US President Donald Trump reportedly made a push for the country’s postal service to double the postage rates charged to Amazon and other companies.
According to a report by The Washington Post, Trump made a personal request to the US Postmaster General to hike the shipping rates on Amazon.
The three sources referenced in the article say postmaster general Megan Brennan declined multiple requests, responding with evidence the deal with the Amazon is beneficial for USPS.
The report comes as Trump continues to criticise Amazon and its founder/CEO Jeff Bezos. Just last month he accused the company of costing USPS “massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy.”
I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy. Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2018
Part of his ire seems to result from Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post; the source of today’s report. He has accused the newspaper of being Amazon’s “chief lobbyist” and a means for Bezos to avoid taxes. There’s a belief this attitude is the result of negative coverage of his presidency in the Post.
Amazon has declined to comment on the report, but does seem to be speaking through the Post article in this instance. The report says this move would cost Amazon and the other firms involved “billions of dollars”.
Related: Netflix vs Amazon
Should Amazon be subject to these delivery fees for its “last mile” services, it’d be difficult for the company to officer Amazon Prime delivery service at its current rate. It’s also possible this could accelerate Amazon’s rumoured plans to establish its own delivery service.
Amazon would probably be able to make more progress on its Air Prime drone delivery initiative, had it been among the companies granted a testing permit by the Trump Administration…
Would life change significantly for you if Amazon Prime were to cease its operations? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
