
that's allowed under net neutrality because _anyone_ can buy those tiers of
service.

~~~
AmericanChopper
Every reason that mail service tiers make sense can be applied to net
neutrality too. VOIP, streaming media, multiplayer video games all “need” a
much better QoS than say browsing a web page, or downloading a torrent does.

Anybody who wishes to compete with Amazon will also have to pay additional
fees to offer an equivalent service, and if high QoS delivery channels become
over-subscribed, prices for them will increase. Further discriminating against
competition.

> So, if Amazon wants to pay extra for that service tier like everyone else
> ... what's the problem?

What’s the problem with an ISP creating a seperate QoS tier for people who
require it, and charging more for it? It’s exactly the same thing.

~~~
twblalock
> Every reason that mail service tiers make sense can be applied to net
> neutrality too. VOIP, streaming media, multiplayer video games all “need” a
> much better QoS than say browsing a web page, or downloading a torrent does.

That's a pretty good argument against net neutrality. It's a bad argument
against service tiers for mail.

------
bennyp101
I mean, that's certainly one way to make sure you can't vote by mail!

But is this not a case of an underfunded agency, that is trying to do its best
in a bad time, with no money, and trying to placate those who shout loudest?

I'd wager that packages (not just Amazon) make up a lot more post than actual
letters nowadays - I know I rarely have any post (although UK) as everything
is online - but if people aren't getting their next/same day delivery on time,
then they kick off and shout about it - which isn't going to please Amazon,
and the USPS don't/can't lose that contract

~~~
eru
Why do postal services even need to be handled by an agency?

It's just a normal service like any other. Normal companies do that just fine.
As evidenced in lots of history and in other countries around the globe.

~~~
bmitc
> It's just a normal service like any other. Normal companies do that just
> fine.

No, they don't. Like others have mentioned USPS delivers to anyone in the
extended U.S. with sane prices. They also provide sane international shipping
prices. USPS also provides other services like free shipping materials and
free pickup. Hiding these and the other services they provide behind companies
who only care about the bottom line would hurt people who couldn't afford the
services or simply have services they're used to dropped.

~~~
eru
If you want to help people, it's more efficient to use a program that's
financed by progressive taxes and targeted at the poor and needy.

Instead of a hodge-podge that's financed by city dwellers who need to send a
lot of letters, and assists people who chose to live in the middle of nowhere
even if they are filthy rich.

Yes, charging more to people who cause more costs would be exactly the point.

(The poor people could use the targeted help I talked about to afford the
higher price. Or they could use that help to buy something they need more than
sending letters. Like food or nice clothing for an interview etc. Or whatever
they fancy.)

~~~
michaelt
Universal mail delivery isn't just about helping the poor and needy. It's also
about allowing the government to deliver services efficiently.

The government has an obligation to send every citizen voter registration
cards, census forms, driving licenses, tax forms, firearms registration forms,
passports and so on.

The alternatives - an IRS office in every backwater town, denying a vote to
people living in remote areas, ATF agents delivering gun permits in person,
denying driving licenses to people without a home internet connection - would
either be more expensive, or less constitutional.

Unless UPS or FedEx wanted to take on a universal service obligation, of
course...

~~~
eru
The German government manages to send those forms out just fine, despite them
privatising Deutsche Post and eventually abolishing their letter monopoly.

~~~
account42
Deutsche Post / DHL service quality has absolutely declined as a result of
this and keeps getting worse so I don't know what argument you are trying to
make.

~~~
jahaja
Same in Sweden with Postnord.

------
barnabee
Honestly this (or, at leasst, prioritisation of parcels over letters and
printed paper) is the right way round. If it were practical I'd back an actual
and punitive financial tax on sending anything via the post that could be
communicated electronically instead. Waste of paper and resources.

------
softwaredoug
I am worried what's going to happen with big vote-by-mail election. How much
chaos will ensue with an overwhelmed USPS?

We've already seen elections with ballot invalidation rates of 25% in NYC with
some of the primaries. A lot had to do with postmark dates and signatures.

