On Wednesday, September 18, 2024, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced S. 5069, the Senate companion bill to H.R. 3721, the USPS Shipping Equity Act.
Currently, private shipping companies like FedEx can ship alcohol, but the USPS cannot. The USPS Shipping Equity Act allows USPS to ship alcoholic beverages directly from licensed producers and retailers to consumers over the age of 21, in accordance with state and local shipping regulations. The bill gives USPS two years to develop regulations and implement the law, ensuring USPS is ready to safely deliver alcoholic beverages to adult consumers with appropriate identification checks in place.
The market for direct-to-consumer shipping continues to soar with e-commerce sales expected to reach $40 billion by 2027, but breweries, distilleries, wineries, and other producers are confined by limited shipping options to get their products to customers. The USPS Shipping Equity Act would level the playing field for alcohol shipping and establish a new source of revenue for USPS. This bill is estimated to generate $190 million annually for the Postal Service.
It would also expand access to consumers for direct-to-consumer shipments. While USPS ships to every household in the nation, private carriers do not, especially in rural areas, leaving many Americans without access to direct-to-consumer alcohol shipments.
You can read a summary of the USPS Shipping Equity Act by clicking here, and the full text of the legislation by clicking here. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Patty Murray (D-WA).
Click here to read the press release from Sen. Merkley and Sen. Gillibrand with a quote from the NRLCA.
Contact your Senators and Representatives: Shipping Equity Act Form Letter (House) and Shipping Equity Form Letter (Senate).
Yea! Delivering cases of wine will make my job sooooo much better. Especially the part where I bring it to the door for a signature and no one’s home.
Yeah it would be a real injustice if you actually had to do what you get paid to do by acquiring a signature that a customer paid for. Poor you, how do you find the will to go on?
I am not sure what the argument here is as the usps needs shut down. They break the law each and every day of the 2022 postal reform act that was made into law to stop usps from falsifying scans and to report to the american people where they are failing to perform their duties. Their very name needs changed as they are not a service at all but a scam. Even walmart delivers to my door and takes pic of delivery. Lets not waste time arguing when the postal service needs fixed if it wishes to stay in business. Without government protections and special privileges it would already be out of business.
Shut the whole thing down because some people aren’t being held accountable? That’s over 600k jobs. The same could be said for tons of city, state and Federal jobs: money gets spent incorrectly and people don’t get what they hope from the service. But there are plenty that do the job correctly and do it regardless of the weather or having to work 6 days a week because they got screwed by an arbitrator and created a second tier pay scale that knocks 10k off their annual pay compared to their older tier one Regulars. How’s that feel? Working next to someone who gets paid that much more for doing the same exact job? Yea, there are problems with our government for not giving a shit about their carriers enough to guarantee a better work place and therefore a better service for the public.