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Amazon is planning to sharply cut the number of packages it ships through the U.S. Postal Service, a move that could cost the agency billions of dollars of much-needed revenue, the WSJ’s Esther Fung writes.
Long the Postal Service’s biggest customer, Amazon has already begun ratcheting down its postal volume and wants to reduce it by at least two-thirds by this fall, when its current contract with the agency expires, according to people familiar with the matter.
USPS delivered more than a billion packages for Amazon last year, close to 15% of all the packages it delivered in the U.S. Amazon disclosed the plan to the Postal Service in a confidential bidding process for its last-mile delivery service. USPS solicited bids for the service for the first time, aiming to help it determine the true market value of the last-mile service.
Results of the last-mile bidding competition will be released in the second quarter, and contracts will be finalized by the end of the third quarter. That left Amazon concerned that it would have little time to make changes to its network if its bid weren’t accepted, the people said.
Amazon delivered 6.7 billion packages last year, while USPS delivered 6.6 billion, according to ShipMatrix. It was the first year Amazon’s parcel volumes exceeded the Postal Service’s volumes.
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Amazon said it was rolling out one-hour and three-hour delivery services across the U.S., as it moves to fend off a growing threat from Walmart and faces intensifying shipping competition. (WSJ)
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