Donald Trump takes on Amazon again, urging 'much more' in postage fees

President Donald Trump said the US Postal Service should charge Amazon.com more to deliver packages, the latest in a series of public criticisms of the online retailer and its billionaire founder.

The post office “should be charging MUCH MORE” for package delivery, the president tweeted from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he’s spending the holidays.

“Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer?” Trump told his 45 million followers.

Trump regularly criticises Amazon and its chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post newspaper and is currently the world’s richest man.

As with prior missives targeting the company, Trump’s message appeared to concern investors. Amazon’s stock had gained the past three days, but dropped 0.6 per cent to $1,178.68 at 12:41 pm in New York.

A sudden increase in postal service rates would cost Amazon about $2.6 billion a year, according to an April report by Citigroup. That report predicted United Parcel Service and FedEx would also raise rates in response to a postal service hike.

Amazon didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Amazon regularly uses the Postal Service to complete what’s called the “last mile” of delivery, with letter carriers dropping off packages at some 150 million residences and businesses daily.

While full details of the agreement between Amazon and the Postal Service are unknown — the mail service is independently operated and strikes confidential deals with retailers — David Vernon, an analyst at Bernstein Research who tracks the shipping industry, estimated in 2015 that the USPS handled 40 per cent of Amazon’s volume the previous year. He estimated at the time that Amazon pays the Postal Service $2 per package, which is about half what it would pay UPS or FedEx.

Both shippers were up less than 1 per cent Friday. Higher postal service rates would benefit private carriers by making their rates more competitive.

The Postal Service reported a net loss of $2.1 billion in the third quarter of 2017 and has $15 billion in outstanding debt. The service has lost $62 billion over the last decade.