Royal Mail International Update February 2018 This update, about incidents which have affected international mail services throughout February, was issued by Royal Mail Customer Services on Thursday 15 March 2018. Information about issues currently affecting the movement of international mail, including international bank holidays, can be found at: www.royalmail.com/internationalupdates. 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 Indonesia - Bali Start date: 27 November 2017 Indonesia Post informed us that the Government of Indonesia has temporarily closed Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on the island of Bali owing to the eruption of Mount Agung. Large volumes of volcanic ash are now covering the airport area. The current condition may lead to delays in handling of international mail to and from Bali, Lombok and Mataram, particularly postcode areas in the range 80000 to 83999. Page 1 of 5
Syria Start date: 6 December 2012 Mail services to Syria are currently suspended until further notice. Australasia New Zealand Start date: 19 February 2018 End date: 24 February 2018 Cyclone Gita severely impacted the domestic mail network across the lower North Island and the upper South Island. Delays to all mail services were expected as a result. Europe European Services Start date: 26 February 2018 End date: 6 March 2018 Heavy snow fall has disrupted traffic on approach to the channel crossing. Despatches to countries potentially impacted are: France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden on all mail and parcel products with impact likely to be an extra day's delay. France Start date: 5 February 2018 End date: 11 February 2018 Heavy snowfall in Roissy, France has caused major disruption to International road links as well as the domestic network. As a result, mail traffic into Roissy was significantly impacted with delays of 24-48 hours. Ireland Start date: 26 February 2018 End date: 11 March 2018 Severe snow storms caused major disruption in Ireland, resulting in the closure of some mail depots. Delays of 24-hours were expected in the processing and delivery of both inbound and outbound mail in Ireland. 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. Page 2 of 5
Italy Start date: 10 February 2017 End date: 11 February 2018 We were informed that Aviation worker Unions took strike action at airports throughout Italy on 10 February 2018. The action involved ground staff, air traffic controllers and baggage handlers. Luxemburg/Switzerland Start date: 15 January 2018 We are currently experiencing issues with the handler for these two destinations. In the interim, emergency routes have been setup for these 2 destinations while we look for alternative solutions. As result, it's possible that all mail services may experience delays of up to 24 hours. Sweden Start date: November 2017 End date: 15 February 2018 Technical issues following an update to their computers systems resulted in difficulties with tracking information on Royal Mail Tracked items in to Sweden. This was fixed on the 15 February 2018. Ukraine (Crimea & Sevastopol) Start date: 18 March 2014 End date: On-going Mail services to Crimea and Sevestapol are suspended until further notice. Latin America & Caribbean Brazil Start date: 13 September 2017 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. El Salvador Start date: 21 February 2018 End date: 26 February 2018 El Salvador Post suspended mail services as a result of industrial action which started on Wednesday 21 February and concluded on the 26 February. During this period there would have been delays to all mail services. 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. Page 3 of 5
Mexico Start date: 16 February 2018 End date: 19 February 2018 The designated postal operator in Mexico advised that on Friday 16 February, it carried out a migration of its data centre. As a result, all mail services would be affected, with electronic data interchange (EDI) transmissions interrupted until Monday 19 February. 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 Yemen Start date: 27 March 2015 Mail services to Yemen are currently suspended until further notice. North America (USA & Canada) 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. 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. Page 4 of 5
Oceania Tonga Start date: 12 February 2018 Tonga Post advised us Cyclone Gita hit Tonga on Monday 12 February resulting in a major impact to the main Island of Tongatapu, where the main mail office of exchange is located. The loss of power meant that mail processing and delivery operations were suspended. As of the 16 February, only some electricity and Internet connection have been re-stored at certain post offices. As result, there will be significant delay of mail delivery on the Island until the infrastructure has recovered. 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 08457 950950. If you re a residential customer, you ll need to call 03457 740740. Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered number 4138203. Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 100 Victoria Embankment, LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ Page 5 of 5