USPS and Amazon start same-day delivery pilot for 200 packages
USPS and Amazon launched a same-day delivery pilot on Tuesday at the Morgantown, West Virginia, and Lake Havasu City, Arizona, facilities, limiting each site to 200 packages. Under the pilot, Amazon parcels dropped off between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. local time are sorted and delivered by city mail carriers between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. the same day. Each location will operate three designated delivery routes, with no set end date for the trial.
The pilot is scheduled to expand to the USPS sorting and delivery center in Columbia, South Carolina, on October 20, where the volume cap will rise to 500 packages and five required routes. Amazon said it has spent more than $5 billion with the Postal Service in recent years, making the partnership a notable revenue source for the agency. The initiative builds on a January USPS bidding process that lets shippers reserve last‑mile capacity for same‑day or next‑day delivery. Amazon also noted that orders placed later in the day would now qualify for same‑day delivery through the pilot, while the overall process remains unchanged.
“For example, orders placed later in the day would now be eligible for same day delivery through this pilot, the process is the same otherwise,” Terrence Clark, Amazon spokesperson said.
Amazon has rapidly expanded its in‑house delivery network but still relies on the Postal Service for a share of its shipments. Earlier this year the two companies reached a scaled‑back shipping agreement, and in January the USPS launched a bidding process for shippers to reserve last‑mile capacity for same‑day or next‑day delivery.
What we know
The pilot was slated to begin Tuesday at the Morgantown, West Virginia, sorting and delivery center and the Lake Havasu City, Arizona, facility, per the memo from the National Association of Letter Carriers union.
The locations will each have a volume limit of 200 packages and three required delivery routes for the pilot, with no anticipated end date.
Although the partners' same-day delivery pilot is starting on a small scale, it is scheduled to expand to the Postal Service's Columbia, South Carolina, sorting and delivery center on Oct. 20, with a volume cap of 500 packages and five required routes, the memo said.
Packages from Amazon are a key source of revenue for the financially ailing Postal Service, with Amazon saying it has spent over $5 billion with the agency in recent years.
Through the pilot, Amazon packages brought into the Postal Service network between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. local time are able to be sorted by clerks and delivered by city mail carriers between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. the same day, according to a Sept. 21 memo published by postal news website Postaltimes.com.