International Service Alerts
Circumstances which can influence the transit time of your international mail
Below you will find an overview of the current international service alerts that can affect the receipt and delivery of mail and parcels to and from abroad.
E-mail Alerts
Current events
Delayed delivery due to COVID-19
Date of alert:
| 30th of November 2020, ongoing
|
| Expected delay:
| Unknown |
| Region:
| Worldwide |
| Reason for service alert:
| Delivery delays due to COVID-19. The situation is constantly changing. PostNL has no influence on this. We cannot guarantee a time of delivery. For business questions, please contact your account manager. Please note; we update this list regularly.
|
No delivery due to COVID-19
Date of alert:
| 30th of November 2020, ongoing |
| Expected delay:
| Unknown, no delivery possible at this moment |
| Region:
| Worldwide |
| Countries affected:
| Route closed; mail and package delivery not possible. At this time we do not know when the situation changes, nor can we tell you when routes reopen. The situation changes per country. Please note; we update this list regularly.
|
France (FR)
Date of alert:
| 7th of October 2020, ongoing |
| Expected delay:
| unknown |
| Country:
| France |
| Reason for service alert:
| Update 7th of October: Heavy rainfalls caused flooding’s in the regions surrounding Nice and therefor disrupting transport to and from these areas and local infrastructure. This may lead to delays in delivery and collection of mail and parcels.
Update 25th of September: La Poste has increased the number of collection days to 5 days. Delays are still applicable for delivery on (Express) mail volumes but will be less than before. Update 23th April: The local postal operator (La Poste) has reduced operating hours. Therefore we expect significant delays for deliveries of mail and packets in France. Parcels to France have normal operating hours, however our network partners all warn for delays due to an overloaded network. |
United States (US)
Date of alert:
| 22nd of September 2020, ongoing |
| Average delay:
| 9 – 27 days |
| Country:
| United States |
| Reason for service alert:
| Update 22 september: Hurricane Sally is active in the Southeast United States coast and is causing heavy rainfalls and flooding in the regions of Florida and Alabama. There are no reports of flight cancellations in our line hauls, but delays will occur in the final stage of delivery.
Due to the impact of peak volumes and limited availability or capacity of our United States Postal Service entry points (at US airports), we are experiencing heavy delays on our shipments. Transit data shows that USPS is experiencing major backlogs in these entry points, resulting for some volumes to experience delays of 6 weeks or more. We are aware of the issues USPS is facing and where. We are working closely with USPS every day to get our shipments to the right entry points with the best capacity. While we are working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible, we are dependent on our partners. Unfortunately these delays affects both mail and parcel volumes. In addition to that we have noticed missing scans in the US, resulting in items frequently missing updates until they are sorted in the domestic centers of USPS |
Belgium (BE)
Date of alert:
| 18th of September 2020
|
| Expected delay:
| Solved |
| Country:
| Belgium |
| Reason for service alert:
| Update: We have noticed as of the 4th of September for items with destination Belgium we did not receive any delivery scans from our postal partners back to our tracking system. However, our postal partners are aware of this issue and they are currently working on a solution. Until then, the delivery scan will unfortunately not be issued. If you have shipments for destination Belgium, please be aware that your item has been shipped even if the tracking shows differently. In Belgium, parcel deliveries run via our own PostNL network. The closure of non-essential retail stores is affecting delivery, as fewer pickup points are available. Go to postnl.be/corona for updated information the effect of the coronavirus on delivery and transit times. |
Austria (AT)
Date of alert:
| 18th of September 2020
|
| Expected delay:
| solved |
| Country:
| Austria |
| Reason for service alert:
| We have noticed as of the 4th of September for items with destination Austria we did not receive any delivery scans from our postal partners back to our tracking system. However, our postal partners are aware of this issue and they are currently working on a solution. Until then, the delivery scan will unfortunately not be issued. If you have shipments for destination Austria, please be aware that your item has been shipped even if the tracking shows differently. |
Australia (AUS)
Date of alert:
| 9th of October 2020 |
| Expected delay:
| Solved |
| Country:
| Australia |
| Reason for service alert:
| We are currently not allowed to send our letter mail and parcels to Melbourne, due to governmental restrictions taken in order to manage the impact of the Corona pandemic. EMS is still allowed in Melbourne, but for all other volumes we are obliged to use different entry points like Sydney or Perth. Mail and parcels destined for the area of Melbourne will therefore delay with several days. |
Italy (IT)
Date of alert:
| 4th of August 2020, ongoing |
| Expected delay:
| 4-7 days |
| Country:
| Italy |
| Reason for service alert:
| Italian Postal Service informs us that delivery services have resumed in off-limits municipalities, with effect from 5 March 2020. However to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, extra measurements are taken in the whole country as from today. This will lead to longer transit times than usual for mail and e commerce volumes. All services to Italy remain open. |
China
Date of alert:
| 24th of July 2020 |
| Average delay:
| solved |
| Country:
| China |
| Reason for service alert:
| General information China: The routes to China are open, but the flight capacity remain limited this causes delay on delivery of mail and parcels. In addition last weeks, extreme weather conditions led to flooding of the Yangtze river. Due to these extreme weather conditions, the collection, delivery and transportation of all inbound and outbound international mail products to and from Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Zhejiang and Guizhou provinces is subject to disruption, and the processing, transportation and delivery of inbound and outbound items to and from those provinces may be delayed. Receiving from China: Orders from China can be delayed. We noticed that the notifications from the sender is not always correct. For example, you may receive an e-mail from the sender that your order can be picked up at the post office in the Netherlands. Even though in reality, the shipment is often not yet in the Netherlands and / or is simply delivered in the letterbox. We refer to track & trace to track the shipment or contact the sender in China. |
Japan (JP)
Date:
| 15th of July 2020
|
| Average delay:
| solved |
| Country:
| Japan |
| Reason for service alert:
| Heavy rainfall and flooding in Japan causes disrupted services in multiple areas. The postal network has been severely affected and some post offices have been closed. Some roads are also inaccessible to traffic, which is delaying the delivery of mail and parcels. The affected areas are in the following postcode ranges (as of 10 July) Nagano: 3800000–3999999 Gifu: 5000000–5099999 Shizuoka: 4100000–4399999 Aichi: 4400000–4989999 Nara: 6300000–6399999 Kyoto: 6000000–6299999 Osaka: 53000000–5999999 Hyogo: 6500000–6799999 Wakayama: 6400000–6499999 Ehime: 7900000–7999999 Yamaguchi: 7400000–7599999 Fukuoka: 8000000–8399999, 8710000–8710999 Saga: 8400000–8499999 Kumamoto: 8600000–8699999 Oita: 8700000–8799999 Nagasaki: 8500000–8599999, 8115000–8115999, 8170000–8179999 Kagoshima: 8900000–8999999 |
Germany (DE)
Date of alert:
| 27th of March 2020, ongoing |
| Expected delay:
| unknown |
| Country:
| Germany |
| Reason for service alert:
| Delivery is still possible in Germany, but tighter controls due to the coronavirus outbreak are resulting in delays. Germany is currently being serviced via our truck network. An adapted procedure for receipt signature via local postal service is in place for the Deutsche Post. Fewer collection points are available due to the mandatory closure of non-essential stores. |
United Kingdom (GB)
Date of alert:
| 27th of March 2020, ongoing |
| Expected delay:
| unknown |
| Country:
| United Kingdom |
| Reason for service alert:
| The UK is still reachable, but delivery is delayed due to tighter coronavirus restrictions. An adapted procedure for receipt signature is in place for the Royal Mail postal service. |
The Netherlands (NL)
Date of alert:
| 16th of March 2020, ongoing |
| Expected delay:
| unknown |
| Country:
| The Netherlands |
| Reason for service alert:
| The Dutch government recently announced new, stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus. This raises new questions about the delivery of mail and parcels in the Netherlands. The virus cannot be transmitted by mail or packages. This means that delivery continues, as you have come to expect. The health and safety of our customers, employees and partners are of utmost importance. We respond with additional new measures to prevent the further spread of the virus. No signature required Starting Monday, March 16, recipients in the Netherlands will no longer be required to sign for delivery when a packet or parcel is handed over by PostNL. This is done to minimise physical contact. PostNL deliverers will ask instead for the last three numbers of your customer's ID and enter them in the signature field. You may want to inform your customers about this change. |