Does the govt provide mailing addresses? Is there a law on the book that puts burden on shipping companies to block sender and receiver based on the provided addresses?
If not then I’m with fedex on this one.
If not then I’m with fedex on this one.
I find it odd that the URLs returned by the (test?) API[0] are bit.ly shortened. I'm generally not a fan of URL shorteners because I can't easily see where I'm headed, but it also seems that the government should have their own shortener URL if they're going to do that.
This is hilarious.
They have the same problem and if they have a solution like an address list they should be sharing it with FedEx etc.
> FedEx provides air transport service to USPS for Priority and Express Mail. Priority Mail and Express Mail are transported from Priority Mail processing centers to the closest FedEx-served airport, where they are handed off to FedEx. FedEx then flies them to the destination airport and hands them back to USPS for transport to the local post office and delivery.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service)
I don't see the relevance, and the GP is right; USPS could share whatever means they're using, it would seem. I'm also curious to know (and did not see in the article) if FedEx is actually liable, or why it is a good idea to have the shipping company, and not the shipping party, be liable?
Also, they continue to have their own police force, the private mails act to protect their monopoly in handling letters, a federal requirement to provide service to every address in the country no matter how inconvenient, and laws that make tampering with the mail a federal offense. I think the big difference is that the Postmaster General is no longer a Cabinet member. But the post office makes a big deal about the fact that they’re legally a private corporation.
> The USPS is often mistaken for a government-owned corporation (e.g., Amtrak) because it operates much like a business. It is, however, an "establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States", (39 U.S.C. § 201) as it is controlled by presidential appointees and the postmaster general. As a government agency, it has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right to deliver first-class and third-class mail. Indeed, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision that the USPS was not a government-owned corporation, and therefore could not be sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
I don't mind having the post office, because the government and the courts need a way to reliably deliver mail to anyone and have it certified and all that, but there's no excuse for them to have a monopoly.
This idea of a "huge payout to them from the government" doesn't make any sense. Who exactly is receiving this payout? There are no stockholders who would receive dividends from the profits, if there were any, which there aren't. [0]. There is no stock price going up, because there is no stock.
[0] https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2018/pr18_093.... (net loss of $3.9 billion for FY 2018)