A diverse group of America’s leading retailers, e-commerce and logistics companies has come together to form The Package Coalition.
The goal for the coalition is to work proactively with policymakers and the public to highlight the importance of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and its postal package delivery services to U.S. businesses and consumers. The USPS’s package delivery business more than covers its costs, contributing an additional $7 billion to the Postal Service’s bottom line last year, according to the Package Coalition.
Preserving reliable and affordable postal package delivery services that have come under pressure from private delivery companies and government fiscal policies, will be a main focus for the Coalition.
“While we support improvements in efficiency, we oppose legislative or regulatory changes that would force the Postal Service to raise its prices above market rates, forcing the Postal Service to raise its prices for package delivery services will harm, not help, Main Street businesses and consumers,” the Coalition said on its website.
The USPS is the only daily delivery service that connects every one of America’s 157 million addresses. Specifically, the Postal Service’s package delivery business is a success story for the economy, jobs and the postal system, the Coalition said. That piece of the business is growing, profitable and is necessary to help fund the Postal Service’s universal delivery obligation.
The Coalition noted that its members represent millions of small, medium and large businesses that through traditional retail and e-commerce create jobs and contribute to the economic health of communities across the country.
Amazon, Columbia Sportswear, Express Scripts, National Retail Federation, OSM Worldwide, Pitney Bowes, Publishers Clearing House and QVC, have already joined the Coalition.
“Reliable and affordable postal package delivery is a key engine of the American economy,” John McHugh, chairman of The Package Coalition, said. “We support policy solutions to preserve this channel of commerce for all Americans, especially those in remote and rural areas that do not have consistently affordable alternatives to the Postal Service. Members of The Package Coalition partner with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver their goods over the last mile to more than 150 million American homes and businesses.”