Ever Wonder How USPS Handles Exports and Imports?

I had the pleasure of seeing first hand how the US Postal Service (USPS) handles imports and exports by air in to and out of its Kennedy (JFK) airport location in Jamaica, New York during a recent tour I took there.

Regarding imports, USPS receives about 400 air containers per day from all over the world.  It has an International Mail Agreement which standardizes by code mail equivalents worldwide and streamlines the processing of incoming mail.  Mail passes under an infrared scanner that verifies receipt of the packages into the US mail system and reconciles payments at such time.  Of course, there is always mail for which an address cannot be read, a package’s integrity has been compromised, or some other reason necessitating the need for manual processing, so there is a dedicated area for doing this as well.

E-commerce and E-bay sales make up a huge portion of total imports by mail into the U.S. in what are known as “E-packets,” and to my surprise I saw some itty-bitty packages that identified the contents as clothing, a dress specifically, as it needed to be identified for customs purposes.  All I could think was, "this must be a really small dress!"  Or not a dress, obviously...

  In fact, 5 Million “E-packet” packages come from China and South Korea every month. Wow!

US Customs is, of course, present for cargo inspections and not only are agents walking around the floor to check and even open up questionable mail, Customs likewise has its own dedicated and restricted space for conducting larger inspections on flagged shipments.  

Regarding mail destined for foreign locales, i.e., exports, they arrive into the “Business Mail Entry Unit,” where commercial shipments have been delivered by bulk mail providers like “Asendia,” and the mail gets sorted and then assigned to a flight.  Air carriage services include their International Surface Air Lift (ISAL) option, which delivers within 7 to 11 business days, the International Priority Air Lift (IPA) option, which delivers in 4 to 7 business days, or an Express Air option which delivers in 3 to 5 business days and has a “time-definite” delivery to certain countries.  

 It should be noted however, that as not every foreign country has the infrastructure or capabilities to have this capacity, the time definite delivery cannot be offered to all destinations.

 The packages themselves are sorted by destination country and where the volume is very high, such as exports to Canada, a special section designated specifically for that country is demarcated.  With 3 working shifts a day, mail is kept moving 24 hours per day amounting to roughly 3 to 4 trailers of IPA and ISAL mail that gets exported daily.

While packages get placed onto various air carriers, 99% of air exports travel on a FedEX airplane, with whom USPS has service contracts and to which they are FedEx’s largest customer.

For more information on exports or imports with USPS, contact Mr. Kenyatta Adams of the US Postal Service at Kenyatta.A.Adams@usps.gov .

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