6 ms·

The linked article focuses on New Zealand because it's from a New Zealand publication, but service is actually being suspended to 22 countries. It would probab

by jhugo 5y ago

The linked article focuses on New Zealand because it's from a New Zealand publication, but service is actually being suspended to 22 countries. It would probably be better to link to the USPS notice directly, which is mentioned but unfortunately not linked to in the RNZ article: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international...

Factorium 5y ago
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international... Afghanistan Guadeloupe New Zealand* Tajikistan Australia * Laos Reunion (Bourbon) Timor-Leste Bhutan Libya Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Miquelon) Turkmenistan Brunei Martinique Samoa Yemen Cuba Mayotte South Sudan French Guiana Mongolia Syria How much of this has to do with Australia and New Zealand maintaining closed borders?
- irrational 5y ago
  Outside of Australia and New Zealand, I can understand most of these (gee, I wonder why Afghanistan?), but what is going on in Samoa that prevents mail delivery?
  - angry_octet 5y ago
    Very few flights due to COVID and no vaccines.
- smnrchrds 5y ago
  Saint Pierre and Miquelon is less than 20 km from the coast of Newfoundland (Canada). It shouldn't be that hard to get stuff delivered there.
  - mig39 5y ago
    That doesn't make much sense. USPS can just deliver to France and let them deal with it. Or drop it off in Canada and they can forward it. There's a ferry that runs between St. Pierre and Newfoundland a bunch of times every day. It's still running. Regular flights to St. John's, Newfoundland, even Paris, France are still happening. I don't understand this at all -- it's not like USPS was literally flying a plane to St. Pierre, was it?
  - tdeck 5y ago
    Also Samoa is right next to American Samoa, which is a U.S. territory.
    - markdown 5y ago
      American Samoa has had tight border restrictions, including from the US mainland. Samoa even more so, given they had a high death toll from a measles epidemic there two years before covid struck.
      - Dylan16807 5y ago
        More directly, Samoa is only allowing one cargo flight per week right now and it doesn't go to American Samoa.
  - gao8a 5y ago
    I am Canadian and I just learned about this, wow
    - smnrchrds 5y ago
      People always think Canada has only one international border: with the US. But in reality, Saint Pierre et Miquelon is so close to Newfoundland that there is no international water between them. So in addition to our land and maritime borders with the US, we have a maritime border with France. Also one with Greenland (Denmark), but that's too arctic for anyone to care about.
    - mig39 5y ago
      When Prohibition was active in both the US and Canada, St. Pierre & Miquelon was the place buy smuggle booze into Canada (and the USA). In recent times, it was the source of tax-free, cheap Canadian cigarettes and Canadian booze. Neither of which the local French population consume, but are more than happy to sell it to Newfoundlanders visiting :-)
  - notatoad 5y ago
    I doubt that "too hard" is really the issue here. yeah, if USPS wanted to figure it out, i'm sure they could. but what actually happens is that the USPS contracts somebody else to figure it out for them, and that contractor charges USPS a price for that. if the price is worth it, USPS pays. if the price isn't worth it, then USPS stops delivering there.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  I guess the closed borders mean significantly less flights into those countries, therefore significantly less room in the cargo holds for mail. My guess is cargo planes are still flying in goods, but they cost a lot more so that USPS has decided it's losing too much money... As far as I know, passenger flights find out the weight of their passengers and luggage, and then sell the remaining space/weight allowance for cargo, I wonder if that's how most overseas mail are delivered. For time-critical or heavy stuff this system is a bit random, obviously, so if you want to deliver something heavy you'd buy space in a cargo plane instead...
- petschge 5y ago
  French Guiana is where ESA launches rockets from. Anybody willing to bet if JWST is going to get a tiny little extra delay because the US can't get paperwork down there?
- shakna 5y ago
  Australia has to do with Australia Post and the backlog. They've closed down intake for October, to try and clear the backlog, and introduced new customs requirements.
  - paranoidrobot 5y ago
