Compliance to UPU Standards

For more than 20 years, the UPU has been developing technical and messaging standards in an effort to facilitate interoperability between postal operators, customs authorities and carriers, particularly through the exchange of electronic messages throughout the mail processing stream. With the continuous development of technology and security requirements, the use of UPU standards has become crucial.

As the postal community and its supply chain partners (carriers, customs authorities, handling agents, etc.) come to rely increasingly on digital data exchanges, it is becoming essential that all parties comply with UPU standards (as well as those of ICAO, IATA, the WCO, etc.). This is the first step in ensuring data quality.

Checking compliance with UPU standards is an additional tool to be used as a complement to other UPU quality of service measurements.

Project launch

The project to measure compliance with UPU standards was launched at the end of 2017 within the framework of the POC’s Quality of Service Group. The implementation of this project is supported by the POC’s Committee 1 (Supply Chain Integration) and Committee 2 (Physical Services and E-Commerce).

Scope

The project is cross-cutting and covers all mail products, regardless of the EDI network used for message exchanges and the mode of international mail transport. Compliance checks are performed for all EDI messages and for the most widely used technical standards, such as those governing international mail processing centres (IMPCs) and identifiers.

Output

All compliance measurements are conducted centrally based on EDI messages. Data privacy is ensured for each participating party.

Each participant receives detailed reports on a monthly basis. Designated operators also receive a dashboard providing an overview of the various compliance indicators and the evolution thereof.

A description of the reports is provided below.

Participation

Participation in the project is free of charge. The list of project participants is provided below. Designated operators and carriers interested in participating are invited to contact the International Bureau by e-mail at compliance.standards@upu.int.