The U.S. Postal Service will cease Saturday mail delivery to homes and businesses as part of a plan the cash-strapped agency says will save $2 billion a year.
The postal service lost a whopping $16 billion last year, prompting many observers to push Congress to approve the switch to five-day-a-week delivery. The AP says it’s still unclear if the USPS would need Congressional approval, though some House leaders have already given the plan support.
But not everyone is singing the plan’s praises. Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, a mail-carriers union, said in a statement the development “would be particularly harmful to small businesses, rural communities, the elderly, the disabled and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication.”
“Slowing mail service and degrading our unmatchable last-mile delivery network are not the answers to the Postal Service’s financial problems,†he continued.
The plan is scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 1.
Read what the mail carriers union opposed to the plan have to say.