    Domestic delivery for Australia Post is backlogged significantly[1] There's reports that AusPost's parcel facilities have so many packages to process, that they're queued up outside (in some kind of undercover area) waiting to be processed. I only have anecdata to support this, but my own parcels from even one or two suburbs away have taken over a week. A parcel from Newcastle to Sydney sat for two weeks in one of the major parcel facilities with no updates, presumably in the aforementioned pile-up. A parcel from Germany showed being processed outbound in Germany in late April, and then complete silence until it turned up in an AusPost facility in early September. It's all very random, though, and not consistent - two packages from the same seller in Melbourne sent two weeks apart arrived in reverse order one day apart - one taking one week, the other three. They passed through the same processing facilities in tracking. I've now given up having any idea how long things will take to arrive. [1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/expect-parcel-delays-to-continue-through-to-christmas/100504602 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/expect-parcel-delays-...
jccooper 5y ago
If you keep going down the page, you get actual narratives about the problems. For Australia, for instance, Australia Post has closed the office that handles incoming mail. New Zealand is more vague, but is basically turning down mail processing due to COVID restrictions.
- teruakohatu 5y ago
  USPS implies it is because of COVID restrictions. NZ Post is accepting mail, but there is a shipping capacity crunch and very little air cargo capacity. Another way to look at it is USPS did not anticipate a crunch by buying capacity in advance. NZ Post allows us to ship packages from the US to a US warehouse which then ship to NZ. This is still operating with delays. Amazon seems fine with deliveries not being delayed at this point.
  - Taniwha 5y ago
    International AirMail mostly travels in the holds of international passenger planes - those are just not flying - package deliver to NZ (DHL/Fedex/UPS) is mostly OK, but plain old mail, not so much
    - jhugo 5y ago
      I count four widebodies between Auckland and California (LAX/SFO) in the air just as a random check on FR24 as I write this, so there's certainly capacity for some mail if USPS want to buy it.
  - pkaye 5y ago
    Do people in NZ normally buy stuff through the US Amazon website? Is that because there are more options/better pricss?
    - lostlogin 5y ago
      Amazon just isn’t that good here. The shipping is either impossible and requires you to use a third party service which gives you a US postal address, or shipping is outrageously expensive. It’s one of the things that happens when you live too far away I guess.
blondin 5y ago
there was an announcement earlier this week saying domestic delivery will be delayed in some areas as well. if i recall correctly, this is due to some internal changes and not entirely due to the pandemic.
- techrat 5y ago
  It's due to DeJoy's ratfucking. Let's not obfuscate this.
  - potiuper 5y ago
    The board shares in the guilt.
    - Bud 5y ago
      The board is all Trump appointees. The board and DeJoy are basically one and the same. The goal here is to intentionally degrade USPS until it can be killed. This then makes mail delivery an entirely private business, and also allows easier Republican ratfucking of vote-by-mail going forward.
      - ceejayoz 5y ago
        There are three Biden appointees on the board.
        ceejayoz 5y ago
        Downvoters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Governors_of_the_United_States_Postal_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Governors_of_the_Unit... Two of Trump’s nominees were Dems, too, because: > No more than five governors may belong to the same political party.
jareklupinski 5y ago
I was about to ask "why Timor-Leste?" but answered my question by checking the state dept page: > Country Summary: Timor-Leste has seen isolated instances of police responding to protests with force and the use of tear gas. Stone throwing attacks on vehicles can occur during gang conflicts and periods of unrest. Gender-based violence is high in Timor-Leste, and sexual harassment is fairly common. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/timor-leste-travel-advisory.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...
- Symbiote 5y ago
  That's not normally a reason to suspend delivery. It's Timor Leste's postal service's problem to do the final delivery. I can still send mail there from the UK (which seems to have no restrictions) or Denmark. https://www.postnord.dk/en/service-interruptions/reopening-of-denmark-and-europe https://www.postnord.dk/en/service-interruptions/reopening-o...
tssva 5y ago
The list has been updated to include New Zealand but service to many of these countries has been suspended for quite a while.
robocat 5y ago
Originally linked article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/452764/united-states-postal-service-suspends-mail-deliveries-to-new-zealand https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/452764/united-states-pos...

