Amazon (AMZN) reportedly prepared plans for a future without the US Postal Service, following intense negotiations with them last year, Business Insider reports

Contingency planning of this kind is standard practice for a shipper of this scale after contentious contract rounds; building out an alternative to a national postal counterparty is something large parcel networks have done incrementally for years, typically by extending their own last-mile delivery arm deeper into rural and low-density routes where the incumbent has historically been cheapest. The distinction that matters is between genuine exit preparation and negotiating leverage: contingency plans leaked to the press have often surfaced mid-negotiation as a pressure device, and reports of this kind have on past occasions preceded renewed agreements rather than actual separation. The operational reality is that full substitution is slow and capital-heavy, since the postal service reaches addresses competitors either surcharge or refuse, so any real unwind would show up first in expanded delivery-station buildout and hiring patterns rather than in an abrupt volume shift. The counterparty side is also constrained: the postal service depends on large parcel customers for a meaningful share of revenue, which limits how hard it can push on pricing. What is worth watching is any formal contract development, capex commentary on the logistics network, and whether rival carriers move to position for displaced volume. As a report of internal planning rather than an announced decision, the signal is directional and the equity read-through is limited at this stage.