INTERNATIONAL SERVICE DISRUPTIONS

 

HEADLINE COUNTRIES

 

AUSTRALIA – Victoria and parts of NSW suffered extreme weather events last month. There are some ongoing network disruptions as a result which may be causing some delay with final deliveries.

 

BELGIUM – Belgian Post has informed that the major Belgian trade unions have called a 24-hour general strike, commencing at 00.01 on the 9th of November 2022. This strike will impact airline handling, transport & deliveries and therefore delays should be expected for items destined to Belgium during this time period.

 

FRANCE – There have been some localized fuel shortages, which are ongoing and may cause some delivery delays – 1 to 3 days.

 

GERMANY – Deutsche Post of Germany has informed that due to increasing COVID-19 infections among staff, it is currently encountering challenges in delivering items within promised delivery timescales. These challenges are mainly at local or regional levels rather than nationwide but may affect different parts of Germany with delays. As a result, minor delays may be experienced for items destined for Germany until further notice.

 

PORTUGAL – Following strike action by the postal union there may be some delays in final mile deliveries during the first week of November.

 

UNITED KINGDOM – Royal Mail – the Union have cancelled strike action for November 12th and November 14th. The Postal Workers Unions have indicated they may ballot for strike action November 24th, 25th, and 30th. And an additional day December 1st.These dates have not been formally announced, the Unions have to confirm exact dates a minimum of 14 days in advance.

Contingency Plans are in place already.

Our final mile carrier in the UK for tracked parcels and DDP shipments does not rely on Royal Mail for the final delivery, and are not impacted by any Royal Mail industrial action.

Royal Mail have published their contingency plans to deal with the strike action, and are putting managers in place to staff operational shortfalls.  The major inbound hub in the UK is fully automated, so inbound postal material will be processed and sorted for final destination deliveries. The potential delay will be on the evening prior to a strike day, when sorted material cannot move to the local Royal Mail delivery hub, and will transfer a day later. Please review the UPU announcement from Royal Mail :

Royal Mail have also published the order in which final mile deliveries will be made on the day after each strike day:

https://world.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=95d0c7665472b36283bfa894b&id=3e12c3932d&e=7c23bfae2b

We optimize sorting on untracked parcels and mail, and these are drop shipped to regional RM hubs throughout the UK for final destination delivery sort, we are not dropping to one RM hub to go through the Royal Mail sort process. This is our normal process so we anticipate only minimal delays 1-2 during the strike period.

Please visit www.royalmail.com/latest-news for up-to-date, detailed information on services.

 

OTHER DELAYS

 

AFGHANISTAN – All mail and parcel services suspended indefinitely.

 

BRAZIL – Potential for some residual delays following unrest after the recent presidential election. The government report situation is now back to normal and expect minimal impact.

 

CANADA – On Friday November 11th, Canada Post will be not be delivering mail as it is closed for Remembrance Day.

 

GREECE – Hellenic Post have updated that they are currently experiencing an IT system issue. The post are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible, however items destined for Greece may experience delays until this has been fixed.

 

JAMAICA – Jamaica Post has advised that their international mail processing centre has been experiencing IT issues affecting connectivity and customs-related procedures which has prevented the processing of International Mail. As a result, delays should be expected to items destined for Jamaica while this is resolved.

 

OFAC / BIS COUNTRIES – ePG is fully compliant with US Federal regulations, and our team monitors the registers:

 

https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/country-guidance/sanctioned-destinations

 

https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/office-of-foreign-assets-control-sanctions-programs

 

Current sanctioned destinations are:

 

·     CUBA – BIS

·     IRAN – OFAC

·     NORTH KOREA – BIS

·     SUDAN – OFAC & BIS

·     SYRIA – BIS

 

RUSSIA – All mail and parcel services suspended indefinitely.

 

SOUTH AFRICA – South African Post – relocation of the office of exchange was completed early August. The post advise that there are still delays as they clear the backlog accumulated during the move.