The retailer is investing $4 billion into its rural “last mile” network. Set to triple in size by the end of 2026, the network will deliver one billion additional packages annually, Amazon said in April. It added that an additional 4,000 small towns, cities, and rural communities will get same-day and next-day deliveries by the end of the year.
Amazon said spending billions more on its rural delivery network will create 100,000 additional local jobs, which is more than the 75,000 workers employed by the U.S. Postal Service in America’s 15 most-rural states, according to a 2020 Institute for Policy Studies report.
With sparser fulfillment sites, limited infrastructure, and lower shipment density per ZIP code, low-margin rural areas have been historically neglected by for-profit couriers like Amazon, Walmart, UPS, and FedEx. Legally obliged to service all Americans, the USPS typically covers these routes instead.
