The United States Postal Service (the national mail delivery system in America) announced last week that stating in August 2013 they will no longer deliver mail to people’s houses on Saturday.  They will continue to deliver mail to homes and businesses Mondays—Fridays, just not on Saturdays.  This is a big change in the United States.  Mail in America has been delivered to homes Monday—Saturday since 1863!  So, why is the United States Postal Service changing their delivery system?  The reason is money.  Take a look at this brief video that gives an overview of this change and why it is occurring.

The US Postal Service has been losing money for years.  The reason for this is that people are sending fewer letters, which means less income for the post office. But why are people sending fewer letters, don’t we all still have to communicate?  Of course, but that is what e-mail is for!

Think about it, when was the last time you sent a letter?  Now, think about the last time you sent an email?  How many emails did you send just yesterday?  The postal service can’t compete with e-mails, which are essentially free.  Nowadays people pay bills on line, send messages online, sign contracts online, e-mail documents online…all of this used to be done by mail and each time these items were sent through the mail someone had to buy a stamp, which helped to pay for the postal service.  The price of stamps in the United States has been going up for years.  A letter stamp in America now costs 44 cents – almost half a dollar. But even though the price of stamps has gone up a great deal in the last 10 years, the United States Postal Service is now 15 billion dollars of debt.  One way they are trying to eliminate costs and reduce debt is by eliminating Saturday home mail delivery.  By discontinuing Saturday mail delivery the postal service will save $2 billion ($2,000,000,000) a year.  This may not solve all their problems, considering how much people use e-mail and how much they will increasingly do so over the years, but it is a small step to reduce costs.  We could all also help out by sending more cards!

I wonder if postal systems in other countries are having similar problems?  Is your postal system also suffering because of the innovation of e-mail and the extent to which people now use electronic communications? Do you get Saturday mail delivery where you live? Please share your thoughts on this in the comments area below.