Postal Service Review Proposes Sweeping Changes Likely to Hit Amazon

A Treasury-led task force is proposing that the US Postal Service charge more for certain package deliveries, going after Amazon and other online retailers that President  Donald Trump has said benefit at the post office’s expense. The task force’s report recommends:

• USPS be able to charge market-based prices for mail and package items that aren’t deemed essential services
• raising prices for many types of commercial package deliveries, a growing business for the Postal Service
• the Postal Service correctly assess the costs it incurs in delivering packages for companies like Amazon because it hasn’t sufficiently updated its formula to reflect the rapid rise in package volumes and the decline in mail volumes
• rethinking the definition of what qualifies for the Postal Service’s so-called universal-service obligation, a legal requirement that it deliver everywhere in the US