U.S. Postmaster General Announces End Of Saturday Mail Delivery

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Saturday mail delivery will be a thing of the past come summer 2013.

The postmaster general announced Wednesday that the United States Postal Service intends to end first-class Saturday mail delivery by August. The move is expected to save $2 billion a year.

"Beginning the week of Aug. 5 this year, the Postal Service delivery schedule will consist of six days of package delivery, and five days of mail delivery," the postmaster general said.

The Postal Service cited a $16 billion loss in 2012 and $41 billion total over the past six years. The government entity has also slashed its workforce by 35 percent and cut hours at its 26,000 post offices in an effort to reduce operational costs.

"They're losing $25 million dollars a day. A day. They have to do something," former government watchdog David Walker told CBS News.

The plan to shrink delivery from six days a week to five would only affect first-class mail, while packages, mail-order medicines, priority and express mail would still get delivered on Saturdays.

The cancellation of Saturday mail delivery would end a 150-year tradition.

"We anticipate a reduction of employees of about 22,000 to 35,000. Most of that we hope to accomplish through attrition," US Postal Service spokesperson Richard Maher said.

Technically, the Postal Service is not allowed to its reduce service unless Congress changes the law, but lawyers for the Postal Service think that they have figured out a way around this. President Barack Obama has endorsed the plan to cut Saturday service as part of his deficit reduction plan.

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