While people are writing fewer handwritten letters these days, as email, online chat and twitter take over, everyone still likes to receive a package.  Be it a present from a loved one or basic items such as eggs or milk, the face of the U.S. postal service (USPS) is constantly changing.

According to Bloomberg, in larger cities such as New York and San Francisco, the USPS has even been delivering groceries as early as three in the morning.

Megan Brennan—a Pottsville native and Immaculata graduate–is the first woman responsible for ensuring that every delivery is done in a timely manner after being appointed America’s 74th Postmaster General in March this year. She is the first woman to hold the position in the institution’s 240-year history.

“We’re on people’s doorstep six days a week, seven days a week in some cases. It’s just a logical progression,” she said.

After years of declining postage sales, Amazon is one of the driving forces now buoying the USPS as e-commerce is becoming the way that many people do their shopping.  

To deal with the increasing demand, Amazon now has 15 facilities nationwide to facilitate the sorting of packages, so that every letter carrier knows exactly where to deliver their eagerly awaited products.

“The only company in America right now that has so many distribution centers purely for e-commerce is Amazon,” says Marc Wulfraat, founder of MWPVL International, a logistics consulting firm in Montreal. “Wal-Mart’s probably the next-biggest player with, say, six or seven, and it drops off real fast after that.”

While the USPS doesn’t disclose much about its relationship with Amazon, citing confidentiality agreements, it is estimated that the USPS handled 40 percent of Amazon’s volume last year or almost 150 million items, more than either United Parcel Service or FedEx. As a result, Amazon gets a deep discount from the USPS based on the amount of business it generates.

Amazon is so keen to get its packages to its customer as quickly as possible that it has even considered using drone as a delivery mechanism, although it is unclear what the first female postmaster general would have to say about that.