~~~
jeffbee
In my county (in California) there are dedicated ballot boxes that are not
serviced by the post office. The ballots are collected from the boxes by
county election officials. Is this not a thing in other states?

~~~
johnl1479
Washington State is entirely vote-by-mail, and we have the option of returning
to drop boxes located at libraries or city halls and well as mailing them in.

My anecdotal observation is that the majority of people use the drop boxes,
but that was also pre-pandemic.

------
tunnuz
This is also the case in Italy as far as I know. I was a mailman for the
Italian mail service for some months in the summer of 2019. We were encouraged
to give priority to paid work (advertisement, other deliveries). Mail doesn’t
make any money, it’s just a public service. Which is why the postal service
also does banking and has its own mobile carrier. These things pay for the
public mail service to work. Anyway this is the case in Italy so maybe it’s
not relevant.

~~~
vstm
Yeah it's a similar situation in Switzerland. Not sure about the
prioritization of deliveries though but the postal service started to offer
different kind of services (like starting a bank "Postfinance" [which I guess
is a swiss thing to do], or selling office supplies). In general: revenue from
mail is down but revenue from parcel is up. Also during the COVID-lockdown
people started ordering shit online like crazy, so there were of course delays
and problems.

------
ShroudedNight
> ...which mandates that the agency pre-fund health benefits for retirees up
> to 2056.

On it's face that sounds like an incredibly onerous requirement. Not being a
US resident though, it's quite possible it makes sense and my ignorance simply
can't tell. Could someone with more insight provide additional context here?

~~~
Spooky23
For a variety of reasons, there is a deep seated animus towards the post
office held by key donors to the Republican Party.

It doesn’t make particular sense.

~~~
kevingadd
It makes sense in the wider context of the republican party generally viewing
free universal services as a bad thing - the push to privatize education, the
push to eliminate or scale back public health care systems like medicare, the
push to scale back public pension systems like social security.

A given politician might have their own reasons for wanting to privatize
everything (profit, ideology, etc) but it's pretty consistent across the whole
party that they aren't fond of any of these programs - I wouldn't actually
attribute this to key donors.

~~~
Spooky23
Most of that party platform stuff is just fluff.

The more reactionary donors have a real generational hatred of civil service
in general and the post office in particular. Alot of fringe thinking from the
1960s and 70s is front and center today.

------
crazygringo
Aside from this article and similar, I can't find any credible confirmation
that Amazon packages are delivered "fourth-class" or what that means. After
all, big bulky boxes are hardly competing against catalogs for space in the
mail truck, the differences in size are so huge.

Amazon has a private contract with the USPS that presumably puts it in its own
unique category regardless of other labels, and the USPS likely loses money
for late delivery, so this is just things operating how they're intended to
operate.

The real problem is politics that doesn't give the USPS the flexibility to
expand. I live in Brooklyn and haven't gotten a single package delivered on
time by the USPS in the past 3 months, always 1-3 days late.

Any normal business hires more employees as business booms, and remember the
USPS _makes money_ off Amazon. Unfortunately, the USPS is so hamstrung by
politicians that it can't simply expand to meet demand, the way e.g. Amazon
Fresh has.

------
yftsui
Hmm my local postal office never deliver large Amazon package, they just
“attempted delivery at 9am but nobody is home”, then come and leave a note
later in the mailbox.

------
clarkevans
The USPS provides universal service, especially to areas that are
unprofitable. Moreover, congress sets their rates instead of letting market
forces determine rates. Finally, they are under retirement funding rules that
commercial carriers are not. Then, after being required to run unprofitably,
legislators observe that the USPS is not competitive?

One can't help but wonder if Amazon wants to pull up the ladder behind them.

~~~
agloeregrets
That’s why Amazon built their own Shipping network now. They only use USPS
where it makes financial sense, notably often in the Midwest or in places
where they don’t have other deliveries. They are rapidly gaining competitive
advantages that cannot be equaled without billions in investment.

------
tmaly
We are still paying for full prime and I have not seen 2 day shipping in ages.

------
myself248
One of my COVID resolutions has been to aggressively attack every source of
junkmail I can find.

I figure, reducing the load in my mailbox (my actual goal; I haaaaate dead-
tree mail) will have the collateral benefit of reducing the load on the
carrier's shoulder.

I've enjoyed partial success so far, but just fired another volley of
unsubscribes yesterday. We'll see.

~~~
kup0
So far- have you found any particular methods to be the most effective?
(Return postage envelopes with a form letter, online tools, other options)

My grandma, who passed a bit less than two years ago is still receiving all
sorts of junk mail. I have tried unsubscribing normal ways from some of it
(online forms, etc) and none of that seems to work at all.

I do use the "do not mail" junk mail opt-outs which has reduced the volume
that comes in both her name and mine, but there's still loads of "previously
accepted/subscribed-to mail" that I can't seem to put a stop to- even if I use
the publisher/sender's preferred opt-out method.

