BREAKING! Postal Service To End Saturday Delivery

In a move that should have happened years ago, the US postal service will announce today that beginning in August they will cut back regular mail delivery to five days a week (packages will still be delivered on Saturdays). During the last fiscal the postal service lost $15.9 Billion.a $10+ Billion dollar increase from the prior year. Mail volume for the year fell to 159.9 billion pieces, led by an 8 percent decrease in single-piece first-class items, the most profitable kind of mail that includes letters, cards and bill payments.

The move accentuates [to five day a week delivery for letters only] one of the agency's strong points -- package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet use.

Under the new plan, mail would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open on Saturdays.

Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages -- and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully appealed to Congress to approve the move. Though an independent agency, the service gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.

It was not immediately clear how the service could eliminate Saturday mail without congressional approval.

But the agency clearly thinks it has a majority of the American public on its side regarding the change.

Material prepared for the Wednesday press conference by Patrick R. Donahoe, postmaster general and CEO, says Postal Service market research and other research has indicated that nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the switch to five-day delivery as a way for the Postal Service to reduce costs.

Cutting back on Saturday deliver is a good first step, but more is needed to make this government agency solvent. Last November the USPS asked Congress to enact legislation before it adjourns this year that would allow the Postal Service to spread future retirees’ health-benefit payments over more years, stop Saturday mail delivery, and more easily close post offices and processing plants.

There are many rural post offices which have little "traffic,"  lose money , and could be eliminated however the USPS have been prevented from making the closures and saving that (OUR) money by congress.