WEST SEATTLE, Washington, July 8, 2009 (WSFB) – The USPS announced today a mail sort/routing droid pilot program for West Seattle and non-crime ridden areas of Burien.

The droid, called “M41L”, an R2-series astromech model manufactured by Industrial Automaton can perform the work of 7 human postal workers has no “lumbar” and cannot claim disability.

M41L is capable of sorting 478,000 individual pieces of mail per hour and routing more than 11,000 carts of sorted mail per hour – this is just one machine.

M41L costs the USPS 1.8 million dollars but has a useful life of over 150 years and lifelong maintenance contract.

USPS union members voiced their concern earlier this afternoon at the Westwood Village branch. “We’re not going to let some robot take our jobs without a fight” bellows Lurn Brugelsen USPS local #303 member.

Management at USPS insists the pilot program will move forward, and any realized efficiencies will factor into their decision to purchase and deploy future M41L droids.