Amazon, widely considered the Postal Service's biggest customer, plans to sharply reduce the number of packages it sends through USPS after failing to reach agreement on business terms, with cuts of at least two-thirds targeted for September, when its contract ends. Amazon said it negotiated in good faith for over a year and believed a deal was near when USPS “abruptly walked away at the 11th hour and introduced the auction concept,” while USPS Postmaster General David Steiner said negotiations are still ongoing. The fallout comes at a precarious time for USPS, which Steiner warned could run out of cash within 12 months, and which handled Amazon packages 1.7 billion times last year.
