The U.S. Post Office is expected to announce later this morning that it will end weekend mail delivery beginning this summer.
Under the new plan, as outlined to the Associated Press and other outlets, Saturday mail-delivery would end in early August. Mail would still be delivered to homes and businesses from Monday through Friday, and will still be delivered to P.O. boxes on Saturday. Packages, meanwhile, will continue to be delivered six days a week, Monday through Saturday.
The planned change has been in the works for some time, as the cash-strapped agency searched for ways to trim its budget. The new plan is estimated to save about $2 billion annually. Still, there appears to be at least a few hurdles remaining before the plan could be implemented. For starters, Congress technically has final say over what goes on at the post office and some lawmakers have previously suggested they’d be against such a move. It’s still a bit unclear if and how the mail service can cut Saturday delivery without congressional approval. We should know more about that later this morning after the official announcement.
