Royal Mail has announced plans to stop Saturday letter deliveries until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The firm will 'temporarily' cut back its services as it struggles amid staff shortages caused by the ongoing virus.
It means households will have to wait up to two days for their letters as post already does not come on Sundays.
But most parcels - including Tracked, Special Delivery and non-account services - will not be impacted and posties will pick up from branches and boxes as normal.
It comes as union leaders are encouraging postmen to call in sick rather than risk catching coronavirus during their daily rounds.
Last month the Communication Workers' Union, which represents postal workers, tried to lobby for home deliveries to be reduced to three days a week, with postmen dropping off items on alternate days, but this was shelved.
Royal Mail's chief customer officer Nick Landon said postmen have faced 'incredible pressure' and 'need some relief' in a video shared with workers.
He said in the footage: 'We want to lessen the load for deliveries across that weekend, making us focus on the parcels to clear all of that traffic.'
When will Saturday deliveries stop?
In a statement, Royal Mail said its postal workers will stop delivering from Saturday, May 2.
"Our postmen and postwomen are working very hard across the UK in challenging conditions," the organisation explained.
"As we said at the start of the coronavirus crisis, there will be some disruption to services.
"Relevant factors include high levels of coronavirus-related absences and necessary social distancing measures.
"We understand the importance of the postal service in keeping the UK connected at this time. We have also listened to our hard-working colleagues who have asked us to ease the additional burden on them if possible.
"As a result, we are making some temporary changes to postal services.
"Customers should continue to post both letters and parcels as usual on Saturday. We will continue our Saturday collections from businesses, post offices and post boxes as normal.
"From 2 May we will temporarily no longer deliver letters on a Saturday. We will continue to provide a letter delivery service from Monday to Friday as normal.
"We will continue to deliver Special Delivery, Tracked, all non-account services and most other parcels from Monday to Saturday across the country."
Other third party delivery firms such as Parcel Force and UPS will be unaffected by the announcement.
