Concept of Postal Security

The safety, security, and resilience of domestic and international postal, transportation and critical infrastructure are vital to the global supply chain. Supply chain security should be a high priority for organizations, a breach within the system could damage or disrupt entire or part of the operations. Vulnerabilities within a supply chain could lead to unnecessary costs and inefficient delivery schedules. Delivering products that have been tampered with or prohibited and dangerous goods can be harmful to customers and the postal staff themselves.

While threats are inevitable, Postal Security as a part of Supply chain security can work towards a more secure, efficient movement of goods that can recover rapidly from disruptions and encompass risks with internal and external sources, such as theft, sabotage and terrorism. The safety and security of the postal is a high priority, ensuring the safety of workers, customers and goods that Posts handle across the world.

Universal Postal Union Postal Security Standards

Postal Security Group (PSG) developed a broad set of security standards in cooperation with UPU member countries and other external stakeholders like the International civil aviation organization (ICAO), International Air Transport Association (IATA), EU, Transportation Security Administration and World Customs Organization (WCO).

In 2012, the UPU sponsored the development of two standards for physical security and aviation screening, S58 & S59 Standards, which were accepted and designated as mandatory at the 25th Universal Postal Congress in Doha in 2012. Security standards are the furtherance of Article 8 of the UPU Convention Manual (Update 1 on June 2019) to meet the physical and procedural security standards applicable to critical facilities in the postal network.

S58 - General security measures defining the minimum physical and process security
S59 - Office of exchange and international airmail security defining minimum requirements for security operations relating to the transport of international mail

APP Status on Regional Postal Security

APP work with 29 Postal Operators across Asia Pacific Region, including Designated Postal Operators (DPOs), DPOs who are ICAO approved Regulated Agents (Ras) and WCO Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs).

Thailand Post (Gold), Vanuatu Post (Silver) and Solomon Islands (Silver)are already obtained the S58/S59 Postal Security certification. Vietnam Post is seeking certification in 2020.

UPU Postal Security Certification List

APP- PSWG (Asia Pacific Post Postal Security Working Group)

The APP formed the Asia Pacific Post’s Postal Security Working Group in September 2020, with 28 APP member Postal operators in the Asia Pacific Region. This working group will function as a platform to share expertise and best practices and identify any collective means of support within the membership, supporting the operators to achieve the Postal Security Standards in the region.

Any postal operator (member/non-member) interested in knowing more about Postal Security Standards and would like to be a part of the APP Postal Security Discussion platform is welcome to join this working group.

Please write to us, [email protected] if you wish to join APP PSWG or join APP Postal Security Community if you want to involve with the community and more discussions.