Definitely interesting. I’d wager a guess that that’s exactly why Amazon is moving (albeit slowly) toward 100% self reliance. On top of buying and converting planes I feel like I see no less than a half dozen Prime vans a day now.

FedEx, UPS Fall After Morgan Stanley Note on Amazon Air

Personally I hope they can expose what are surely massive inefficiencies in the USPS.

 

Amazon is too powerful for its own good. Wow, didn't know Bezos owned Washington Post. The power of the media.

 

All the companies in Jeff Bezos’s empire, in one (large) chart

He's got his hands in a lot of places

 

I've a feeling that Bezos will run for US president in the near future. This guy seems to be different from Gates and Jobs in that he's almost a power-hungry maniac. His arms have been creeping and reaching into all nooks and crannies everywhere it's eerie.

And if he does become US president (honestly he can fund entire campaigns many times over with his net worth), it'll be a sad day for the world.

 

100%. I do not trust the guy one bit.

 

My takeaway from that article is that there is a "Package Coalition". In my head it was always Amazon vs. all. I never considered that Amazon + others have their own coalition for bargaining power.

 

I can tell you one thing, USPS is beyond a joke. They recently lost a package I handed to them for over 30 days to show up at the same P.O. I had to mail a client a second package which they also lost and it only showed up in the system when it was delivered three weeks later. And both times I asked for a scan and they said they can't do that for me. My client was beyond pissed. And when they quote me prices it's beyond unreasonable, one time they'll quote $20 and the second will be $60. It's so bad I can't offer free shipping under any circumstance any longer.

 

The USPS is, like almost every country in the world, a party to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) agreement which dates back to 1874.

That agreement allows discounts for developing countries on the postage they pay to receiving countries to complete the international delivery of mail.

China is still classed by UPU as a developing country. This effectively allows Chinese sellers to ship to the USA at Chinese government subsidized postal rates, and the UPS then gives them about a 40% discount on US postal rates. This contributes nearly half a billion annually towards the massive losses incurred by USPS.

Thanks to all US taxpayers for helping Chinese sellers to compete with US sellers. It's certainly not a level playing field.

Walter

 

The poetic nostalgia of snail mail through the centuries. Waiting months, perhaps even years, for that one message from some loved one. Children collecting stamps from all over the world. Them good old slow days are long gone.

 

Thanks for the history lesson.

I didn't know anything about the origins... just the amazement at how cheap an "e-packet" is.