- Following reports that that U.S. Postal Service was removing collection boxes across the country, a spokesperson for the organization said Friday that the nation's mail service would halt those plans.
- Some towns in Montana noticed that in some cases, approximately 50% of the boxes of certain areas were slated for removal. Mail demand was expected to surge in the coming months as the demand for voting ballots and mail-in voting were scheduled to ramp.
- The Post Office warned States across the country that they "cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, even if mailed by state deadlines," the AP reported.
- The move to halt the removal of boxes came on the same day as the Post Office announced new price increases due to take place Oct. 18. The price increase is for all commercial domestic competitive package volume ahead of the shopping season, which may portend an impact for shipping competitors Fedex (NYSE:FDX) and UPS (NYSE:UPS). Its unclear what impact it may have upon Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). The Trump Administration has long called for rates to be raised on the e-commerce provider.
- In April, During a press briefing in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said he would block federal aid for the U.S. Postal Service unless it raises shipping rates for Amazon and other online companies.
- In an interview on Fox earlier this week, Trump discussed his intent behind the latest USPS funding moves, carried out by his appointed Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy.
- DeJoy was previously a senior executive at XPO Logistics (NYSE:XPO) after leading a merged entity that provided services to the Post Office, according to his bio on the Post Office website.
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