4 Major Ways USPS Could Make Your Amazon Deliveries More Expensive
Between a new Postmaster General-elect and threats of privatization from the White House, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has been under high scrutiny this year. The future of the 250-year-old agency is uncertain, especially as private carriers like FedEx and UPS pick up the slack. But one thing is for certain: The push for privatization has put the USPS’s relationship with Amazon in jeopardy—and Prime members will have to pay for it, literally.
RELATED: USPS Warns Mail Theft Is Rising—5 Ways to Protect Yourself.
In Dec. 2024, President Donald Trump said privatizing the USPS is “not the worst idea I’ve ever heard” during a Trump Administration agenda briefing. The USPS has been recognized as an independent agency with a bipartisan Board of Governors since its conception in 1775. However, Trump has teased the idea of a merger between the USPS and the Commerce Department, which is helmed by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
It’s no secret that the USPS is in a financial crisis, which is only fueling the push for privatization from the Trump Administration. (In 2024, the USPS had $9.5 billion in losses, up from $6.5 billion in 2023.) However, going private could “result in higher costs, slower deliveries, and reduced services, particularly in rural areas where affordable options are already limited,” according to Investopedia.
So, how does Amazon factor into all of this?
As explained by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the USPS has a “congressionally-mandated obligation to serve the people by delivering to all 169 million addresses, urban or rural, six days a week.” Privatizing the USPS could throw this mandate out the window. Consequently, this can lead to price hikes and make it harder for Prime members in rural communities to receive deliveries.
Here are four major ways a potential USPS privatization could impact your Amazon deliveries:
- Discounted rates for bulk shipments may be discontinued
- Two-day shipping may disappear
- Product prices and subscription fees could surge
- New address restrictions could affect your family’s access to Prime shipping
“A shift to privatized postal services may cause retailers to pass higher logistics costs onto consumers, potentially dampening demand and reducing profit margins in the short-run,” economist Bryce Quillin, co-founder of It’s A Working Title, told Investopedia.
RELATED: USPS Is Closing 20+ Post Offices This Month.
Currently, Amazon fulfills about two-thirds of its own U.S. deliveries. The USPS handles nine percent of Amazon’s packages. That might not sound like a lot, but Landing Cube reports that Amazon ships approximately 1.6 million packages per day—so in the grand scheme of things, every little bit helps.
As for the latter point, this major change has already been confirmed by Amazon.
“The updated policy means that anyone living in a different household will have to sign up for their own Prime account to avoid paying the added shipping fees on their orders. Instead, the company is transitioning the offering to Amazon Family, which will allow for one other adult, four children, and four teenagers at the same address to access the perk,” as Best Life previously explained.
It’s expected to go into effect on Oct. 1.
To that end, Amazon’s relationship with the USPS is safe for right now. Postmaster General David Steiner, who took over the role in July 2025, has been a vocal advocate for anti-privatization.
“I do not believe that the Postal Service should be privatized or that it should become an appropriated part of the federal government,” he said in a video message to USPS employees. “I believe in the current structure of the Postal Service as a self-financing, independent entity of the executive branch.”
Of course, these changes could take effect if the Trump administration gets its way.