Just when I thought I’d seen it all. According to the Wall Street Journal article Why the Post Office Gives Amazon Special Delivery:
… The U.S. Postal Service delivers the company’s boxes well below its own costs. Like an accelerant added to a fire, this subsidy is speeding up the collapse of traditional retailers in the U.S. and providing an unfair advantage for Amazon. …
… An April analysis from Citigroup estimates that if costs were fairly allocated, on average parcels would cost $1.46 more to deliver. It is as if every Amazon box comes with a dollar or two stapled to the packing slip—a gift card from Uncle Sam.
Amazon is big enough to take full advantage of “postal injection,” and that has tipped the scales in the internet giant’s favor. Select high-volume shippers are able to drop off presorted packages at the local Postal Service depot for “last mile” delivery at cut-rate prices. …
That’s the dreaded handoff by UPS or Fed Ex to the Kingman post office.
And because Amazon is not capable of assigning separate shipping addresses for USPS v UPS / Fed Ex, packages are often returned as undeliverable. It helps to add your box # to the zip code, such as 86444-0123, but doesn’t always work.
Additionally, I have to make a 20 mile round trip to the post office and waste at least an hour of my time!
And of course you never know WHEN the Meadview post office is open, as I wrote a couple weeks ago:
So there we go again. The people suffer while the corporations get the free rides.
Not great …
And I think you couldn’t find a better example to prove that private business is NOT smarter or more efficient than the government operating the exact same business. The Meadview post office is a contract station — a FOR PROFIT business. And somehow it is not possible to sort the mail AFTER hours, even though Loretta just REDUCED the hours in April and the post office opens at 11 am instead of 9 am. A 10-year old ought to be able to figure out that if the mail comes in late, you either sort late after closing or sort in the morning before opening.
Rocket science?
Or just enjoying the drama?
Loretta???
FYI, I have an Amazon business account, not Prime, since I get free 2 day shipping for orders over $45. I had called them and requested that they NOT EVER ship through the post office and they had promised to make changes to my account settings.
A couple weeks later another package went to the post office (after showing as returned undeliverable in the tracking online) and I called Amazon again. Was told that the last guy didn’t make any changes to my account and they promised to do it right this time. They can’t guarantee that the post office will never get my package, but it’s less likely and they confirmed the changes by email. So far so good, but it’s only been a few weeks. Don’t know whether they’ll do this for Prime customers too.
The post office is required to provide uniform price and quality?
… The post office has long had a legal monopoly to deliver first-class mail, or nonurgent letters. The exclusivity comes with a universal-service obligation—to provide for all Americans at uniform price and quality. This communication service helps knit this vast country together, and it’s the why the Postal Service exists. …
Is that a joke?
Not only do we not have any mail delivery to our houses, but I have to PAY for a PO box in Meadview because I don’t want one of those mail boxes by the side of the road on Pierce Ferry, literally MILES from my home.
I have no desire to have my identity and small packages left in the box stolen and to pick up larger packages in Meadview. Or in Kingman, as has been the case at times. Or at Canyon’s End, or wherever.
A few weeks ago no PO boxes were available — you could get on a waiting list.
Most Americans have NO clue what people in rural areas go through to get their mail.
And the people of Meadview are doing NOTHING to improve mail service — apparently they don’t mind making multiple trips to the post office to “maybe” be able to get their mail if it happens to be open.
