Editor’s Note: Merry Law is retiring, so this will be her final regular column for Mailing Systems Technology. We’d like to thank her for all of her contributions over the years, and we...

As international mail documentation requirements have increased, international postal package volumes have declined. The USPS and the Global Postal Network — the designated postal operator o

An addresses format is defined by where the elements—building number, street name, city, postal code, etc.—are placed within the address block. Each country defines their own address forma

At recent meetings of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), there has been discussion of the Global Postal Network. What this means at the UPU may not be the same as it might seem to a group of internatio

A controversy between the member countries of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the 27 EU countries plus Norway and Switzerland raises questions about whether a country can impose controls

With the Universal Postal Union (UPU) recently holding its 4th Extraordinary Congress the first week of October, the third such Congress in the last five years, assessing the overall worldwide

The EU The next — and final — deadline for the EU’s Advance Electronic Data (AED) requirements in ICS2 Release 2 is October, when postal operators sending packages to the EU will...

Two reports highlight the importance of this title question for the USPS and the global postal delivery network: The Universal Postal Union (UPU), in its October, 2022, presentation

The postal sector worldwide suffered during the COVID pandemic—closures, lack of staff, very limited international flights—while the number of packages in the mail increased. All of them...

Royal Mail, the UK’s designated postal operator, announced a cyber incident January 11, halting all outbound international mail. It took a few days before the extent and cause of the attack

In March of 2021, the EU introduced the first phase — Release 1 — of its ICS2, which required pre-loading information for any item requiring custom clearance. Data was required for package...

More changes in international mail are coming as I write this in early June, continuing what mailers experienced earlier this year and in 2020. The COVID pandemic was—is—responsible for...

If you’re working at home rather than your usual office (and many of us are), you’re checking your home mailbox and getting less than usual. As for your usual office mail, it might be reac

The US will stay in the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a decision that likely caused mailers everywhere to breathe a sigh of relief at the avoidance of a major disruption in the USPS’ international...

After months of silence on questions related to the potential US withdrawal from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the USPS finally provided some information at the MTAC Membership Assembly on

“If the US were to withdraw from the UPU, it would lose access to global processing and coding systems that make international mail possible, and it would have to negotiate bilateral postal agreements

Five factors affect all mailing decisions for international mail, and each will depend on what you are mailing, the destination country, and your requirements for delivery. The specifics of what is be

Identifying a location has always been useful to people — from ancient evidence of local inhabitants identifying locales by naturally occurring landmarks to the naming a major roadways and cit