Trump orders review of postal service after blasting Amazon

US President Donald Trump, who earlier criticised online retail giant Amazon and accused it of cheating the US Postal Service by taking advantage of bulk delivery rates, has issued an executive order demanding a sweeping overhaul of the Postal Services business model.

Trump issued the order on Thursday forming an administration task force, to be chaired by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and directed it to evaluate the Postal Service's finances and operations, the Washington Post reported.

The order also directed the task force to issue a report outlining proposed changes within 120 days.

The order stated that the Postal Service incurred $65 billion of cumulative losses since the Great Recession ended in 2009 and that it must make changes so that it operates under "a sustainable business model".

The President did not mention Amazon in the order but he has often railed against Amazon - in public and in private conversations with his advisers and friends -- complaining about Jeffrey P. Bezos, the company's billionaire founder and chief executive, the daily said.

Trump's advisers said his outbursts about Amazon often were triggered by what he perceives as negative coverage of him by The Washington Post, owned by Bezos.

In December, Trump criticised the service on Twitter for being "dumber and poorer" by losing billions of dollars and not "charging MUCH MORE" to Amazon and other shippers. His Twitter attacks date back as far as 2013, when he scoffed at the service for planning to eliminate Saturday mail delivery.

According to the New York Times, Postal Service experts and even Trump's own advisers privately urged him to back off the accusations, noting that the huge number of packages shipped by Amazon was actually helping to keep the Postal Service financially solvent.

--IANS

soni/mr