[POSTAL NEWS from UNI Apro P&L] No. 51 & 52/2021
The road to Abidjan. July 02, 2021.2.Post Office UK: New checks in place to ensure marketplace sellers can continue to send their goods with confidence.July 02, 2021.3.Australia Post extends landmark banking agreements with Commonwealth Bank and NAB. June 30, 2021.4.Postal Workers, Allies Oppose Slower Service Standards. June 29, 2021.5.DPD Portugal launches Shop2Shop service to meet the needs of marketplaces such as Vinted. June 29, 2021.1.The road to Abidjan July 02, 2021The 27th Universal Postal Congress is taking place in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 9-27 August 2021 following a decision of the Council of Administration.Reacting to the news, the Deputy Director General of the UPU, Pascal Clivaz, said, “I am so pleased that we are going ahead with the Congress in Abidjan. By holding the Congress in Africa, we can showcase the region’s high energy, creativity and technological innovation.”For the very first time in its 146-year history, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) is introducing a hybrid approach to the 27th Congress with members being able to attend in person, or by joining via a virtual platform set up by the UPU’s International Bureau.The approach is similar to working methods agreed for the two UPU councils since October 2020, and is being adopted due to health and safety concerns, and restrictions on travel and quarantine requirements. In order for a hybrid approach to be adopted, the Congress Rules of Procedure of Congresses will have to be adjusted to enable virtual participation.
2 New technology platforms are being implemented to enable event management for registration, verification and authorization of the delegates, and for virtual conferencing, live streams, and voting on proposals, resolutions and elections. Important training sessions for these platforms will be provided by the UPU to those attending at least one week before the Congress starts. During the Congress period, representatives of member countries will agree new rules and set policies on the international exchange of postal items, elect the next UPU Director General and Deputy Director General and decide on the membership of the UPU’s Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council for 2022-2025. The Congress will also decide on topics such as opening up the UPU to wider sector postal players.A proposal seeking to have the election of the two positions conducted in Geneva, Switzerland by diplomatic officials from member countries based there was passed by a vote. Some members opposed to the idea of taking away part of the Congress agenda from Abidjan, stayed away from the voting procedure. Mr Hussein said, “After so many disappointments, we are finally on the road to Abidjan. It is, however, unfortunate that we will be going to the Congress with a divided membership on the issue of the elections.”All Congress participants—including Union member country delegates and observer representatives—are expected to be registered and accredited. This is irrespective of whether they are participating physically or remotely. Registration information will be available on the Congress webpage ahead of the event. Badges will be printed and made available to Congress participants attending in person, while access credentials will be provided to those individuals registered to participate remotely. Source : https://www.upu.int/en/News/2021/7/The-Road-to-Abidjan
3 2.Post Office UK: New checks in place to ensure marketplace sellers can continue to send their goods with confidenceJuly 02, 2021Post Office is alerting its customers that a new post-Brexit change concerning VATwill affect goods being sent from Great Britain to the EU from Thursday 1 July.Items sold to EU destinations from Great Britain with a value of €22 or less will no longer be exempt from VAT. They will be subject to the local rate of VAT and charges of the destination country. The EU have set up a new scheme called the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) that allows businesses that register on the scheme to apply VAT and customs charges at the point an item is sold. For Post office customers, the change predominantly affects marketplace sellers who sell via marketplaces registered on the scheme. Post Office has put in place new checks to ensure the correct information will be collected for the IOSS scheme, so marketplace sellers can continue to buy their postage in Post Office branches with confidence.Mark Siviter, Post Office Mails Product Portfolio Director, said: “Whilst these changes don’t impact customers sending gifts to the EU, we’re concerned that thousands of marketplace sellers, particularly smaller ones could get a shock on 1 July when having to deal with these new VAT arrangements. We have put new checks in place to ensure marketplace sellers can continue to come to their local Post Office to send their goods with confidence. Crucially they can also receive advice and specialist knowledge from their Postmaster if they need it.”Marketplace sellers that use Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and Not On The High Street can continue to visit their local Post Office and the Postmaster or their staff will capture the necessary information now required following this post Brexit change to the VAT rules.
4 Customers sending gifts to EU destinations are not affected by these changes either. Gifts under €45 remain exempt of VAT or charges.These new changes do not apply to anyone visiting a Post Office in Northern Ireland and posting gifts or sending items sold to EU destinations from Northern Ireland.Source : https://postandparcel.info/139155/news/e-commerce3.Australia Post extends landmark banking agreements with Commonwealth Bank and NABJune 30, 2021Australia Post has announced today agreements with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and NAB to offer banking services in Post Offices nationally for the next decade.The landmark 10-year in principle agreements with the two major banks allows Australia Post to support ongoing investment in the Bank@Post service in order to provide safe, reliable banking services for all Australians, particularly those in regional areas and small businesses.The agreements also support the long-term sustainability of thousands of Licensed Post Offices and their owners, many of whom are small businesses and families who play an essential role in servicing their local communities.Australia Post Executive General Manager Community and Consumer Nicole Sheffield said today’s announcement highlighted the importance of Bank@Post which provides banking services at more than 3,500 local Post Offices. “We know how important the local Post Office is for so many communities and small businesses – particularly in regional areas. The support of CBA and NAB will ensure access to banking services for those communities can be maintained, and additional related services introduced, to better support the needs of banking customers for the next decade,” Ms Sheffield said.“The agreements will also allow us to invest further in our Post Office network, recognising the valuable role our people play in supporting communities across the country. Our Post Offices also play a critical role during natural disasters, emergencies and more recently through the COVID-19 pandemic with access to products and services through lockdowns and travel restrictions. “Australia Post looks forward to working closely with CBA, NAB and our other banking partners to continue to provide essential banking services to their customers across our national network of Post Offices.”