by jhugo 5y ago

Factorium 5y ago

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international... Afghanistan Guadeloupe New Zealand* Tajikistan Australia * Laos Reunion (Bourbon) Timor-Leste Bhutan Libya Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Miquelon) Turkmenistan Brunei Martinique Samoa Yemen Cuba Mayotte South Sudan French Guiana Mongolia Syria How much of this has to do with Australia and New Zealand maintaining closed borders?

irrational 5y ago
Outside of Australia and New Zealand, I can understand most of these (gee, I wonder why Afghanistan?), but what is going on in Samoa that prevents mail delivery?
- angry_octet 5y ago
  Very few flights due to COVID and no vaccines.
smnrchrds 5y ago
Saint Pierre and Miquelon is less than 20 km from the coast of Newfoundland (Canada). It shouldn't be that hard to get stuff delivered there.
- mig39 5y ago
  That doesn't make much sense. USPS can just deliver to France and let them deal with it. Or drop it off in Canada and they can forward it. There's a ferry that runs between St. Pierre and Newfoundland a bunch of times every day. It's still running. Regular flights to St. John's, Newfoundland, even Paris, France are still happening. I don't understand this at all -- it's not like USPS was literally flying a plane to St. Pierre, was it?
- tdeck 5y ago
  Also Samoa is right next to American Samoa, which is a U.S. territory.
  - markdown 5y ago
    American Samoa has had tight border restrictions, including from the US mainland. Samoa even more so, given they had a high death toll from a measles epidemic there two years before covid struck.
    - Dylan16807 5y ago
      More directly, Samoa is only allowing one cargo flight per week right now and it doesn't go to American Samoa.
- gao8a 5y ago
  I am Canadian and I just learned about this, wow
  - smnrchrds 5y ago
    People always think Canada has only one international border: with the US. But in reality, Saint Pierre et Miquelon is so close to Newfoundland that there is no international water between them. So in addition to our land and maritime borders with the US, we have a maritime border with France. Also one with Greenland (Denmark), but that's too arctic for anyone to care about.
  - mig39 5y ago
    When Prohibition was active in both the US and Canada, St. Pierre & Miquelon was the place buy smuggle booze into Canada (and the USA). In recent times, it was the source of tax-free, cheap Canadian cigarettes and Canadian booze. Neither of which the local French population consume, but are more than happy to sell it to Newfoundlanders visiting :-)
- notatoad 5y ago
  I doubt that "too hard" is really the issue here. yeah, if USPS wanted to figure it out, i'm sure they could. but what actually happens is that the USPS contracts somebody else to figure it out for them, and that contractor charges USPS a price for that. if the price is worth it, USPS pays. if the price isn't worth it, then USPS stops delivering there.
bellyfullofbac 5y ago
I guess the closed borders mean significantly less flights into those countries, therefore significantly less room in the cargo holds for mail. My guess is cargo planes are still flying in goods, but they cost a lot more so that USPS has decided it's losing too much money... As far as I know, passenger flights find out the weight of their passengers and luggage, and then sell the remaining space/weight allowance for cargo, I wonder if that's how most overseas mail are delivered. For time-critical or heavy stuff this system is a bit random, obviously, so if you want to deliver something heavy you'd buy space in a cargo plane instead...
petschge 5y ago
French Guiana is where ESA launches rockets from. Anybody willing to bet if JWST is going to get a tiny little extra delay because the US can't get paperwork down there?
shakna 5y ago
Australia has to do with Australia Post and the backlog. They've closed down intake for October, to try and clear the backlog, and introduced new customs requirements.
- paranoidrobot 5y ago
  Domestic delivery for Australia Post is backlogged significantly[1] There's reports that AusPost's parcel facilities have so many packages to process, that they're queued up outside (in some kind of undercover area) waiting to be processed. I only have anecdata to support this, but my own parcels from even one or two suburbs away have taken over a week. A parcel from Newcastle to Sydney sat for two weeks in one of the major parcel facilities with no updates, presumably in the aforementioned pile-up. A parcel from Germany showed being processed outbound in Germany in late April, and then complete silence until it turned up in an AusPost facility in early September. It's all very random, though, and not consistent - two packages from the same seller in Melbourne sent two weeks apart arrived in reverse order one day apart - one taking one week, the other three. They passed through the same processing facilities in tracking. I've now given up having any idea how long things will take to arrive. [1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/expect-parcel-delays-to-continue-through-to-christmas/100504602 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/expect-parcel-delays-...

