Posted on 11/11/2013 4:35:42 AM PST by RoosterRedux
The cash-short United States Postal Service, which has failed to win congressional approval to stop delivering mail on Saturdays to save money, has struck a deal with the online retailer Amazon.com to deliver the company’s packages on Sundays — a first for both, with obvious advantages for each.
For the Postal Service, which lost nearly $16 billion last year, first-class mail delivery, particularly on Saturdays, is often a money loser, whereas package delivery is profitable.
The deal, announced on Sunday and taking effect immediately, in time for the holiday shopping season, gives the Postal Service a chance to take some business from United Parcel Service and FedEx, which do not deliver on Sundays. Now, some orders that would have been handled by either of those carriers for Monday delivery will go through the Postal Service and arrive on Sunday.
The Postal Service said it expected to make more such deals with other merchants, seeking a larger role in the $186 billion e-commerce market. Amazon.com would not say if it would try to arrange Sunday deliveries with other parcel carriers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
20 years ago, the post office bragged they were the only fed agency to be self sufficient.
I have to wonder what changed all that.
Nothing beats the flat rate boxes here in Chicagoland.
I can jam a whole lot of stuff in a flat rate box.
Hell you can even jam bricks in there for the price.
The best part is, you can ship to military bases for the same rate.
UPS and FedEx charge us an arm and a leg to ship to military bases.
Actually factoring inflation, it is far cheaper to mail a first class letter via the USPS today than it was when the first postage stamps were issued in 1847.
In 1847 it cost 5 cents to mail a letter less than 500 miles and 10 cents to mail one over 500 miles. In today’s dollars that would be equal to $1.22 and $2.43 respectively.
Wow. I have never had to wait more than a few days.
I’m thinking of buying a Roku3 to better take advantage of the Prime streaming. They’re available now for slightly under $100 at Costco.
This is a great idea! Postal service makes money on package deliveries. Basically no one delivers on Sunday anyway. This offers some competition to the two big boys, which should help keep their pricing in check. Most likely, many other online stores will jump on this bandwagon, particularly once the USPS has this up and running. Any additional business would be gravy for them.
And, personally, I would love to be able to receive packages from amazon (and others) 7 days a week for my small home business.
Where is that stat from -- it sounds very high.
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