Kamal Ghorui
Amazon has now issued a clarification about the recent press coverage on its relationship with United Sates Postal Service (USPS). In a blog post issued by Amazon, the e-commerce stated that the situation has been mischaracterised by the reports. The company also emphasised that it tried negotiating the terms in good faith with USPS for more than a year but the postal service walked away the last minute in December. Amazon also emphasised that its long-standing partnership with the USPS, dating back to over 30 years to when Seattle post office delivered its very first customer orders. Over the period of time both the companies have collaborated on innovations such as Sunday delivery, which improved customer experience while generating additional revenue for USPS. Amazon said it spends more than $5 billion annually with USPS and has supported legislative efforts like the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 to strengthen the agency’s financial stability.
What went wrong between Amazon and USPS
As per the e-commerce major, the company required a renewed agreement by December 2025 to plan its logistics network ahead of the current contract’s expiration in September 2026. Running a delivery network at Amazon’s scale, it said, requires years of preparation and significant capital investment. Despite progress in negotiations, USPS abruptly ended talks in December, creating uncertainty for Amazon’s long-term planning.Amazon submitted a bid in February 2026 under USPS’s new auction model but has yet to receive a response. The company warned that without long-term certainty, it will need to invest in alternative delivery options to meet customer demand.
Read Amazon’s complete blog post here
Recent press coverage has mischaracterized our relationship with the United States Postal Service (USPS). The truth is simple: we negotiated with them in good faith for more than a year to reach a deal that would bring them billions in revenue and believed we were heading toward an agreement. Our goal was to increase our volumes with USPS, not reduce them—until USPS abruptly walked away at the eleventh hour in December.Our partnership with USPSFor more than 30 years, Amazon and USPS have worked together to deliver for customers across the country. This partnership dates back to Amazon’s earliest days, when a local Seattle post office delivered our very first customer orders. Since then, USPS’s nationwide network has remained central to our ability to serve customers everywhere—from major cities to rural communities.We value this partnership deeply. Together, we’ve innovated to better support customers, launching services like Sunday delivery that improved the customer experience while generating additional revenue and operational efficiencies for USPS. In recent years, we’ve spent over $5 billion annually with USPS and have advocated on their behalf with lawmakers to strengthen the Postal Service’s long-term financial stability, including our support for the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022.That’s why we spent more than a year working toward a new, long-term agreement. We engaged directly with Postmaster General David Steiner, his leadership team, and members of the USPS Board of Governors because we needed a new contract in place well ahead of our current agreement’s expiration on September 30, 2026.What happenedRunning a delivery network at Amazon’s scale takes years of preparation. You can’t add capacity for hundreds of millions of packages overnight—it requires major capital investment, long-term infrastructure planning, hiring, and logistics coordination. That’s why we told the Postal Service last October that we needed a renewed agreement by the end of December.In December, USPS abruptly walked away at the eleventh hour instead of continuing the renewal agreement we’d been negotiating. This creates significant uncertainty for our long-term network planning. Despite this, we participated in good faith and submitted a bid in February 2026. We’ve received no response.We’ve submitted a bid as part of their new auction concept and hope to continue our partnership, even at a reduced level. However, without long-term certainty, we now have to prepare to meet our customers’ delivery needs regardless of the outcome of the auction. The longer we go without certainty, the more we need to invest in alternative options.We’ve repeatedly requested engagement with Postmaster General Steiner to work toward a solution. We want to find a path forward, but that window is rapidly closing.Our commitmentAmazon remains committed to partnering with USPS. We continue to believe that USPS’s nationwide network is an asset for serving customers and investing in communities across America. A healthy USPS means reliable delivery for Americans in every community, and we’re ready to continue this partnership.
