Royal Mail International Update October 2017

Transcription

1 Royal Mail International Update October 2017 This update, about incidents which have affected international mail services throughout October, was issued by Royal Mail Customer Services on Wednesday 7 November Information about issues currently affecting the movement of international mail, including international bank holidays, can be found at: Africa Libya Start date: 16 July 2014 Mail services to Libya are currently suspended until further notice. South Africa Start date: 1 October 2017 Very poor service has been observed for mail into South Africa. South Africa Post Office has advised this is due to abnormally high volumes of mail. This has created bottlenecks in their processing locations due to space constraints and processing capacity. The communicated recovery plan expected at the end of October does not look to have resolved the issues and with the peak Christmas volumes, this is likely to increase delays. Delays are approximately 35 days. Asia Philippines Start date: 16 October 2017 End date: 22 October 2017 Due to a nationwide transport strike, mail deliveries were suspended on the 16 & 17 October Delivery of all categories of mail (letter mail, parcels and EMS) was affected. Syria Start date: 6 December 2012 Mail services to Syria are currently suspended until further notice. Page 1 of 6

2 Australasia Australia Start date: 19 October 2017 End date: 24 October 2017 Australian Post reported that severe weather in some parts of Queensland impacted the collection and delivery of all mail products in postcode areas 4560 to 4999 for a short time. New Zealand Start date: 18 September 2017 End date: 15 October 2017 Aviation fuel rationing at Auckland Airport following damage to a pipeline resulted in many flights being cancelled. Although airport operations have now returned to normal, fuel rationing is likely to continue until early 2018, but should not impact on airline operations. Europe Belgium Start date: 9 October 2017 End date: 11 October 2017 A Public Sector strike has been announced for Tuesday 10 October 2017 in Belgium. While road blockade is not expected but mail and parcel processing by Belgium Post will be affected and can expect delays of up to 36 hours within Belgium. Cyprus Start date: 13 October 2017 End date: 16 October 2017 Cyprus Post has informed us that their postal workers union have announced a half-day strike for Monday 16 October This will affect both international and domestic dispatches and delivery of items in all mail classes. We would expect delay may stretch to a day after the strike due to possible build-up of mail. France Start date: 20 September 2017 End date: 16 October 2017 French lorry drivers blocked many major roads and fuel depots around Calais. In addition, strike action by road transport trade unions CFDT and CFTC and strike action on pension reforms have all had an impact on mail movement in to and out of France. Greece Start date: End of June 2017 Greece Post has informed us that since the end of June 2017, it will be acting as a direct representative of customs authorities. It has been applying new customs procedures on both International and domestic mail collection and delivery involving new information systems to facilitate and improve customs clearance time. During this initial, adjustment period, there may be some delays in the handling of inbound postal dispatches and delivery of items subject to customs clearance. Page 2 of 6

3 Ireland Start date: 16 October 2017 End date: 18 October 2017 The severe storm Ophelia's approach to Ireland has caused some disruption to mail delivery. As result, delivery delays can be expected for the next couple of days. Italy Start date: 1 February 2017 We have become aware of processing delays on all inbound international traffic arriving in Italy. We have reviewed all elements of our own pipeline to ensure items posted to these countries arrive as quickly as possible. However, we're aware that some issues, outside of our control, are extending some of our published delivery aims for this country. To reflect the current transit times, we are temporarily extending our delivery aims as follows: Untracked products: 6-8 working days; Tracked products: 4-6 working days and Tracked and Signed For products: 5-7 working days. Italy Start date: 18 September 2017 End date: 19 October 2017 Strike action taken by members of staff working for Post Italiane which began on Monday 18 September, ended on the 19 October. Italy Start date: 27 October 2017 End date: 31 October 2017 Post Italiane has informed us today that due to separate strikes today 27 and next week October, mail deliveries will experience delay as result. Switzerland Start date: 23 August 2017 End date: Early November 2017 Swiss Post has informed us that due to a landslide on 23 August 2017 which affected Bergell/Egadin (Graubünden area/canton) in the Eastern part of Switzerland, it has become impossible to deliver to some parts within the postcode areas. No delivery or very significant delays can be expected to the above postcode areas as those evacuated are not being allowed to return for at least another two months until the imminent danger of landslides has passed. Ukraine (Crimea & Sevastopol) Start date: 18 March 2014 End date: On-going Mail services to Crimea and Sevestapol are suspended until further notice. Page 3 of 6

