Incident Bulletin 17 February, 2025
The Incident Bulletin is sent once a week, when there are major incidents to report affecting postal distribution.
This week's bulletin contains information about Belgium, New Caledonia, Hong Kong, China and French Polynesia.
Belgium
Report date: 11 February
Incident: National strike - 13 February 2025
The designated operator of Belgium, bpost, would like to inform that the major Belgian unions have called a 24-hour interprofessional strike, commencing at 00.01 CEST on 13 February 2025.
This industrial action will likely affect mail and parcels deliveries, as well as bpost’s domestic and international logistics network.
Furthermore this strike, which may extend to Friday 14 February 2025, will also involve ground handlers and other airport and airline personnel. Therefore, disruption and delays are to be expected with regards to the handling of inbound and outbound airmail dispatches arriving at Brussels Airport around that day.
New Caledonia
Report date: 13 February
Incident: Restored transmission of EDI messages
France’s designated operator for New Caledonia, wishes to inform that the issues that it was experiencing in the transmission of RESDES and PREDES messages have been resolved, with effect from 12 February 2025.
Hong Kong, China
Report date: 13 February
Incident: Disruption to outbound postal services
Hongkong Post, a designated operator of China (specifically for the special administrative region of Hong Kong), wishes to inform that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced the suspension of acceptance of all inbound mail items containing goods arriving from China (including Hong Kong) to the United States, subject to changes to formal entry conditions arising from new US government policies, effective from 4 February 2025.
This has resulted in airlines off-loading and refusing to accept all outbound mail from Hong Kong to the US, and is causing disruption to the processing of all mail items (letter post, parcel post and EMS). Additional time is required for the reprocessing and segregation of mail, as well as further communication with USPS and coordination with the airlines in order to restore service to the US.
Other than the outbound mails to the US referred to above, all inbound and outbound mail operations to and from Hong Kong remain as normal.
French Polynesia
Report date: 13 February
Incident: Restored transmission of EDI messages
France’s designated operator for French Polynesia, wishes to inform that the issues that it was experiencing in the transmission of RESDES and PREDES messages have been resolved, with effect from 12 February 2025.