jccooper 5y ago

If you keep going down the page, you get actual narratives about the problems. For Australia, for instance, Australia Post has closed the office that handles incoming mail. New Zealand is more vague, but is basically turning down mail processing due to COVID restrictions.

teruakohatu 5y ago
USPS implies it is because of COVID restrictions. NZ Post is accepting mail, but there is a shipping capacity crunch and very little air cargo capacity. Another way to look at it is USPS did not anticipate a crunch by buying capacity in advance. NZ Post allows us to ship packages from the US to a US warehouse which then ship to NZ. This is still operating with delays. Amazon seems fine with deliveries not being delayed at this point.
- Taniwha 5y ago
  International AirMail mostly travels in the holds of international passenger planes - those are just not flying - package deliver to NZ (DHL/Fedex/UPS) is mostly OK, but plain old mail, not so much
  - jhugo 5y ago
    I count four widebodies between Auckland and California (LAX/SFO) in the air just as a random check on FR24 as I write this, so there's certainly capacity for some mail if USPS want to buy it.
- pkaye 5y ago
  Do people in NZ normally buy stuff through the US Amazon website? Is that because there are more options/better pricss?
  - lostlogin 5y ago
    Amazon just isn’t that good here. The shipping is either impossible and requires you to use a third party service which gives you a US postal address, or shipping is outrageously expensive. It’s one of the things that happens when you live too far away I guess.

blondin 5y ago

there was an announcement earlier this week saying domestic delivery will be delayed in some areas as well. if i recall correctly, this is due to some internal changes and not entirely due to the pandemic.

techrat 5y ago
It's due to DeJoy's ratfucking. Let's not obfuscate this.
- potiuper 5y ago
  The board shares in the guilt.
  - Bud 5y ago
    The board is all Trump appointees. The board and DeJoy are basically one and the same. The goal here is to intentionally degrade USPS until it can be killed. This then makes mail delivery an entirely private business, and also allows easier Republican ratfucking of vote-by-mail going forward.
    - ceejayoz 5y ago
      There are three Biden appointees on the board.
      - ceejayoz 5y ago
        Downvoters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Governors_of_the_United_States_Postal_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Governors_of_the_Unit... Two of Trump’s nominees were Dems, too, because: > No more than five governors may belong to the same political party.

jareklupinski 5y ago

I was about to ask "why Timor-Leste?" but answered my question by checking the state dept page: > Country Summary: Timor-Leste has seen isolated instances of police responding to protests with force and the use of tear gas. Stone throwing attacks on vehicles can occur during gang conflicts and periods of unrest. Gender-based violence is high in Timor-Leste, and sexual harassment is fairly common. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/timor-leste-travel-advisory.html https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...

Symbiote 5y ago
That's not normally a reason to suspend delivery. It's Timor Leste's postal service's problem to do the final delivery. I can still send mail there from the UK (which seems to have no restrictions) or Denmark. https://www.postnord.dk/en/service-interruptions/reopening-of-denmark-and-europe https://www.postnord.dk/en/service-interruptions/reopening-o...

tssva 5y ago

The list has been updated to include New Zealand but service to many of these countries has been suspended for quite a while.

robocat 5y ago

Originally linked article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/452764/united-states-postal-service-suspends-mail-deliveries-to-new-zealand https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/452764/united-states-pos...