Amazon just made the US Postal Service have a seven day work week, and they’re happy about it. Internet, web payments and email have caused the United States Postal Service to continuously cut back over the last five years. Now, in a deal announced Monday, some USPS workers will work on Sunday.
Amazon will start off Sunday shipping in New York and Los Angeles. The Verge reports that they also plan on offering the service in New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and Phoenix in 2014. If the program is a success they could branch out to even more post offices across the country.
“As online shopping continues to increase, the Postal Service is very happy to offer shippers like Amazon the option of having packages delivered on Sunday,” said USPS CEO Patrick R. Donahue in a press release;
“Delivery on a Sunday would be very compelling for consumers. There are certainly people who decide not to make an order on a Friday because it won’t get there until Monday,” Forrester Researcher Sucharita Mulpuru told the Wall Street Journal. She went on to say that Amazon will most likely have to pay a premium for Sunday delivery. “This has to be much more expensive than other days,” she said.
Amazon customers won’t incur any additional fee for Sunday delivery. If they order an item and the day that it should be delivered is Sunday it will be delivered on Sunday in the cities above.
A postal service spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that they won’t incur any additional labor costs because they already have some workers on a “flexible schedule” “We’re ready for Sunday in the current markets,” the spokeswoman said. “If this were to expand, we would look at staffing levels and adjust accordingly.”
The service will begin in New York and L.A. this coming Sunday November 17th. Amazon’s Vice President of World Wide Operations, Dave Clark, said the company will begin shipping Sunday’s in London using their own trucks. Amazon has also been feverishly building up their same day shipping options in major cities with plans to expand that as well.
