The Postal Service is considering changes to how it works with key shipping partners,
a move experts say could challenge service levels and pressure delivery prices. The proposed changes
would affect shipping consolidators, which handle and send customers’ parcels to Postal Service
facilities for final-mile delivery, experts told Supply Chain Dive. Specifically, USPS has broached key
partners to discuss which facility access points are used by shipping consolidators to enter volume into
its network, and the negotiated rate discounts tied to that process. The Postal Service wants
consolidators to drop off packages further upstream in its network, rather than drop off volume at
destination delivery units, which are the last stop in the agency’s network before packages and mail
reach their final address. The change could expose more shipments to delivery delays in the agency’s
network, something it has struggled with in the thick of its “Delivering for America” overhaul.
