There is a truce with an understanding between Amazon and the United States Postal Service on the delivery front.
Yesterday, the e-commerce giant founded by Jeff Bezos announced that it had reached a new agreement with the United States Postal Service (USPS) for package distribution. According to Bloomberg sources, the federal agency – struggling with financial difficulties – will maintain about 80% of the deliveries currently handled for its main customer.
The agreement comes after weeks of tension, during which Amazon had threatened to drastically reduce the number of shipments entrusted to the postal service, putting at risk a crucial relationship for the agency’s sustainability. If Amazon had replaced the American postal service by expanding its own delivery network or relying on competitors, this would have represented an existential threat to the agency. The issue has always been politically sensitive: already in 2017, the then (and current) President of the United States Donald Trump had accused Amazon of benefiting from delivery rates too favorable at the expense of USPS.
At the same time, Amazon continues to strengthen its logistical autonomy. The tech giant had criticized the postal service’s plans to auction access to the last-mile delivery network and, in April 2025, announced an investment of over 4 billion dollars to expand its infrastructure in rural areas of the United States by the end of 2026.
All the details.
THE POSITION OF THE E-COMMERCE GIANT
“We are pleased to have reached a new agreement with USPS that strengthens our long-standing partnership and will allow us to continue supporting our customers and communities together,” Amazon said in a statement.
WHAT THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AMAZON AND THE US POSTAL SERVICE PROVIDES
Instead of reducing by two-thirds the number of packages Amazon ships via the postal service by autumn, as provided in a previous proposal, the two parties have now reached a preliminary agreement that will lead to a 20% reduction, Bloomberg sources reported.
A source close to the matter stated that, thanks to this new agreement, the e-commerce giant will maintain about 80% of its current deliveries with USPS, or about one billion packages per year.
A GOOD COMPROMISE FOR USPS…
That 20% cut is a decidedly better result for the postal agency compared to the two-thirds or more reduction that, according to Reuters reported last month, Amazon had threatened.
The agreement with Amazon indeed guarantees the postal service will maintain most of the business volume with its main customer, a safety net for the agency that is trying to curb the heavy financial losses it suffers year after year, Bloomberg notes.
…IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY
As Reuters recalls, already last month USPS warned it could run out of liquidity as early as October. The Stars and Stripes postal service has a budget of about 80 billion dollars and Amazon represented 6 billion dollars in annual revenue for the agency, according to two people familiar with the business agreement.
Since 2007, the American postal service has recorded net losses of 118 billion dollars. Behind the deficit is the poor performance of first-class mail. The latter is the most profitable product for USPS, but it has now reached its lowest volume since the late 1960s. Also last month USPS declared it had requested approval for a temporary 8% increase in rates for priority mail and package deliveries, effective April 26, to cope with rising transportation and fuel costs.
In March, the general director of the United States Postal Service, David Steiner, stated that raising the price of a first-class stamp from 78 to 95 cents would help USPS reduce losses.
With this agreement, Amazon thus offers a lifeline to the struggling government agency.
