Amazon investing more than $4B in rural delivery
May 1, 2025
Amazon expects numerous benefits from expanded rural delivery.
Amazon expects numerous benefits from expanded rural delivery.
Amazon is making a major commitment to giving customers in small towns access to fast delivery.
The online giant plans to spend more than $4 billion to expand its rural U.S. delivery network in order to speed up delivery for millions of customers living in less densely populated areas.
According to Amazon, this investment will include growing its rural delivery network’s footprint to more than 200 delivery stations, which support the last mile of its order process and help speed up deliveries for customers.
Packages are shipped to a delivery station from nearby Amazon fulfillment and sortation centers, loaded into delivery vehicles, and delivered to customers.
Delivery stations also serve as hubs for independent contractors delivering Amazon packages and/or delivering for the Amazon Flex on-demand service.
Amazon opened its first rural delivery station and began scaling its small-town delivery network in 2023, reporting an average 50% improvement in rural delivery speeds.
[READ MORE: How Amazon achieved its fastest ever delivery speeds in 2024]
By the end of 2026, Amazon expects to have tripled the size of its rural delivery network to provide Prime members in thousands of small towns and rural communities across the continental U.S. the ability to shop more than 300 million items with average delivery times cut in half.
For each new facility it opens, Amazon estimates an average of 170 jobs will be created at the delivery stations themselves, with more made available via the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) and Amazon Flex contract driver programs.
Once this expansion is complete, Amazon expects it will be able to deliver more than 1 billion more packages each year to customers living in more than 13,000 ZIP codes spanning 1.2 million square miles.
The retailer also estimates the investment will create more than 100,000 new jobs and driving opportunities through a range of full-time, part-time and flexible positions.
“I’m really excited about today’s news because I’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that our logistics network can have on communities and people across the country – from easy access to products that might be difficult to get otherwise, to great jobs for people from all backgrounds,” said Udit Madan, senior VP, Amazon Worldwide Operations, in a corporate blog post. “I’m proud of this investment and thankful to all the Amazon team members and partners supporting it to help make our customers lives better and easier every day.”
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