The United States Postal Service announced plans today to transition to a new delivery schedule during the week of August 5, 2013 that includes package delivery Monday through Saturday, and mail delivery Monday through Friday.

This basically means that you don't have to check your mailbox on Saturday, August 10th, unless you're expecting a package.

Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages. However, recent strong growth in package delivery and projections of continued strong package growth throughout the coming decade led to the revised approach to maintain package delivery six days per week.

Once implemented during August of 2013, mail delivery to street addresses will occur Monday through Friday. Packages will continue to be delivered six days per week. Mail addressed to PO Boxes will continue to be delivered on Saturdays. Post Offices currently open on Saturdays will remain open on Saturdays. So if you really, really want to receive non-package mail on Saturdays, get a PO Box!

The operational plan for the new delivery schedule anticipates a combination of employee reassignment and attrition and is expected to achieve cost savings of approximately $2 billion annually when fully implemented.

The Postal Service is currently implementing major restructuring throughout its retail, delivery and mail processing operations. Since 2006, the Postal Service has reduced its annual cost base by approximately $15 billion, reduced the size of its career workforce by 193,000 or 28 percent, and has consolidated more than 200 mail processing locations.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

More on the USPS:

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of approximately $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. Follow the Postal Service on www.twitter.com/USPS and at www.facebook.com/USPS.