NEW YORK (AP) — The United States Postal Service said Thursday it reached a $10 billion deal to provide “last-mile” package delivery services for DHL eCommerce, an arm of German package services provider DHL.

The USPS said in December it intended to open its last-mile delivery network to large and small shippers, expanding beyond current arrangements with Amazon and UPS.

Last-mile delivery refers to the final step of getting a package from a local distribution center to a customer’s door, the most labor-intensive part of the delivery process.

Postmaster General David Steiner said in a call with reporters that since the USPS delivers to 170 million locations six days a week, “we are the best last-mile provider by default.”

“For us, this is a matter of meeting the customers where they are and meeting the customers’ needs,” he said.

The USPS and DHL said the agreement is a multi-year commitment, but did not elaborate.

Under Steiner, the USPS has been trying to expand the 250-year-old postal service’s…