Trump Orders Overhaul Of USPS Business Model

Another obvious attack on Jeff Bezos:

President Trump, who has assailed Amazon.com and falsely accused the online retail giant of cheating the U.S. Postal Service by taking advantage of bulk delivery rates, on Thursday night ordered a sweeping overhaul of the Postal Service’s business model.

Trump issued an executive order forming an administration task force, to be chaired by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and directed it to evaluate the Postal Service’s finances and operations. The order also directs the task force to issue a report outlining proposed changes within 120 days.

The order states that the Postal Service has incurred $65 billion of cumulative losses since the Great Recession ended in 2009 and that it must make changes so that it operates under “a sustainable business model.”

USA Today reports:



The U.S. Postal Service has been roiled by the same gale-force technology winds, as Americans abandoned mail for email and other electronic communication. But the post office has benefited, more than suffered, from Amazon, financial analysts say.

Along with UPS and FedEx, the Postal Service helps deliver packages in the “last mile” of their Amazon journey. That’s translated to more packages and package-related revenue, in part thanks to Amazon.

The service has a decade-long string of fiscal net losses, which has led to more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities, mostly retirement health and pension benefits. In 2006, Congress mandated that the postal service prepay benefits, a special requirement other agencies do not face.