The U.S. Postal Service has announced its next step in the belt-tightening process of trying to cut down on its costs. It will close or consolidate operations at 140 mail processing sites through February 2013, said a postal official.

Reuters cites USPS Chief Operating Officer Megan Brennan who said that the closing or consolidation of those 140 sites is one part of a two-phase process. The second involves another wave of shutting down or combining operations at 89 additional facilities beginning in February 2014.

Facing a loss of $14 billion this year, the USPS had previously announced some drastic measures, including closing down a rumored 3,700 of its 32,000 post offices. That plan was recently replaced with one that would instead reduce hours at those locations, saving the USPS about half a billion dollars.

This all started in February when the USPS announced it would have to cut jobs, close post offices, get rid of Saturday delivery and raise stamp prices in order to save money. Those plans are on hold as the government furrows its collective brow over how to save the USPS using other measures.

U.S. Postal Service to close or consolidate 140 sites [Reuters]

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