USPS and DHL Lock In $10B Last-Mile Partnership — What It Means for Shippers
- 13h
- 2 min read
The U.S. Postal Service and DHL eCommerce have finalized a multi-year contract valued at more than $10 billion — the longest and most scalable agreement the two organizations have reached in their 25-year relationship. The deal extends DHL eCommerce's use of USPS for last-mile parcel delivery and signals a significant vote of confidence in the postal network as a backbone for e-commerce fulfillment.
How the Model Works
DHL eCommerce handles the heavy lifting upstream — pickup, sortation across 19 automated hubs, and linehaul via air and ground — then hands pre-sorted containers to USPS for final delivery. The postal network reaches more than 170 million locations across 41,550+ zip codes, six days a week. DHL specializes in packages weighing one to eight pounds, where this workshare model gives it a meaningful cost advantage over running its own last-mile fleet.
Why This Deal Matters Now
The agreement comes as USPS Postmaster General David Steiner pursues a revenue-growth strategy to stabilize the agency's finances after a $9.5 billion net loss in fiscal year 2025. Steiner has been actively soliciting last-mile partnerships with a broader base of shippers and logistics providers, arguing the postal last-mile network has historically been undervalued.
The DHL deal follows Amazon's April renewal — at 20% less volume — and reflects a broader push by USPS to grow last-mile revenue across multiple partners rather than depending on any single account. USPS's three largest last-mile customers collectively generate more than $8 billion in annual revenue.
What’s Different This Time
The length of the contract is the standout feature. For the first time, DHL eCommerce has a true multiyear commitment, which provides predictability for its own clients and positions DHL to offer longer-term pricing agreements downstream. The $10 billion figure is also described as a baseline — both sides expect volumes and value to grow significantly over the contract’s term.
Importantly, USPS also rolled back a prior policy that required parcel shippers to inject loads at centralized processing centers. The restored flexibility — allowing drops at the post office level — benefits large-volume operators like DHL that have the scale and infrastructure to reach thousands of destination delivery units daily.
As USPS strengthens its commercial last-mile relationships, the postal network is becoming a more defined and strategic layer in domestic parcel fulfillment — not just a fallback option. For Partners shipping or advising clients on e-commerce logistics, this agreement reinforces that USPS-powered solutions remain deeply embedded in how major players like DHL move B2C volume cost-effectively at scale.