4 Latin America & Caribbean Brazil Start date: 16 October We've been advised that there are currently delays with mail in to Brazil. We believe this may be due to industrial action, however this is yet to be confirmed. However, what we can say is that any mail posted in the last 5-7 days could be in a backlog and any mail affected may experience at least a 10 day delay from posting to delivery. We are taking steps to re-route where possible and expect any new postings from the end of this week to be clear of the backlog, but could still be subject to some delay in delivery of 3 days or more. French Caribbean Territories: Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Guadeloupe & Martinique Start date: 8 September 2017 End date: 31 October 2017 Hurricanes affected mail services in Saint Barthélemy: addresses with postcode 97133: Saint Martin (French part of the Island): addresses with postcode 97150, Guadeloupe: all other postcodes starting with 971 and Martinique: postcodes starting 972. Normal service resumed in all areas at the end of October. Guatemala Start date: 13 April 2017 Guatemala post has informed us it is currently facing difficulties and has accumulated a backlog of mail. As a result of this mail services from the UK to Guatemala are currently suspended until further notice. Venezuela Start date: 4 July 2017 The local situation has disrupted mail flows into Venezuela and our supplier has had to stop delivering mail in to Venezuela. As a result, we can no longer accept any mail for Venezuela, any mail on hand will be returned to sender. We don't know when the situation will change, but we will look for alternative ways of getting mail in to Venezuela. Middle East Israel Start date: May 2017 There are delays with deliveries to Israel by up to 10 days. This is due to technical difficulties faced by Israel Post when it moved its import processing facility to a new site with new machinery. We're aware that they are working hard on fixing this issue and have started to see improvements, but the knock on effect has been that there are bottle necks further back in the chain, causing delays in handover at the airport. We continue to work closely with Israel Post to restore a robust and consistent service as soon as possible, and will provide updates as we receive them. Page 4 of 6

5 Yemen Start date: 27 March 2015 Mail services to Yemen are currently suspended until further notice. North America (USA & Canada) Canada Start date: 9 October 2017 We've been seeing delays of our untracked mail worsening into Canada as a result of increasing volumes as we approach Christmas. You should expect delays of approximately 10 working days for untracked items, 5 working days for Tracked with signature items and a day on Tracked items. While priority is given to parcel products, there is still an extra 1-2 days delay. Canada Post and Customs are working together to provide additional resourcing and looking at ways in which to ease the congestion. We recommend where possible you use our Tracked service for the fastest and most reliable postal service. Canada Start date: 30 April 2016 Following recent changes at Canada's Border Services Agency (Customs), there were delays of up to 1 week experienced in the processing of items at Canada Post's Vancouver OE. Although mail from the UK was made available to Canada Post in good time, scanning & tracking was also delayed. USA Start date: 26 August 2017 Following the recent hurricanes in the US, USPS has confirmed that all offices in South Florida have now resumed normal operations, with a few exceptions. Some offices are offering limited delivery or are using alternative locations for customers to pick up mail. Delivery is being attempted in all areas where it is safe to do so, hence delay may still be observed. USPS has resumed mail operation to the Caribbean but Post offices in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands still do not have stable Internet service and phone services, hence USPS cannot provide its normal levels of package tracking to these destinations. Extra demands for flights to the Caribbean has resulted in disruption to mail transportation by air, USPS has started to move mail by Cargo ship to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hence, mailing customers would still experience delay as result. The Caribbean and Central America: the British Virgin Islands; Saint Maarten; Anguilla (via Saint Maarten) have resumed mail operations but delay should still be expected to certain areas that have sustained more severe damage. No further updates on other destinations at this time. Page 5 of 6

6 USA Start date: 9 October 2017 The USPS has informed us that multiple wildfires in California are causing disruptions of mail delivery. The wild fire has caused damage to Postal facilities and those in fire zones are close, with others also suffer from power outages. As result, postal operation in some areas surrounding San Francisco and Oakland are affected. Delivery is being attempted where it is safe for both customers and employees but delays can be expected. Specific offices impacted may be found at the following link: As it is still early days, the extent of the impact is unclear and we will provide further updates when available from USPS. Oceania Vanuatu Start date: 2 October 2017 Due to the eruption of Manaro volcano and the declaration of a state of emergency by the Government of Vanuatu., the Postal operator at Vanuatu has suspended all postal operation (Letters, Parcels, EMS) to the Island of Ambae (international mail processing centre codes VUVLOD and VUVNDU). Mail to rest of Vanuatu is still operational but mail for the Island of Ambae will be significantly delayed after arrival at Vanuatu until the Island resume mail operation which we will updates when information becomes available. Help and advice More information about Royal Mail s international products and services is available on our royalmail.com/international pages. Alternatively, if you re a business customer you can contact your usual Royal Mail service contact or call our dedicated Business Centre on If you re a residential customer, you ll need to call Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered number Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 100 Victoria Embankment, LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ Page 6 of 6