POST OFFICE PACKAGE CHARGES

It turns out that there is a dispute going on among the Post Office, Amazon, and UPS for some time about the pricing structure of the Post Office (quotes are in italics):

The dispute primarily centers around how the post office splits its fixed "institutional" costs — such as the driver salaries, trucking fees, and other overhead expenses — between its two businesses: The "Market Dominant" letter business (a government-protected monopoly) and the "Competitive" parcel business (which competes with many private businesses, including UPS and FedEx).
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The 5.5 percent minimum share was set in 2006 when the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) became law. But because the law was written more than a decade ago, it fails to capture the growing mix of package shipments, especially as a result of e-commerce growth, UPS wrote in a filing last year.

The post office has seen a steady increase in revenue from the Competitive packaging business. In 2008, the Competitive business generated just $8.4 billion, or just 11 percent of the total revenue. By 2017, that part of the business had grown to over $19 billion in sales, approximately 30 percent of the post office's total sales.

To better account for this change, UPS thinks the Postal Service's Competitive business should pay a larger share of the fixed costs — approximately 29 percent.*

And here is another take on the Amazon-Post Office-UPS dispute

One of his main contentions is that Amazon is ripping off the U.S. Postal Service, but it's not clear whether it is getting the short end of the stick from the Jeff Bezos-led retailing juggernaut.**

In fact, Amazon may be saving the post office from financial ruin. (Underlining and bolding added)

On April 3, Trump said, "the post office is losing billions of dollars," at U.S. taxpayers' expense.

It's true that the post office is losing money. It reported a $2.7 billion net loss in 2017.

But the post office is not funded by U.S. tax dollars.

And when you look at the revenue breakdown, you can see that shipping and packages is actually one of the few categories that brought in more money than the previous year. While overall revenue fell $1.8 billion, shipping and packages saw a $2.1 billion increase in revenue. Meanwhile, first-class mail revenue was down around $1.8 billion.**

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That idea that the post office is losing big likely stems from a Citigroup report. The report alleges the USPS' pricing model is unsustainable, and that parcel rates would need to rise significantly for the agency to break even.

The report was mentioned in a widely circulated Wall Street Journal commentary by shipping analyst Josh Sandbulte. The analyst argues that the post office is essentially giving Amazon a $1.46 subsidy for every box it ships.**

But if true, that figure would hold for all companies across the board, not just Amazon. Which is probably where Trump is coming up with the claim that the post office "will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon."

* https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/05/amazon-and-ups-disagree-postal-regulatory-commission-public-filings-post-office-cost-structure.html
** https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/06/trump-claims-amazon-is-ripping-off-post-office-but-its-complicated.html