Postal Service wants to open up “last mile” to more shippers

According to Supply Chain Dive, new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is shifting the Postal Service’s strategy to open up its last-mile delivery network to more shipping partners. The agency plans to leverage its ability to reach every U.S. address six days a week and its network of over 33,000 facilities. This marks a departure from previous leader Louis DeJoy’s approach, which focused on pushing volume through the full Postal Service network rather than encouraging consolidators to drop parcels closer to delivery points. That earlier strategy caused UPS to stop using the Postal Service for its SurePost product, now called Ground Saver. Current Postmaster General emphasized that limiting access to only high-volume customers “undervalued our reach, limited business partnerships and restricted revenue generation.” The Postal Service also aims to become “the most convenient returns facilitator” in the country.

The big strategic pivot

Here’s what’s really interesting about this move. The Postal Service isn’t just reverting to pre-DeJoy policies – they’re trying to create something new. DeJoy’s approach was all about control: make shippers use more of the USPS network, capture more of the shipping dollar. But that backfired when major partners like UPS walked away.

Now the new leadership seems to be recognizing something fundamental. The Postal Service’s real competitive advantage isn’t in the middle miles – private companies like FedEx and UPS have that locked down with their sophisticated sorting facilities and air networks. The expensive, hard part is that last mile to your doorstep. And guess who has the infrastructure for that already built out? Exactly.

The revenue desperation

Let’s be honest – this is about survival. The Postal Service has been bleeding money for years, and package delivery represents one of their few growth areas. First-class mail isn’t coming back. Ever. So they need to monetize what they’re actually good at: that final delivery leg.

Think about it from a business perspective. They’ve already got the trucks, the carriers, the routes. The marginal cost of adding another package to a route that’s already going to every address anyway is relatively low. But they need volume to make the economics work. Hence the shift from “only a few high-volume customers” to opening things up more broadly.

Where this fits in the shipping world

This could actually be pretty significant for smaller shippers and e-commerce companies. The big players have their own solutions, but what about the mid-market? Being able to tap into the Postal Service’s last-mile network without jumping through all the hoops previously required could be a game-changer.

And the returns angle is smart too. Returns are the nightmare of e-commerce, and having 33,000 drop-off points nationwide? That’s a legitimate competitive advantage. The question is whether they can execute on the operational side while still dealing with their broader network overhaul.

Basically, they’re trying to play to their strengths rather than fighting battles they can’t win. It’s a more pragmatic approach than we’ve seen from the Postal Service in years. Whether it actually moves the needle on their financial situation? That’s the billion-dollar question.