Federal Express Corporation was the U.S. Postal Service’s largest contractor in fiscal year 2013. The next largest USPS supplier was EnergyUnited, which provides consolidated telecommunication and energy billing services. Military air mail transportation provider Kalitta Air was third. Six of the Postal Service’s top 10 suppliers served the agency’s transportation needs. The Top 150 USPS supplier list is compiled annually by David P. Hendel, a partner in Husch Blackwell LLP’s Government Contracts practice group who focuses on Postal Service contracting matters.

Top-ranked FedEx transports Express Mail, Priority Mail and First Class Mail and earned postal revenues of nearly $1.8 billion in fiscal 2013 – up from $1.6 billion last year. FedEx has held the No. 1 spot since fiscal year 2002, when USPS awarded it a sole source contract. Last year, FedEx won a competition for a new seven-year contract to provide similar services. Ironically, FedEx is both one of the Postal Service’s closest competitors and its largest business partner. Another postal competitor, United Parcel Service, remains at No. 10, earning $129 million from the agency.

Pat Salmon & Sons Inc., a mail hauler, took the fourth spot. United Airlines was fifth and takes top marks among the commercial airlines that move the mail for the agency. Hewlett-Packard Co. was ranked sixth and is the agency’s largest technology provider at $165 million in revenue. Northrop Grumman, which operates the Postal Service’s central repair facility in Topeka, Kan., is seventh. Accenture, which provides software and consulting services, is eighth. Wheeler Bros., which provides vehicle parts, is next, and will likely continue in the top 10 as USPS’s large fleet continues to age.

Overall, 2013 Postal Service transportation expenses accounted for $6.7 billion, up 1.6 percent from 2012 due to higher fuel costs. Highway transportation accounts for $3.4 billion of that amount. Spending on supplies and services declined from $2.6 billion to $2.4 billion. Spending on rents and utilities declined 2.5 percent to $1.58 billion based on energy conservation measures and USPS facility consolidations.

The below list features the top 10 suppliers, showing rankings for Fiscal Year 2013 and 2012 (October 1 – September 30), from the full top 150 report    The list is prepared based on data received from the U.S. Postal Service in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Entries for companies believed to be affiliated are consolidated under the name of the entity with the largest revenue.  Husch Blackwell has been compiling the list of top USPS suppliers for each fiscal year since 2009.

 

FY 2013 Rank	FY 2012	Supplier Name	FY 2013 Revenue	City, State
1	1	Federal Express Corporation*	$1,775,554,309.54	Pasadena, CA
2	63	EnergyUnited	$414,334,927.51	Statesville, NC
3	2	Kalitta Air, LLC	$304,677,636.61	Ypsilanti, MI
4	3	Pat Salmon & Sons, Inc.*	$217,865,457.52	Little Rock, AR
5	6	United Airlines, Inc.*	$169,586,939.32	Pasadena, CA
6	7	Hewlett-Packard Co.*	$165,213,944.81	Atlanta, GA
7	4	Northrop Grumman Corporation*	$160,838,429.58	Merrifield, VA
8	8	Accenture Federal Services	$145,328,803.75	Chicago, IL
9	9	Wheeler Bros., Inc.	$135,265,169.72	Somerset, PA
10	10	United Parcel Service Company, Inc.*	$129,303,306.02	Louisville, KY

*Denotes consolidated entries.