USPS and Amazon test same-day delivery: your cutoff moved

The U.S. Postal Service and Amazon are piloting same-day delivery for Amazon packages that enter the postal network at midday. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the test to Supply Chain Dive. It is tiny today. But it pushes the same-day order cutoff later into the afternoon, and your customers will compare your shipping promise to that clock.

What actually happened

Per Supply Chain Dive, which cited a September 21 memo from the National Association of Letter Carriers:

• Amazon packages brought to a postal facility between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. local time are sorted by clerks.
• City carriers deliver them between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. the same day.
• The pilot started at two sites: Morgantown, West Virginia and Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Each has a cap of 200 packages and three routes.
• Columbia, South Carolina joins on October 20, with a cap of 500 packages and five routes.
• The memo gives no end date.

Amazon spokesperson Terrence Clark said orders placed later in the day would now be eligible for same-day delivery. USPS did not comment by publication time. The pilot is a second drop on top of Amazon's usual morning handoff.

The context matters. Amazon and USPS signed a scaled-back shipping deal earlier this year, and Amazon has added one-hour and three-hour delivery options in 2026. The Postal Service needs Amazon volume. Amazon needs last-mile reach it doesn't own.

Why the same-day delivery pilot matters for your business

You can't match Amazon's clock. Don't try. A few hundred capped packages in three small markets is not a threat to your store. The expectation it sets is. Every later cutoff Amazon tests trains shoppers to ask "when does it get here?" before they ask anything else.

Compete on certainty, not speed. A clear promise you keep beats a fast one you miss. Show the real ship-by time on the product page, tied to your actual pick-and-pack cutoff. Update it from your order system, not a hardcoded banner.

Watch the USPS capacity program. In January, USPS opened bidding for shippers to reserve capacity at last-mile facilities for same-day or next-day delivery, per Supply Chain Dive. If you ship regional volume, that program is where your own faster option could come from.

Local is your same-day. If you have a shop or warehouse in town, local pickup or courier delivery already beats this pilot in most ZIP codes.

Sources: Supply Chain Dive.