Study Guide

Universal Postal Union Standards

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is the main organization for cooperation between national postal services and includes 192 member countries. It sets the rules for international mail exchange and provides recommendations to improve service quality. It does not regulate domestic postal matters such as postage rates, stamp design, or the operation of national postal systems.

Within the UPU, the Standards Boards define and maintain technical and messaging standards for postal systems. Their purpose is to improve efficiency, support service quality, and ensure compatibility between postal networks and international systems.

The Standards Boards focus on:

• defining codes and data used in the exchange of postal information
• developing and maintaining standards for electronic data exchange
• creating standards for encoding data on physical items such as labels and documents 
• supporting the use of printed symbols such as bar codes and two-dimensional codes
• developing standards for electronic data exchange between postal operators and airlines

The complete list of UPU Standards can be found here: UPU Technical Standards.

As mentioned in the section on air carriage of goods, a large proportion of air transport involves express consignments. These shipments typically consist of documents or low-value goods and are generally of limited interest to customs authorities.

However, a key issue is how these courier shipments are treated compared to government-operated standard postal services.

The UPU and the WCO have looked closely at this issue and issued a series of guidelines on how these items are to be processed. These guidelines can be found here: WCO-UPU Postal Customs Guide.

The main requirement of designated operators such as DPDHL is stated in the UPU Convention General Regulations: