Originally Posted by
iPilot
Amazon isn't creating a common-carrier freight company. They just want to cut out the middle-man and ship their own stuff.
Right now they use the post office for most last-mile deliveries to residential addresses. All Amazon has to do is ship packages into the USPS system. Most likely the jets and semi-trucks will deliver to regional post offices and the USPS takes it from there. Granted that isn't a small matter and they'll likely continue to use FedEx and UPS where it makes sense. Perhaps this is just a negotiating tactic on Amazon's part to get cheaper shipping rates. I imagine Bezos writes those guys a pretty big check that he'd like to keep to himself.
There's a reason why the USPS contracts out much of the kind of shipping you are talking about. It sounds kind of simple until you actually witness the process. But if it were a cheap and easy process, it would have been one of the last things the money losing Post Office would have shed. Instead, it was the first.