It’s no secret that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been struggling financially for quite some time. Last year, the government entity lost a whopping $15.9 billion, and this year, though improved, it expects to lose another $6 billion. Beginning in February this year, the USPS proposed cutting out its Saturday mail delivery, which would have cut annual costs by about $2 million. That proposal was delayed by Congress, but is still on the minds of many.
To help compensate for continual losses, the USPS announced yet another price hike to stamp prices, from 46 cents to 49 cents, something that would generate an additional $2 billion. Though unfortunate for stamp-buyers, it seems one of the few options the service has for bringing in more money. And now, with the help of Amazon, it seems USPS may have found another solution.
USPS will help Amazon deliver packages on Sundays for the first time. Founded by Jeff Bezos, the online retailer has warehouses around the world to allow for fast delivery, but must rely on USPS, UPS, and FedEx to get packages delivered right to people’s doorsteps. By partnering up with USPS, they can now guarantee faster delivery—no matter which day of the week. The partnership will be a boost to USPS and Amazon both.
Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.
IMG: Scott Beale via Flickr
“The three big pieces of growth for us are selection, lower prices and speed,” said Amazon’s Vice President of Worldwide Operations and Customer Service, Dave Clark. “Adding an additional day is all about delivery speed. An Amazon customer can order a backpack and a Kindle for their child and be packing it up on Sunday for school on Monday.”
And for USPS, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe says, “It will certainly help. The fastest growing segment is the package business.” USPS has recently been trying to focus on online shopping as a revenue generator, so their new partnership makes sense. “The future of package delivery is a seven-day-a-week schedule. We’ve got the capacity to do it.”
The new partnership will roll out to New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas first, later spreading throughout the country. With the holidays coming up, a whopping 420 million package deliveries are expected—so teaming up will help both Amazon and USPS cope.
