Royal Mail Fully Restores International Export Services

The Royal Mail saga about being unable to send packages and mail to international destinations seems to have ended.

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In early January, Royal Mail had to suspend international export services due to a ransomware cyber incident. While the postal operator apparently did not pay up the ransom, it has restored export services for almost all mail types to all destinations through other means.

Royal Mail said that its “International Export services have now been fully reinstated to all destinations for purchase online, through shipping solutions and over the counter at Post Office branches.”

Previously, the postal operator had made incremental progress, such as reinstating untracked letters that do not require a customs declaration.

The only small exceptions to the full restoration of international services are a few International Untracked services for Business Contract customers where alternative services are available.

Royal Mail International Delays to Continue

However, the organization warns that international delivery delays will continue for an unspecified time frame — likely to massive backlogs of packages — and customers may see some unusual tracking information as items leave the UK.

Unlike private couriers such as UPS, FedEx, or DHL Express, postal operators are dependent on tracking data they receive from the destination postal service.

It appears Royal Mail’s re-launched export systems may still not receive timely updated tracking data from select foreign postal operators or some mail types when packages enter the foreign country.

The organization did not explain why this is still occurring or which countries or mail types may be impacted.

Therefore, if you are concerned about the status of a package and if there has been a long delay since it left the UK, you may want to check the tracking on the foreign postal service’s tracking page.

Royal Mail has a list of foreign postal operators and their websites available here.

Meanwhile, regarding the ongoing labor dispute with its 115,000 unionized postal workers, there has been no further hope to suggest it could be coming to an end soon.