The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has announced new partnerships with cross-border technology firms Zonos and Hurricane Commerce, both members of the UPU Consultative Committee (CC), which will enhance the Electronic Advanced Data (EAD) compliance processes within the International Bureau’s already well-established Customs Declaration System (CDS). These collaborations demonstrate the vital role of UPU CC members in supporting the UPU’s efforts to deliver essential products and services that enhance efficiency and foster growth for the postal sector.
The latest release of CDS, CDS 2024 Service Pack (SP) 1, will be available from the end of February and will include application-programming interfaces (APIs) to both Zonos’s and Hurricane Commerce’s software, giving users more tools to meet growing demands for EAD for cross border postal items.“In short, CDS is the solution for the customs clearance of postal items, serving the three stakeholders involved – post of origin, post of destination and customs at destination,” explains David Avsec, Postal Technology Centre (PTC) Account Relationships Coordinator at the UPU. “We can also include a fourth stakeholder – the customs of export – if required. CDS has been very successful and is now being used by 176 posts around the world.”
Thanks to the new Zonos and Hurricane Commerce integrations, the latest CDS software has been enriched with new lookup functionalities for EAD compliance data, including HS codes (product classification numbers), information on prohibited and restricted items and denied parties verification. “These EAD compliance checks contribute to better quality data, resulting in faster processing by customs,” Avsec says. “And they help to protect the UPU network from illegal and dangerous volumes.”
They are also “absolutely critical” for posts wanting to succeed in the e-commerce space, notes Avsec. Posts’ use of software such as CDS for EAD will become even more critical later this year when new UPU regulations enter force. “HS codes were historically optional, but this is changing,” says Avsec. “From September 2025, HS codes will be mandatory for all commercial flows, including B2C and B2B. The Hurricane and Zonos partnerships are therefore good anticipation of these changes – all the 176 CDS users can be ready on time.”
UPU decided to partner with both Zonos and Hurricane to give CDS users “choice,” Avsec notes. He also stresses that these integrations are “not exclusive” and that the UPU may tender and select additional providers in the future.
To use the new APIs within CDS, users simply select the provider of their choice and then inform the UPU. “They don’t need to directly contract the providers – everything is included in their CDS license with the UPU,” Avsec explains. “Activation is straightforward with a configuration parameter in CDS, and us distributing the corresponding access key. It can be done anytime, and charges apply according to usage [the number of customs declarations verified with the compliance check APIs].”
According to Avsec, the new lookup functionalities included in CDS 2024 SP1 are important additions to the Customs Declaration System, but there is more to come. “We do have plans to empower a Postal Delivered Duty Paid (PDDP) solution, thanks to the same APIs and with the addition of a Landed Costs calculation,” he explains. “Specifications are currently being built, and delivery is on the roadmap for later in 2025.
“DDP is a must-have for e-commerce. Customers buying from abroad hate the “bad surprises” of unexpected or unpredictable amount of taxes and duties when their items pass the border. In addition, for the posts Delivery Duty Unpaid (DDU) is costly to operate, as they have the extra duty to collect the taxes at the time of delivery,” he adds.
Avsec believes that supporting posts to transition from DDU to DDP at UPU level will be essential for the development of postal e-commerce deliveries in the future. “It should also help bring some volumes back into the UPU network,” he concludes.
To learn more about CDS 2024 Service Pack 1, see here.