Trump Derangement Syndrome can't change the facts!
USPS needs to release a stamp for TDS. Perhaps a souvenir sheet that shows how to cure it - read some facts!
Lets examine who is trying to take down USPS and who has already saved it billions in further loses and wants to save it more money.
The Universal Postal Union was established in 1874 to govern the interchange of mail between countries. When mail is sent from one country to another country the country completing the delivery receives part of the fees paid by the customer in the originating country.
In 1969 a program was created by the UPU to encourage trade from developing countries by allowing them to more easily export items via their mail system. Developing countries would be given discounted international postal rates by developed countries. This was essentially a subsidy of postal rates for these less developed countries - a form of foreign aid. Even with this discount for certain countries USPS always made money on foreign mail.
The problem with this agreement was that China was considered a developing country. China was neither a developing nation in 1969 or in 2010 when eBay decided to abuse the intent of this agreement.
In 2010 eBay was the prime negotiator for a tri-party agreement between eBay, China Post & USPS. A eBay representative attended a celebration in china marking the establishment of the agreement. This agreement allowed Chinese vendors on eBay to create eBay branded labels to ship their items to the U.S. using the ultra cheap postal rates under the 1969 UPU agreement.
This program allowed packages of up to 4.4 pounds to be sent to the U.S., with these packages being classified as First Class Mail once they reached the U.S. The public was told this program was needed to create income for USPS. The public was told that these Chinese packages would help offset the income USPS had lost due to declining domestic First Class Mail volume.
Those were complete lies!
USPS was actually losing money on each package. This program was only running for approximately 1/2 of 2010 yet USPS saw it profits on foreign mail drop dramatically. By 2011, and every year since, USPS lost increasing amounts on foreign mail due to abuse of this program. Other companies such Amazon soon copied eBay's abuse of this program. Annual loses increased each year, reaching $300 to $500 million. This cost USPS to lose several billion dollars since 2010.
reuters.com/article/us-un-postal/u-n-postal-union-clinches-deal-to-keep-u-s-in-club-idUSKBN1WA247
Chinese companies were thus allowed to dump goods into the U.S. while bankrupting USPS and destroying American jobs. All this was done so eBay and Amazon and could earn commissions off these sales. USPS made up for the loses by raising its rates which in turn earned eBay more money off shipping fee commissions. USPS also made up for these loses by cutting services, closing facilities, and shortening hours of those than remained open.
Who put an end to this abuse and saved USPS losing addition billions of dollars?
Trump is who!
Within months of being contacted by concerned citizens Trump threatened to withdrawal from the UPU if other countries didn't fix pricing issues. After they still refused to do anything Trump began the 1 year withdrawal process and was mocked by the Leftist media. Faced with not having access to the largest market in the world via their mail system other countries backed down and agreed to end the abusive pricing.
Under the agreement high-volume importers of mail and packages would be allowed to begin imposing “self-declared rates” for distributing foreign mail from January 2021. There is a five-year period for phasing in new fees.
So why didn't Obama and Congress do anything to solve this? Because they get political contributions form companies like eBay and Amazon!
In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which was was sponsored by:
104 Democrats
58 Republicans
1 Independent
It passed in the House 410 to 20.
It passed in the Senate, but the specific voting record was not recored.
This 2006 law requires USPS to prefund 75 years worth of retiree health benefits in the span of just 10 years at a cost of $110 billion. No other government agency or business is required to do this. The public was told that this money was be collected for future USPS retirees, but the funds are instead being diverted to help pay down the national debt. Like money paid into social security all these years the money is not actually sitting in an account earning interest - its already been spent by Congress with a IOU being given in return. USPS was unable to keep the original 10 year payment schedule.
USPS had lost money for 13 years straight and most of those loses have been due to this retirement funding mandate. In 2019; for instance, 83% of USPS's $8.8 billion loss was due to this mandate.
Who has rejected major postal reform for years due to the political contributions from companies such as eBay, Amazon, UPS, FedEx and others? Congress is who!
For eight years Obama ignored all calls to put an end to eBay’s UPU abuse which was created during his administration and which has cost USPS billions in loses. For 8 years Obama did nothing about ending the retirement mandate from Congress. Yet Obama has the nerve to suggest at the funeral of John Lewis that Trump is trying to undermined the post office when Obama is quilty of that charge for 8 years.
The facts show that Congress & every president before Trump have worked to bankrupt USPS.
Trump on the other hand had already ended abuse of a UPU program by companies like eBay & Amazon which cost USPS billions in loses.
Trump has previously ordered reviews of USPS policies and pricing.
Trump has appointed DeJoy to complete further reforms of USPS.
Yet the Leftist media mocks DeJoy as unqualified.
What are his real qualifications?
DeJoy was CEO of High Point, North Carolina-based New Breed Logistics from 1983 to 2014, and retired after his company was acquired by Connecticut-based freight transporter, XPO Logistics, for a reported $615 million. Following that acquisition he served as CEO of XPO's supply chain business in North America until his retirement in 2015, and was appointed to a strategic role on XPO Logistics' board of directors where he served until 2018.
At the time of his naming as Postmaster General, DeJoy was president of LDJ Global Strategies, a Greensboro, North Carolina-based, boutique firm with interests in real estate, private equity, consulting and project management. He currently serves on the Elon University board of trustees.
So what was type of business was New Breed Logistics involved in, which DeJoy ran from 1983 to 2014”? A 2014 Wall Street Journal article states the following.
journalnow.com/business/new-breed-sold-to-connecticut-logistics-company-for-615-million/article_4151b23a-1819-11e4-9ac0-0017a43b2370.html
“It specializes in services for distribution, reverse logistics, transportation management, freight bill audit and payment, lean manufacturing support, aftermarket support and supply chain optimization. It processes more than 275,000 orders daily through 71 facilities.”
The Leftist media also say DeJoy wants to destroy USPS because DeJoy and his wife have assets worth between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in UPS and trucking company J.B. Hunt.
J.B. Hunt is USPS’s largest over the road contractor.
So does DeJoy wants to destroy USPS so J.B. Hunt no longer has any USPS contracts thus lowering their profits and destroying the value of DeJoy’s investment. Yes, that makes perfect sense - NOT.
www.uspsoig.gov/comment/4623
Both UPS and FedEx use USPS to make deliveries as its less costly that their own drivers making the deliveries. For example; USPS does not deliver mail to addresses in a nearby small town. Instead residents are given a free postal box. A UPS truck is able to pull up to the local post office and hand off a series of packages to the clerk. UPS has completed most of the delivery, but USPS earns income for completing the delivery from entirely within the post office.
So DeJoy wants to somehow destroy USPS so UPS can no longer use USPS as a cheaper delivery service, thus driving up UPS’s cost and lowering the value of DeJoy’s investments. Yes, that makes perfect sense - NOT!
