Trump Says U.S. Postal Service Should Charge Amazon More

President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. Postal Service should charge Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and other companies more to deliver their packages.

"Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer?," he tweeted Friday morning. "Should be charging MUCH MORE!"

The quasigovernmental agency's financial situation has deteriorated in recent years as mail volume has dropped. The USPS posted a $5.6 billion loss in its 2016 fiscal year, driven by retiree health benefit expenses of more than $5 billion.

Earlier this month, the federal agency that oversees the USPS gave the service permission to speed up its pricing increases over the next five years. The plan would allow the postal service to raise rates on "market-dominant" products, which includes first-class mail, by up to two percentage points above inflation each of those years.

The Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing corporate mail customers such as Amazon and Bank of America Corp. (BAC), said at the time that it was disappointed with the decision.

Postmaster General Megan Brennan has said she'd prefer to eliminates price caps altogether.

Neither the USPS nor Amazon immediately responded to requests for comment.

Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 29, 2017 09:20 ET (14:20 GMT)