After a recent presentation on trends for international mail and delivery, I was asked how someone who needs to follow what’s happening internationally can do so with a reasonable time investment. It was a great question — and nobody had asked it before. I had a couple of suggestions, and the audience contributed, too.
There are two different types of sources: those that push the news to you in an email and those that require you to go to them for updates. Not all these links will be of interest to all readers of this publication; pick the ones most relevant to you. Here are my favorites with consideration to getting the most information with the least expenditure of time.
The USPS has multiple resources that are invaluable to mailers. Most of these require the mailer to access them to check for changes. The International Mail Manual (IMM) has all the all requirements for preparing and entering international mail for the USPS. The IMM’s country index has some specifics on requirements and limitations in particular countries. Changes occur between updates to the IMM. Those changes are covered in the bi-weekly Postal Bulletin along with other updates to domestic and international requirements. It is free on the website but is the only one of these resources that can be sent to you by paid subscription. International Mail Service Suspensions occur for many reasons. The list of current suspensions should be checked before mailing, as they change. International service suspensions and reinstatements are announced in an Industry Alert from the USPS, available by free subscription.
The USPS’s publications add information and detail to the sources above. Search “USPS pub number xxx” to find the publications online. These titles are most useful to international mailers:
· Pub 52 - Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail
· Pub 199 - Intelligent Mail® Package Barcode (IMpb) Implementation Guide for: Confirmation Services and Electronic Verification System (eVS) Mailers
· Pub 699 - Special Requirements for Shipping Internationally
· Pub 713 - How to Ship Internationally Online
The Postal Hub Podcast is a series of interviews on what’s happening in the postal sector worldwide. Ian Kerr, the Australian host, has added blogs, webinars, and a daily email digest. You can subscribe to the Daily Delivery Digest on their website. It’s a daily email with the highlights of postal and delivery news from around the world with links to longer articles.
The Universal Postal Union (UPU), the UN specialized agency overseeing the international postal sector, has some useful resources online, although their focus is their member countries and the designated postal operators of those countries. Exploring the links on the UPU home page provides an overview of the information available. In particular, the UPU offers information on international addressing and on prohibitions in international mail. The Consultative Committee offers the private sector a way to be more involved with the UPU.
All US mailers and shippers are required to comply with US export controls and restrictions. Some of these can literally change overnight, as new individuals, organizations, or countries can be added to or removed from these restrictions. Automatic notifications are possible in some cases with details available on the websites. General export control information is available from Trade.gov. US sanctions are detailed online. The Consolidated Screening List provides “a list of parties for which the United States Government maintains restrictions on certain exports, reexports, or transfers of items.” The Sanctions List Service provides links to the Specially Designated Nationals and other sanction lists. The Specially Designated Nationals are those individuals banned from doing business with the US. It is available in different formats, including “a human-readable version of the SDN List”
General news sources cover a broader spectrum of information on non-postal and delivery events that impact logistics and delivery from severe weather events to coups d’etat and regime changes. BBC News from the U.K. provides an email News Briefing and regional news on their website. Subscribe to the twice a day News Briefing update on major stories to stay updated The regional news on their web site covers the major stories in the US & Canada, the UK, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and on the Israel-Gaza War, the War in Ukraine, and the US Election.
If you are interested a specific region, more targeted coverage may be useful, but it can have a bias. The following sources provide coverage in English. Africanews provides pan-African coverage, which may be difficult to find elsewhere. Al Jazeera is a Qatari-sponsored news source with strong coverage of the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries. Asia News Network covers Asia and some Pacific island nations. Latin News covers the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Most mailers won’t need to check all of these sources regularly. Staying up-to-date on the USPS and other US government information is important for all US international mailers and shippers, particularly for fulfillment of orders. The other sites may require occasional checking.
Merry Law is President of WorldVu LLC and the editor of Guide to Worldwide Postal-Code and Address Formats. She is a member of the UPU’s Addressing Work Group and of the US International Postal and Delivery Services Federal Advisory Committee.
This article originally appeared in the 2024 Global/Cross-Border Issue of PARCEL.
