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Yes—with an important qualification: internal USPS documents described in 2020 reporting attributed about $1.6 billion in profit or contribution to Amazon deliveries during fiscal year 2019. That was a customer-level figure, not USPS’s agency-wide profit. USPS reported an $8.8 billion net loss for the same fiscal year.
What the internal documents reportedly showed
The Washington Post reported on September 17, 2020, that internal USPS emails and financial statements obtained by American Oversight showed about $3.9 billion in USPS revenue from Amazon and approximately $1.6 billion in profit or contribution for fiscal year 2019. USPS delivered 1.54 billion Amazon packages that year, according to the documents described in the report. The Washington Post’s account is the basis for these Amazon-specific figures.
The figures describe one customer relationship. The public reporting does not provide the full contract terms or a reproducible, independent calculation of the stated contribution. It is therefore most accurate to call the $1.6 billion a reported internal-document figure, rather than a separately audited Amazon profit account.
How USPS could report an Amazon contribution and still lose money
The customer-level contribution and the Postal Service’s overall financial result measure different things. USPS reported $71.1 billion in operating revenue, $79.9 billion in operating expenses and an $8.8 billion net loss for FY2019, which ran from October 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019. Those agency-wide totals cover far more than Amazon parcel deliveries. USPS’s FY2019 results provide the aggregate figures.
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A customer relationship can bring in more than the costs attributed to serving it and still be only one part of an organization whose total expenses exceed its total revenue. The $1.6 billion figure does not mean USPS ended FY2019 with a profit, nor does it establish that every Amazon parcel or delivery was profitable.
What the figures do—and do not—tell you
The Amazon account was not the whole package business
Amazon was a major USPS package customer, but it was not synonymous with the Postal Service’s entire Shipping and Packages category. USPS said that category’s revenue rose 6.1% in FY2019 while total package volume grew 0.3%. These category-wide figures include business beyond Amazon and cannot be used to verify Amazon’s individual contribution.
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“Contribution” is not the same as net income
The reported memo characterized Amazon as a “high-contribution relationship” and said it represented less than 10% of USPS’s annual revenue. GeekWire quoted the memo’s description of Amazon as the largest package customer, with $3.9 billion in FY2019 revenue, and its claim that the customer’s largest product relationship covered costs at more than 150%. GeekWire’s report also noted that the memo’s author and origin were unclear in the released material. Those statements are the memo’s characterization, not a publicly documented independent audit of Amazon’s account.
The Washington Post’s related fact-check cautioned that revenue is not profit and that contract details were unavailable. USPS’s regulatory framework requires prices for competitive services to cover attributable costs, while competitive products collectively must also contribute an appropriate share of institutional costs. That framework helps explain parcel economics, but it does not independently confirm the Amazon-specific $1.6 billion figure. The fact-check’s discussion distinguishes the claims from the available contract information.
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A similarly sized USPS figure refers to something else
USPS’s FY2019 Form 10-K separately reports approximately $1.6 billion in 2019 Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) amortization obligations. That is a distinct financial item, not the reported contribution from Amazon deliveries. The FY2019 Form 10-K covers the agency’s financial statements and obligations.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why this is a historical claim, not a current contract assessment
The evidence concerns FY2019 and reporting published in 2020. The Washington Post described contract negotiations and pricing uncertainty at that time, but the cited reporting does not establish the current contract’s terms, present-day volumes, or Amazon’s current share of USPS deliveries. The historical figures should not be treated as a guide to current delivery economics.
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