Posti seeks alternative routes to bring packages from outside Europe

The Finnish postal service Posti said in a press release. that deliveries of mail to and from areas outside Europe and China are currently almost completely cut off.

Sami Finne, Vice President for International eCommerce at Posti talked to Yle and said, deliveries to and from the United States are very difficult at the moment but this situation is constantly changing.

“The situation changes daily now. The US is the most challenging market. A few days ago packages were still going there, but at the moment we don’t have any channel there. On the other hand, we’ve gotten quite a good continuous link to China,” said Finne.

Transport connections have been cut off as the coronavirus (koronavirus, in Finnish) crisis developed. Deliveries within Europe are flowing at a nearly normal pace because ground transport has replaced air cargo. However, there are some slowdowns due to internal border checks.

He said, “Three or four weeks ago we were monitoring the situation in Europe on a day-to-day basis, but now many things have started to level off. Europe is already quite safe when it comes to not being dependent on flights. The problem is mainly intercontinental deliveries.”

According to Finne, about half of mailings from China are arriving on the normal schedule while the others are delayed by a week or two.

Finne says Posti is constantly looking for new alternate routes to replace those that are shut down.

“Packages are stored and then sent on as soon as the first free route becomes available. For instance, we don’t have any regular connections to South Korea at the moment, but last week we were able to send off all the packages that had been collected,” explained Finne.

He notes that there is also uncertainty about shipments to other countries. Even if a package is sent today, its delivery speed at the destination will change.