Amazon and USPS reached a deal in which USPS will retain 80% of Amazon’s package business, according to Reuters, which published the following statement from Amazon on Monday:
“We’re pleased to have reached a new agreement with USPS that furthers our longstanding partnership and will let us continue supporting our customers and communities together.”
Reuters said Amazon is USPS’s largest customer and cited a source that said Amazon would continue to use USPS for about 80% of its existing deliveries, or over 1 billion packages a year.
Last month, Amazon accused USPS of having “abruptly walked away at the eleventh hour” from negotiations in December. USPS then opened up entry to its last-mile delivery network in January and launched a new USPS bidding platform. Reuters said in its reporting today that Amazon had criticized that move and threatened to cut its delivery business prior to the deal being reached.
Interesting. The Bezos-owned Washington Post newspaper had an editorial on Friday basically saying the USPS business model is extinct, and calling for USPS’s privatization (or, one suspects, sale to Bezos). https://wapo.st/47SaJp5 A Bezos-owned USPS would probably charge much higher prices and an Amazon Prime like annual fee for local delivery. Good luck, rural America.