USPS warns it might have to shutter by June

[HazelEyes]

USPS is in crisis mode. USPS warns it might have to shut down by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding. With a negative net worth of $65 billion and an additional $140 billion in unfunded liabilities, the USPS originally expected to run out of liquidity by 2021 without intervention. That has accelerated rapidly because of COVID-19. Fewer people and businesses are sending mail because of the outbreak, which could hasten the decline of the Postal Service and close its doors as early as June, officials warned.

That's not just bad news, this will affect your Amazon Prime deliveries. While Amazon has rapidly taken its delivery network in-house in recent years, the mega-retailer still depends on the USPS to deliver many orders. As recently as July, the USPS was delivering about a third of Amazon packages. Amazon also pledged last April that it would soon deliver all Prime packages in one day. In rural America, the USPS would be a major part of that.
The Postal Service makes up a large percentage of deliveries in rural areas, where Amazon has not invested in its own so-called last-mile network. A December report from Morgan Stanley said it's not a coincidence: The retail giant was "cherry picking" America's densest ZIP codes and leaving areas where homes are more spread out — and more expensive to service — to the USPS.

But the service has a legal imperative to serve all US addresses, even low-margin, low-density rural neighborhoods. Rural America is so costly to service that McKinsey has said that even drone delivery might not offset the costs.

If the USPS were to vanish, Amazon would have to build its last-mile network in rural America or set up partnerships with delivery giants like UPS. CEO Jeff Bezos has already plunged billions into accelerating Amazon's shipping network — its worldwide shipping costs increased by 43% in the fourth quarter of 2019 as online sales grew by only 15%.

This was obtained from the Fortune Magazine website and Business Insider.

That will be catastrophic, in top of everything else that's going on. No mail, or package deliveries. Imagine that. I'm pretty sure that the Government will not allow this to happen. Lets see what unfolds.