The USPS will end first-class mail service this summer after 150 years in a cost-saving maneuver. The move to cut Saturdays will be announced today.
The switch from six days a week to five only affects first-class mail; packages, mail-order medicines, priority and express mail will still get delivered.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) says the move will save the struggling US Postal Service, which lost $16 billion last year alone, about $2 billion a year.
The Postal Service has lost $41 billion over the past six years as more and more Americans turned to private shippers, email, and online banking.
To save money, the Postal Service also slashed hours of service at about half the nation’s 26,000 post offices and trimmed its workforce by 35 percent.
But it wasn’t enough.
“Look, they’re in survival mode,” Coburn said, calling the move inevitable. “They’re losing $25 million dollars a day. A day. They have to do something.”
As per 1984 law, Congress must authorize the USPS to make any cut in service, but the move is believed to have strong bipartisan support (for once).
Coburn said the public will approve and benefit, and that there’s a consensus among political leaders as well that this is a change that must happen:
“This change has bipartisan support. President Obama has repeatedly called for moving to five-day delivery of mail, most recently in his FY 2013 budget.”
What do you think of the USPS cutting Saturday service?