~~~
myself248
I used to get a TON of mail for the guy who previously lived at my address.
Even eight years after he moved.

So I'd call the various companies and ask them to stop. And one miraculous
time, I ended up talking with a rep who told me The Secret. Paraphrasing: "I
can remove him from our database, but he'll be back in a few weeks when we do
our next import from the credit brokers. That's where you need to focus your
effort, try Equifax."

Funny thing was, I could not find a form for "My name is Alice and I swear Bob
no longer lives at 123 Main", but I could find a form for "My name is Bob and
I swear I no longer live at 123 Main". So I filled that out, didn't sign it,
and sent it in.

It slowed to a trickle within a month or two, and all but stopped within a
year after that.

I just filled out
[https://pc2.mypreferences.com/Comcast/OptOut/Default.aspx](https://pc2.mypreferences.com/Comcast/OptOut/Default.aspx)
so we'll see if that stems the deluge of Xfinity mailers...

------
praveen9920
> he suspected the practice was in response to pressure from superiors on the
> national level.

This I think is the interesting part of the news.

~~~
paulcole
What rank-and-file boots-on-the-ground employee of a mega-corp who works at a
local office doesn’t think the clueless paper-pushing bozos at the head office
are the ones cramming through bad decisions?

------
thatguy0900
Well 95% of the letters I receive go straight into the trash can, so I'm
really not too concerned if it's delayed

------
prirun
I cannot believe with the decrease in 1st-class mail that the USPS is still
running delivery trucks 6 days per week to every house. It's a complete waste
of resources.

They should go to 3 days per week, then cut back to 2, and maybe even just 1
per week. Since the pandemic, I have been leaving my mail in the box and
getting it Sunday night. You know what I'm missing? Nothing! There may be 2-3
pieces of mail plus some junk mail, and I don't get email delivery of any
bills: it's all physical mail.

Most people do not care if they get junk mail plus a few bills every day or
once a week. They do care if they get their Amazon packages delivered. So to
me, it's perfectly reasonable to delay 1st-class mail and prioritize, uh,
"priority mail".

------
psim1
Fine with me. I pay Amazon $129 per year for Prime service and if this is one
of the ways they arrange it, great. What else comes by mail? Junk, or bills
that are due in 3-4 weeks, or statements. First class mail was always kind of
variable in delivery speed anyway.

------
shadowgovt
That makes sense.

Amazon is mostly packages people ordered that they want.

Mail is mostly junk mailers that people didn't order.

Customer satisfaction is optimized by getting the Amazon packages routed
higher priority.

~~~
arbuge
Did you read the article? Do you work for Amazon perhaps?

Amazon is not the only ecommerce company in existence.

The article clearly states in its 3rd paragraph that packages (not junk mail)
from other senders are being delayed in favor of Amazon packages:

"...willfully delaying thousands of first-class and priority parcels so that
fourth-class Amazon parcels can go out for delivery instead"

~~~
shadowgovt
That behavior still makes sense if one factors in that Amazon is a customer
with the option to ship via another carrier if they find the USPS can't meet
(Amazon's) delivery targets.

USPS is, unfortunately, operated like a private company, and their bottom line
gets hit harder if Amazon switches most of its business to FedEx than if
other, much smaller firms decide 1st class isn't a reliable enough guarantee
and stop paying for it.

------
CarbyAu
Many comments about overtime being banned as though it is a bad thing.

My understanding was that "Overtime" was meant to be used sparingly for short
term circumstances - not for months on end - to avoid burnout.

From a labour cost point of view, most places pay penalty rates for overtime.
Often 20% to 50%. Or maybe that is my naive view here in Australia.

So wouldn't it be cheaper to just hire more employees/daytime contractors?
Plenty of people looking for work I hear.

------
yboris
I've always thought it inefficient to have mail delivered every day. Doing
deliveries every other day seems like would be an easy way to save money. No?

------
smileybarry
This is true overseas as well. Israel Post used to have huge issues with
deliverability, but whenever an Amazon package showed up they'd get priority
and was rarely, almost never, lost or delayed.

In fact, they even have a partnership now and text you when an Amazon package
arrived ("a package has arrived from Amazon") but not always when another
vendor's package arrives, even if there's a phone number attached to it.

------
rovr138
Where’s the bottleneck?

A lot of USPS is via trucks, but what about planes? Don’t they do freight via
commercial airlines? Could it be a backlog that’s just increasing?

------
fortran77
It's not so crazy that the highest rate mail goes through (if that's the case)
at the expense of bulk-rate mail. But if first-class and priority mail is
being delayed, as is being alleged, that's a problem. People aren't getting
the service they paid for.

------
aaroninsf
This is the logical analog to and extension of the assault on net neutrality.

The reasons this is a fatal stance in a functional first-world democracy are
identical.

------
erichocean
USPS sent tens of thousands of ePacket (international air mail) packages by
boat recently—supposedly the first time in history they've done that. Instead
of shipments arriving in 1-2 weeks, they took 6-12 weeks.

Completely screwed people over. Our organization has now dropped USPS entirely
for international shipments, and we spend a few million annually on shipping.

There was also a massive rate increase recently, particularly to the UK, that
has made USPS far less competitive compared to other shippers.

------
heliodor
The only meaningful mail most people get is packages, so from that point of
view, this headline is a good thing not a bad thing.

