Blogs
Shipping Incident bulletin 16th August 2019
Direct Link Incident Bulletins are sent weekly with information about situations that affect postal distribution world wide. Direct Link Incident Bulletins are published here by permission from Direct Link. Thanks to Direct Link for this valuable service.
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This week’s bulletin contains updates about: Italy, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, South Africa, Japan, Malta.
Italy
Start date: 25th July
End date: 30th July
Poste Italiane asks us to inform other Union member countries and their designated operators that its sorting centre in Cagliari, which was partially closed following a fire in the server area, has been fully reopened, and the situation is back to normal.
Hong Kong, China
Start date: 31st July
End date: 2nd August
The designated operator of Hong Kong, China, Hongkong Post informs other Union member countries and their designated operators that postal operations are back to normal after Tropical Cyclone Wipha.
Hong Kong
Start date: 12th August
Expected end date: 14th August
Airport operations disrupted due to protests: the Hong Kong Airport was shutdown due to a sit-in protest with all outgoing flights being suspended. Some airport operations have since resumed, however, delays persist and over 300 flights have been cancelled for August 13. Further disruptions to be expected as more protests were planned for August 13.
Start date: 3rd August
End date: Ongoing
The designated operator of Hong Kong, China, Hongkong Post, informs other Union member countries and their designated operators that a series of public events, resulting in a blockage of streets in major areas of Hong Kong from Saturday, 3 August 2019, is resulting in serious disruption to the processing of all inbound, outbound and local mail (EMS, parcels and letter-post items). The impact is expected to last for a few days.
Hongkong Post thanks all member countries and their designated operators for their understanding. It will inform once the situation has returned to normal.
Vietnam
Start date: 2nd August
End date: 5th August
The designated operator of Vietnam, Vietnam Post informs that its inward and outward mail processing and delivery of inward mail (letter post, parcels and EMS) was affected after Tropical Storm Wipha which hit on 2 August 2019.
Nepal
Start date: 9th August
End date: 15th August
The designated operator of Nepal, the Postal Services Department (Nepal Post), asks us to inform other Union member countries and their designated operators that the general post office in Kathmandu was relocated from Sundhara (postcode 44600) to Dillibajar (44605). As a result, the office was closed for parcels and EMS from 9 to 14 August 2019. All postal operations are back to normal.
Bhutan
Start date: 25th June
End date: 13th August
The designated operator of Bhutan, Bhutan Post, informs other Union member countries and their designated operators that the delivery of mail has returned to normal.
South Africa
Start date: 1st October 2017
Update: 12th August 2019
Poor service continues to be observed for all mail into South Africa. Mail arriving in South Africa is experiencing longer delays by the South African Post Office (SAPO) to collect and process the products. A significant part of the delay is time between arriving in the airport and being delivered to the recipient.
While improvements have been made and delivery times reduced, increased mail volumes has created bottlenecks in processing.
Japan
Start date: 15th August
End date: Ongoing
Tropical Storm Krosa makes landfall: media sources indicate that Tropical Storm Krosa made a landfall near Kure city in the Hiroshima Prefecture of Japan, on the afternoon of August 15. Nearly 700 flights have been cancelled at Haneda, Kansai, Chubu and Itami airports. Road disruptions are likely to occur in the region, due to heavy rain and strong winds.
Technical Problems
Malta
Start date: 26th July
End date: 9th August
MaltaPost resolves IT issues: MaltaPost reported on August 9 that the intermittent IT issues that caused disruptions to the transmission of EDI messages since July 26 have been resolved. Operations have reportedly returned to normal on August 9.