Standards

Standards are necessary for effective postal operations and to interconnect the global postal network.

The UPU International Bureau manages the publication of UPU standards, coordinates standardization activities and provides assistance on standardization matters. Contact: standards@upu.int.

Compliance to UPU standards is also checked, with a dedicated UPU project. Check details in this page.

The UPU's Standards Board develops technical standards and EDI messaging specifications that facilitate the exchange of operational information between postal operators.

It also coordinates UPU standardization initiatives with those of other international standardization bodies, and works closely with postal operators, customers, suppliers and many international organizations to this end.

The Standards Board also ensures that coherent standards are developed in areas such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and mail encoding.

All standards that have reached a particular stage within the Standards Approval Process are published in either the UPU Technical Standards or the UPU EDI Messaging Standards publication.

A listing of all published standards together with a very brief overview of their content can be found in the Catalogue of UPU standards.

Many standards refer to code lists published in the standards code list management system (SCMS).

The UPU Technical Standards publication gives an overview of all technical standards in the area of telematics that have been adopted through the UPU's standards approval process. It is produced and maintained by the Standards Board of the Postal Operations Council, and is constantly updated with the latest detailed specifications of all technical UPU standards.

The UPU Technical Standards publication includes:

• Bar code symbology standards (postal items, postal receptacles)
• Identification/codification standards (airports, air carriers, countries, offices of exchange, postal consignments, postal despatches, postal receptacles, postal items, item tracking events)
• Overview of EDI messages standards (format of message exchange, standard messages for consignments, despatches, items and transport)
• Standards for document exchange (word processing document exchange)

The UPU EDI Messaging Standards publication contains a detailed description of the standard EDI messages that have been adopted through the UPU's standards approval process. It is produced and maintained by the Standards Board of the Postal Operations Council.

The UPU EDI Messaging Standards publication contains the following information:

• An overview of all defined EDI messages, with descriptions of the logical sequence of and the interaction that exists between the various EDI messages
• Detailed descriptions of all existing EDI messages, including:
• Postal item tracking messages
• Postal dispatch pre-advice/response messages
• Postal consignment pre-advice/response messages
• Carrier consignment pre-advice/response messages
• A complete Logical Data Model, giving a structured overview of all information elements that can be exchanged through EDI, including definitions and lists of allowed values for every individual data element

Link to Standards Code List Management System (SCMS)

Request form for mailing lists regarding updates to standard code lists. Please tick the code list(s) you are interested in:

By submitting this form, you will be kept up-to-date of modifications made to the UPU standard code lists that you have selected. The updates will be sent to you via e-mail to the address you have indicated above.