~~~
take_a_breath
This is not true for much of society. Many, many people receive important
documents in the mail: voter IDs, driver’s licenses, voting forms, Medicare
and Social Security forms, utility bills, mortgage statements, IRS docs,
unemployment benefits, and more. These all seem pretty meaningful, no?

~~~
joncrane
Yes but who orders a shiny new utility bill and obsessively tracks its
progress until it's finally delivered and they can joyfully unbox it? Who
orders their mortgage statement and medicare form and forcefully complains to
the ombudsman when they come late three times in a row?

~~~
take_a_breath
People who are struggling to make payments or rely on Medicare for their
health? Is it really so hard to imagine how other people live their lives
differently?

------
sleepless
Do we need "net neutrality" for mail?

~~~
casefields
YES! Repeal the private express statutes. There's zero reason USPS should have
a government granted monopoly. Allow them to set their own prices too.

------
Threeve303
The postal service is one of the only ways for democracy to happen this year.
Amazon and USPS has been strategically linked by groups that dislike both
organizations.

First people are told that vote by mail leads to fraud and secondly that
Amazon is deeply political and against the current power in Washington. Throw
in ownership of the Washington Post, and you a suddenly have a good recipe for
a fake news conspiracy to rile up the base with in an election year.

Benjamin Franklin knew the power of the post office in the 1700s. They were
smart enough back then to know that people spread out to different geographic
areas needed a legitimate way to vote and communicate.

He also knew that this system should retain some form of government control
because the amount of information moving around inside the post office could
be used by private parties to influence government affairs.

Other than the political angle, the attacks you see against the USPS are
simply about money. Over the years, in the rush to privatize, the USPS was set
on the path to be a private company.

Their idea was you remove funding from USPS, make insane capital requirements
for future commitments that no other company has to do, then wait until they
have massive capital expenditures.

The old mail trucks we are are familiar with have supposedly been catching on
fire because they are way past their service dates. As far as I know, the USPS
does not have a plan for replacements for these outdated vehicles, and even if
they did, where is the money going to come from?

Last point in my rant is that you could ask probably half the country or more
if Amazon helped bankrupt USPS. I bet many would say yes because that is what
they have heard or read in articles. Amazons contract likely provided needed
capital to keep USPS going since 2013.

Instead, the people who have been actively trying to bankrupt the USPS for
more than 30 years are now trying to blame the main private sector company
that supports it.

It's all lies, as usual. The post office has some of the best main street real
estate all across the country. Any political crony knows that if they can get
their hands on that after being privatized, the control over information in
the mail system, and the value of the land all across the country, would turn
that crony into quite an oligarch.

TLDR; Support your local post office if you care about democracy

------
sneak
Are Amazon packages not also “mail” once they have paid the USPS?

------
tebruno99
There is other mail than Amazon packages?

------
beepboopbeep
The post office has been unduly laden with nonsense financial restrictions by
the GOP in two presidencies now (Bush and Trump). Put another way, they've
purposefully sabotaged one of the oldest institutions in America in order to
crater it on behalf of private businesses.

Are there things that can be changed at USPS? Certainly, but they are not the
primary cause of distress for this institution. See also: The current assault
against the NHS in the U.K.

------
bawana
Amazon is more of a threat to the ‘American way of life’ than Communism ever
was.

