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I can find no evidence that private competitors must legally charge a higher rate than USPS. Do you have a source for that? My understanding was that USPS had t

I can find no evidence that private competitors must legally charge a higher rate than USPS. Do you have a source for that? My understanding was that USPS had to compete directly with private mail carriers.

nickff 6y ago
From Wikipedia: "Regarding the monopoly on delivery of letters, the report notes that the monopoly is not complete, as there is an exception for letters where either the amount paid for private carriage of the letter equals at least six times the current rate for the first ounce of a single-piece First-Class Mail letter (also known as the "base rate" or "base tariff") or the letter weighs at least 12.5 ounces." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#2008_report_on_universal_postal_service_and_the_postal_monopoly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#2... edit: Here is the law https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/39/601 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/39/601
- jgacook 6y ago
  Thanks for the link - the 6x in pricing is to enforce the monopoly on delivery of letters rather than all mail items. It only applies to (i) items weighing less than 12.5oz (ii) to the first 1.0oz of a single piece of mail. Certainly an enforcement of USPS' monopoly on letter delivery, but not a blanket price fixing across all mail items and types.
  - nickff 6y ago
    This subthread is in response to a comment that said: >" What is the direct competitor for bulk letter delivery? Historically that's not profitable so no private company does it and instead they all focus on the profitable package business, or edge case super-fast high cost delivery. " So I responded with reasons why there was no competitor for letter delivery: >" Well, the law currently requires that any competitor charge many times (7x if I recall correctly) more than the USPS for mail, and they are not permitted to use letter-boxes, so it is rather unsurprising that UPS and FedEx charge more for first class mail." We were never talking about parcels.
- coderintherye 6y ago
  Wouldn't a better solution then be to work through Congress to repeal that law?
  - nickff 6y ago
    I addressed that in a different subthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24136337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24136337

nickff 6y ago

From Wikipedia: "Regarding the monopoly on delivery of letters, the report notes that the monopoly is not complete, as there is an exception for letters where either the amount paid for private carriage of the letter equals at least six times the current rate for the first ounce of a single-piece First-Class Mail letter (also known as the "base rate" or "base tariff") or the letter weighs at least 12.5 ounces." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#2008_report_on_universal_postal_service_and_the_postal_monopoly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service#2... edit: Here is the law https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/39/601 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/39/601

jgacook 6y ago
Thanks for the link - the 6x in pricing is to enforce the monopoly on delivery of letters rather than all mail items. It only applies to (i) items weighing less than 12.5oz (ii) to the first 1.0oz of a single piece of mail. Certainly an enforcement of USPS' monopoly on letter delivery, but not a blanket price fixing across all mail items and types.
- nickff 6y ago
  This subthread is in response to a comment that said: >" What is the direct competitor for bulk letter delivery? Historically that's not profitable so no private company does it and instead they all focus on the profitable package business, or edge case super-fast high cost delivery. " So I responded with reasons why there was no competitor for letter delivery: >" Well, the law currently requires that any competitor charge many times (7x if I recall correctly) more than the USPS for mail, and they are not permitted to use letter-boxes, so it is rather unsurprising that UPS and FedEx charge more for first class mail." We were never talking about parcels.
coderintherye 6y ago
Wouldn't a better solution then be to work through Congress to repeal that law?
- nickff 6y ago
  I addressed that in a different subthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24136337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24136337