UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service got virtually all packages delivered on time over Cyber Weekend, according to an annual analysis conducted by Shipmatrix based on its shipper data, achieving the highest overall marks since 2013.
Both the U.S. Postal Service and Amazon experienced data glitches that exposed customer information. The USPS may have exposed the personal data of more than 60 million customers, while Amazon told customers their names and email addresses were exposed due to a technical error on its ecommerce site.
The upcoming lame duck session of Congress after the elections is the perfect time for lawmakers to consider legislation that would address the choking debt faced by the U.S. Postal Service caused by prefunding of retiree health benefits, said the head of a USPS advocacy group.
The USPS is proposing a number of rate changes that would be effective on Jan. 27 including an average 9.3% increase in its Parcel Select service for packages weighing more than 1 lb., as it looks to recover rising costs and deals with stiff competition from major carriers.
Parcel shipping volume grew 17% in 2017 across 13 major geographies tracked by Pitney Bowes, from 64 billion to 74 billion items shipped, with China the largest shipper at 40 billion items, followed by the U.S. (12 billion) and Japan (10 billion). See what other key data was pulled out of the annual survey.
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.
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.