About Letter Post Development

To stimulate the letter post market, the UPU has introduced several new programmes.

The service and product features that are part of these programmes aim to modernize the UPU service portfolio by adding value to current services. Designated operators are invited to participate in these programmes, which will help them better meet customers’ evolving needs in a market segment where opportunities offered by the growth of e-commerce abound. 

An estimated 80% of mail items generated by e-commerce today weigh under 2 kilogrammes and are processed in the letter-post mail stream. Increasing the value of the letter-post service will help respond to customers’ need for a strong international service, and sustain the growth of the e-commerce business.

The development of letter post focuses on 4 areas:

1  Supplementary remuneration for registered, insured and express items

Through this programme, postal operators exchange scanning data to improve the quality of registered, insured and express services and receive greater remuneration for processing these items when they achieve quality targets.

2  GMS Quality Link User Group 

The GMS Quality Link User Group GMSQLUG manages and resolves problems arising from the operation of UPU-agreed measurement systems used for the UPU quality of service link to terminal dues (QS link).

3  International business reply service (IBRS)

This service enables authorized senders to prepay for reply items posted by their respondents in other countries.

4  Direct access 

Direct access is the access to all domestic letter-post services that a designated operator offers to others that send mail to its country, under conditions identical to those offered to its national customers.