Amazon doesn’t want to blame the post office

Amazon goes on the defensive after a Report from The Wall Street Journal She revealed that the e-commerce giant is planning to reduce shipments with the US Postal Service, which said this week that it is about to run out of money. in A lengthy statement was published on WednesdayAmazon says it doesn’t want to reduce shipments with USPS, and that negotiations only stopped after USPS “abruptly withdrew” from negotiations on a new contract.

As you mentioned Wall Street JournalAmazon plans to cut packages sent through USPS by at least two-thirds by this fall, around the same time its contract with the independent federal agency is set to expire. Amazon claims it has been working with USPS for more than a year on a deal that “would bring them billions in revenue,” but the agency has pulled out. At the “eleventh hour” during the negotiations last December.

Even as Amazon invests billions in building the sprawling project Delivery and logistics networkit still works with USPS for last-mile deliveries — or the last leg of a shipment — especially in rural areas. the Wall Street Journal He says USPS currently handles about 30 to 40 percent of Amazon shipments in remote locations, where shipping costs are higher, and where USPS has a mandate to deliver six days a week. But big companies like Amazon are said to be getting discounted rates on shipping with the US Postal Service, something the agency no longer negotiates with companies individually, according to Wall Street Journal. The delivery mandate has been implemented, along with discounted rates for large shippers It dealt a blow to the USPS’s finances.

As part of Efforts to support revenueUSPS has implemented a new bidding process for last-mile deliveries. “There’s only one thing I’m absolutely sure of — if we keep doing things the way we’re doing them today, we’ll be dead in about a year, so I have to go out and test the market at that price to see if it’s a fair price,” Postmaster General David Steiner He told Reuters last year.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Steiner reiterated that USPS will run out of money in less than a year if Congress does not allow it to borrow more money and raise postal rates. “One easy action, increasing our borrowing authority, buys us time… time that we can use to determine what the Postal Service should do best to better serve the American public,” Steiner said. according to New York Times.

Amazon says it has “repeatedly requested to engage” with Steiner, and that the company “has not received any response” to the bid it made in February 2026. “We have submitted a bid as part of the new auction concept and hope to continue our partnership, even at a reduced level,” Amazon’s statement said. “However, without long-term certainty, we must now prepare to meet our customers’ delivery needs regardless of the outcome of the auction.”

Steiner said Reuters USPS delivers about 1.7 billion Amazon packages every year. He added that he “would like to continue” the agency’s relationship with Amazon but at a “fair price.” USPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.