~~~
bawana
obviously, bezos downvoted my comment. I dont think they are bad, they are
just too big - and monopolies are breeding ground for evil.

------
ngngngng
[]

~~~
freeqaz
Funny, this was the inverse of my experience growing up in Hawaii. UPS and
Fedex were an hour drive to get the package. USPS would bring to the post
office down the road. I always tried to get USPS whenever I could

------
codecrusade
Break Amazon up. Its a monopoly.

------
vmchale
Isn't this whole thing started because trump is trying to get back at Bezos?
He's mad because Bezos owns the Washington Post.

~~~
propogandist
so you're telling me because Trump is trying to get back at Bezos, he's
telling the Postmaster to prioritize Amazon's packages over regular mail
delivery?

Do you believe Russia is involved in this too?

~~~
vmchale
No, he's angry at the USPS for not charging Jeff Bezos more.

He has tweets ranting about them.

------
ALittleLight
My mail is basically advertisements and bills. I'd much prefer the packages I
order to get priority.

~~~
ianleeclark
There's more to this than just your personal consumption: absentee voting is
likely to be pretty high this year and the mail system is common amongst the
incarcerated to speak with their lawyers and loved ones.

~~~
ALittleLight
Systems shouldn't be optimized for narrow edge cases, like incarcerated mail
or mail in ballots, but for the typical case. The majority of all mail is
advertisements and bills. I suspect if you asked people to vote, they'd prefer
Amazon packages get priority.

~~~
ianleeclark
> Systems shouldn't be optimized for narrow edge cases, like incarcerated mail
> or mail in ballots

Millions of incarcerated, an entire state for mail-in-ballots--these are very
typical use-cases.

> I suspect if you asked people to vote, they'd prefer Amazon packages get
> priority.

We've never voted on allowing anti-competitive behavior before, why start now?

You just really want your gadgets, don't you?

------
cphoover
Good. How often is mail something I need vs spam, or things that could be
emailed to me or sent digitally.

Amazon are things I needed delivered.

------
amelius
USPS should start their own e-commerce website. "Amazon" is a utility.

------
briandear
If the USPS would stop filling my box with pounds of junk newsprint and other
spam, then I might be sympathetic. Amazon sends me stuff I ask for. The
majority of stuff USPS sends me goes directly in the trash. It shouldn’t be
allowed to send people bulk mail unless that person opts in. Mailbox spam is
worse than digital spam because there is a distinct environmental cost to
printing so much crap. USPS shouldn’t be providing discounted services for
anyone.

------
londons_explore
Amazon's contract probably pays extra for every parcel delivered on time.

Whereas other USPS users just pay to have it delivered 'probably' tomorrow.

The way to fix this is to align the incentives... Let any company pay only if
delivered by a deadline, and let USPS decide what to deliver first.

~~~
jychang
Additionally, the USPS is incentivized to do this because they’re underfunded.
Amazon has money, so they’re forced to do business with who can help pay the
bills.

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twblalock
This is fine with me. Most of the mail I get from the USPS is junk, and the
rest is from Amazon and Ebay. I'd prefer to get what I want faster than the
junk.

~~~
ex3ndr
Yeah how about non-amazon shops?

~~~
twblalock
If they were as good as Amazon I would buy from them, but they aren't, so I
don't.

This is just the USPS giving service to what people care about most. They have
no obligation to treat all sources of mail equally.

Non-Amazon retailers are of course free to pay for better service, and if they
can't afford it, then they don't deserve it. If they were as good as Amazon
they could afford it, as a result of customers paying for what they want.

~~~
lmm
> They have no obligation to treat all sources of mail equally.

Yes they do, they have a legal monopoly on certain kinds of delivery and that
comes with corresponding obligations.

~~~
twblalock
No they don't. I don't believe you. Point us to the statute that says they
have this obligation.

~~~
_delirium
39 U.S.C. § 101

~~~
twblalock
That doesn't say the USPS has to treat all sources of mail equally. It says
they have to deliver to everyone, which they do.

~~~
_delirium
Among other things, it says that the USPS must prioritize expeditious delivery
of "important letter mail". This has usually been interpreted to mean that
traditional postal service – first-class letter envelopes – must have top
priority, above things like package delivery, contracted last-mile Amazon
delivery, etc.

~~~
twblalock
That is completely different from treating all mail equally. In fact, it is
the opposite of that.

