Information regarding latest postal delays affecting USA/Canada/Australia/New Zealand

Update today from Royal Mail regarding postal delays to  the following countries.  please read.

If your item has been posted please understand that significant delays are expected as the volumes of post and ecommerce have increased considerably during this lockdown and worldwide pandemic.

USA Update: 19 June 2020

• Our air transit routes into the USA are now working well and we’re flying items daily from the UK.
• We’re using multiple entrance gateways on the East and West coast as well as in Miami and Chicago to inject into the USPS domestic operation.
• The USA, like many places is receiving huge import volumes and has been affected in the same was as all logistics operation; namely reduced staffing and social distancing requirements which reduce efficiency.
• We’re monitoring traffic though the US gateways and have opted to move some traffic from gateways where delays are more evident (moving Tracked items from Chicago to New York).

• Update: 2 June 2020
  Mail and parcels are being moved around the USA and managed through many international mail centres across the country. This is outside of the normal operating procedures, and is so the United States Postal Service (USPS) can manage the very high volumes.

  • Los Angeles - is processing 50% more than they do in Christmas peak period, and are experiencing significant delays.
  • JFK (New York) & Miami - is up to date and processing normally.
  • San Fransisco - is handling heavy volumes and have moved international work to domestic mail centres outside of the normal International Mail Centres to cope with high volumes. Customers should expect delays.
  • Chicago - were experiencing a backlog and have now cleared their export mail and are up to date. However, they are now focusing on moving military freight and USPS are now redirecting flights to JFK for international items. This is currently resulting in an additional 7 – 10 days for items to sent via Chicago.

  Customers should expect delays across the USA, some are significant as USPS continues to deal with heavy increases in volumes.

See theUSPS website update.

Canada Update: 19 June 2020

• There are no delays to Canadian traffic leaving the UK.
• The overwhelming majority of items enter Canada via the Toronto gateway where record levels of import traffic are creating significant delays at the entry point into Canada.
• Canada Post has been affected in the same way as all logistics operations have, with reduced staffing and social distancing requirements are impacting upon efficiency and processing times.
• Until May, the majority of Tracked services were being delivered in under 15 days.
• Since w/c 11 May, already congested gateway operations have been further compounded by additional customs searches. This is causing additional delays.
• Customers may also experience items being delivered out of sequence. This affects all traffic, not just that from Royal Mail.
• Update: 2 June 2020
  New Zealand Post has accumulated significant backlogs of mail, particularly for North Island. Customers can expect significant delays while the backlogs are being cleared.

See theCanada Post website update.

Australia Update: 19 June 2020

• There are no delays to Australian traffic leaving the UK.
• Although in April and early May we had less regular access to Australia, but this has now stabilised. We now have regular freighter flights going into Australia via enroute transit points This is a longer transit time than usual but a reliable route.
• Traffic to Australia is currently only entering via Sydney, as opposed to via multiple gateways we would normally use to get traffic closer to its final destination. A huge reduction in airline capacity means this is not possible at the moment. Import volumes into Sydney (Australia), like many countries are significantly higher than usual.
• This means there are considerable delays in items passing through Sydney gateway and into the Australia Post domestic network as well as extended delivery times once in country.

See the Aus Post  website update.

New Zealand Update: 19 June 2020

• There are no delays to traffic bound for New Zealand leaving the UK.
• Throughout April and early May we experienced difficulties in accessing consistent air capacity to New Zealand. We now have regular flights going into New Zealand via Los Angeles. Although this is a longer transit time than usual, but a reliable route.
• We understand a backlog of traffic was held at Auckland Airport in recent weeks and also in Auckland’s receiving processing centre. Therefore, some customers may experience considerable delays because of the huge increase in ecommerce volumes coming in from the USA, UK and Australia.
• These factors, along with the impact of social distancing being experienced by all logistics companies, may means customers may experience items being delivered out of sequence, so not all traffic is being processed and delivered in date order (this affects all traffic, not just that from Royal Mail).
• Accordingly, delivery times in April and early May were lengthy. But in May as a whole, we are currently seeing 50% of Tracked items being delivered in 15 days and a steady reduction in items awaiting clearance into the NZ Post domestic operation. This is a continuously improving situation.
• NZ Post are stating that once handed to their domestic network, they will deliver items in 5 days

See also theNZ Post website update.