WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it is seeking to boost revenue from its “last-mile” delivery network to major retailers and shippers as it warns of a looming financial crunch and could run out of cash as soon as early 2027.
In a Reuters interview, U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner said he hoped Amazon.com and others would take part in the process that is seeking bids to open its 18,000 USPS delivery destination units for “last-mile” deliveries to a broader range of customers, which could add billions of dollars in much-needed revenue to USPS.
“We certainly have a precarious cash position. You know, within probably 12 to 24 months, we are out of cash,” Steiner said. “It was clear to me that you couldn’t save your way to prosperity,” Steiner said, adding that given USPS’ current free cash and its spending rate “we’re basically out of cash in early 2027.”
Steiner, who took over in July after the White House pushed out the prior postal leader, reiterated that USPS needs significant administrative and legislative reforms after reporting a $9 billion yearly loss in November.
The Postal Service delivers to more than 170 million U.S. addresses six days a week and the last-mile delivery is the most expensive part of deliveries, and it’s hugely expensive for companies like FedEx, UPS and Amazon, Steiner said.
“Rather than letting us or the customers determine what a fair price is, let’s let the market determine it? It also opens up this market to a wide variety of players?” Steiner said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul)
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