Postal Service Plans to End Saturday Mail Delivery

The U.S. Postal Service plans to end Saturday mail delivery by as soon as August to cut financial losses, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the postal service, which lost $15.9 billion last year, can make the change without Congress’s approval, if necessary.

The change would cut 22,500 full-time jobs and reduce costs by as much as $2 billion a year, Donahoe said. Job cuts can be made by attrition and buyouts, he said at a news conference in Washington.

The postal service will continue six-day deliveries of packages, deliver mail to post-office boxes and keep retail locations open that now operate on Saturdays, Bloomberg reported.

Package carriers UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. rely on the post office for last-mile delivery of packages sent using their cheaper SurePost and SmartPost services, respectively.

The Postal Service determines the date of the final delivery and could hold some of those packages until Monday, Bloomberg reported.