5 CBA Group Executive Retail Banking Services, Angus Sullivan, said: “Millions of Australians rely on CBA to do their banking, and I’m proud that this renewed partnership gives our customers more choice with how and where they bank with us over the next decade. We know that some customers want face to face banking services and this partnership with Australia Post supports our commitment to ensuring our customers in regional Australia have ongoing access to these services at the more than 3,500 Bank@Post outlets across the country. “We have a strong relationship with Australia Post and investing multi millions of dollars each year for a decade in the capability, technology and security of Bank@Post outlets builds on our priority to reimagine services and ensure our customers can continue to bank easily, safely and securely whenever they visit a participating Australia Post outlet.”NAB Group Executive Personal Banking, Rachel Slade, said: “We want to ensure we are serving our customers well no matter how they choose to bank with us. “Together with our branch network, this partnership means our customers have more than 4000 locations they can bank with us. It provides extra support, particularly for those remote and rural customers, to be able to access face-to-face banking services.”Westpac’s contract with Australia Post has been extended for a further 12 months. Westpac and Australia Post have commenced negotiations around a possible new longer agreement.Source : https://newsroom.auspost.com.au/article
4.Postal Workers, Allies Oppose Slower Service StandardsJune 29, 2021 When postal management unveiled their 10-year Delivering for America plan, APWU vowed to oppose elements of the plan that would affect postal workers, slow down the mail or degrade the service postal workers proudly provide the public. In the past weeks, together with our allies in A Grand Alliance and beyond, postal workers have showed up in a big way in the fight to stop management from slowing down the mail.As part of their 10-year plan, postal management proposed changes that could slow down mail service for millions of people across the country. Their proposals to extend service standards would lengthen the delivery target for first class mail and periodicals from the current one to three-day standard to as long as a five-day delivery target.The APWU organized the public opposition to these proposals, and together with our allies, mobilized more than 130,000 submissions to the Postal Service’s public comment process on the proposals. The union has also fully participated in the Postal Regulatory Commission’s proceedings reviewing the Postal Service’s proposed service standard changes.“Postal workers are proud to serve our communities every single day,” said President Mark Dimondstein. “These negative service changes could affect every community we serve and we’re proud to unite with the people in defense of the prompt and reliable service they deserve.”The public comments were a key element of the union’s case at the PRC and were also cited in an important brief submitted on behalf of 21 state attorneys general. In addition to the state AGs, a number of allies submitted comments and briefs into the
PRC case, including Public Citizen, the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The proceedings at the Postal Regulatory Commission for the proposed service standard changes to first class and periodical mail have concluded. The PRC is expected to issue its advisory opinion on the changes in the coming weeks. Source : https://apwu.org/news5.DPD Portugal launches Shop2Shop service to meet the needs of marketplaces such as VintedJune 29, 2021 Shop2Shop service is a new solution for sending parcels from one Pickup parcelshop to another, developed with marketplaces in mind that encourage the circular economy. DPD Portugal and Vinted, the world's largest peer-to-peer online marketplace dedicated to second-hand fashion, have partnered for easy and convenient delivery of orders on the platform through shipping integration options and attractive pricing.This service is available through DPD's Shop2Shop service, with orders being deposited by the seller in a Pickup store or locker and picked up elsewhere in the network by the buyer.“This new Shop2Shop service allows us to launch a consolidated offer of orders shipped from store to store, representing an economical and ecological shipping process for customers like Vinted. Our partnership with this successful circular economy marketplace,
8 recently launched in Portugal, is proof that the Shop2Shop solution is the most suitable to support transactions between individuals”, says Olivier Establet, CEO of DPD Portugal.DPD is the preferred option for many customers due to aspects such as the number of stores and lockers and their rapid expansion, the extended days and hours of the network and the information sent to the sender and recipient, in addition to the easy integration process.DPD's Shop2Shop solution is available for Vinted users throughout the Portuguese mainland, but also for cross-border flows, namely Spain and France."Vinted is very excited about this partnership with DPD Portugal. This partner offers an excellent parcel delivery experience, contributing to resource savings in the form of shipping through the rapid expansion of its Pickup network. In addition, all these benefits align with Vinted's goals of creating a hassle-free shopping experience and making second-hand fashion the first choice in Portugal.”says Vytautas Atkočaitis, Director of Shipping Business at Vinted. Source : https://www.dpd.com/group/en/2021/06/29
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