Postal service plans to open last-mile delivery network to more shippers in money-raising move

By SUSAN HAIGH, Associated Press

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it intends to open its “last-mile” delivery network, the most expensive part of the shipping process, to large and small shippers, expanding beyond current arrangements with giants such as Amazon and UPS.

The goal is to diversify and boost revenue through the postal carriers’ final leg of delivery to millions of individual homes and businesses.

The postal service expects to accept bids in late January or early February from other shippers, which will propose their own mix of volume, price and delivery timing. The agency will award contracts later in 2026, based on where it can provide same- and next-day delivery service at a profit.

“As part of our universal service obligation, we deliver to more than 170 million addresses at least six days a week, so we are the natural leader in last-mile delivery,” said David Steiner, the postmaster general and CEO. “We want to make this valuable service available to a wide range of customers that see the worth of last mile access -other logistics companies and retailers large and small.”

Steiner has said the 250-year-old postal service should expand its revenue base by capitalizing on its long-standing legal obligation to deliver to every address, as well as recent modernization investments in package processing and delivery capacity.

The agency reported net losses of $9 billion this budget year, a slight improvement from the previous year’s $9.5 billion. The postal service is an independent and mostly self-supporting federal agency.

Under the new plan, shippers would have access to more than 18,000 postal service “delivery distribution units,” entry points throughout the network where mail and packages are sorted for delivery to a local area.

Steiner called the concept a “compelling value proposition for many shippers who we know are wrestling with the need to deliver to their customer as quickly and reliably as possible,” predicting it will ultimately help lower their costs.

The postal service said it still plans to gauge interest in the concept and fine-tune the details.