A Senate hearing on a task force report recommending U.S. Postal Service reforms, scheduled for Sept. 5, has been postponed as President Donald Trump is delaying release of the report. No new date has been set, indefinitely postponing any legislative action, including possible raising of postal rates or even privatization.
A group of interested parties including Amazon and the National Retail Federation has formed a coalition to lobby on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service in advance of an Aug. 10 report from a USPS task force formed this spring by President Donald Trump.
UPS has reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract with the Teamsters union for 11,000 workers at its less-than truckload (LTL) freight division, with a vote expected in 60 days.
Once again Amazon is working to expand its own delivery capabilities, inviting entrepreneurs to launch new companies with fleets of 20-40 vans emblazoned with the company’s ubiquitous logo, even offering discounted lease rates it has negotiated, the company announced.
If President Trump had his way and the U.S. Postal Service charged more for parcel delivery, the move would not only hurt the USPS’s parcel business but cause a ripple effect, according to a report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).
A U.S. Appellate Court ruling in Washington DC upheld the U.S. Postal Service’s pricing methodology, knocking down a challenge from UPS that categorized it as unfair and anticompetitive.
With his well-tweeted animosity toward Amazon and Jeff Bezos as a backdrop, President Trump has twice pushed Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the U.S. Postal Service charges the ecommerce giant and other major shippers, the Washington Post has reported.
UPS is considering the possibility of a two-tier wage structure that would allow lower-paid drivers to make Sunday deliveries, which the U.S. Post Office has been doing primarily for Amazon since November 2013.
As merchants search for ways to contend with the behemoth of Amazon – which accounted for about half of ecommerce sales in 2017 – many are focusing on the last mile, returns and outsourcing to battle back. This MCM Outlook report, based on our annual survey of Multichannel Merchant readers, looks at trends and stats in all three areas.
Once again Amazon is in the news about logistics and the potential for encroachment on territory owned by UPS and FedEx, both of which have Amazon as a major client, the next iteration of what began as Amazon Seller Flex last fall.