Italy – Update on IT issues

Poste Italiane, wishes to provide other Union member countries and their designated operators with the following update:

1) The first problem mainly consists of the customs clearance IT system providing unexpected error message feedback over a vast number of items presented for clearance.

The situation has become progressively worse over the past few weeks, and the consequent increase in number of large backlogs has resulted in the agreement of different clearing processes with customs authorities. As a result of these new processes, all eligible traffic – i.e. items not stopped by customs authorities and with complete and accurate ITMATT – is immediately released for delivery. All other items, for which either full data entry or completion/correction of the data is mandatory, continue to be subject to clearance delays.

By applying this procedure since 10 January 2022, we have cleared our offices of exchange (OEs) and started collecting backlog receptacles from our airmail units (AMUs). The results to date have been satisfactory for the following reasons:

• On the EMS/parcels side, the backlog accumulated at AMUs before the application of the new procedure has been completely cleared and all eligible items are being processed and sent out for delivery after customs presentation/clearance.
• On the letter mail/packet side, the backlog is finally being dealt with. We expect to completely clear the backlog at AMUs over the next few days, and to be able to deliver all eligible items as soon as the customs procedure is finalized.

We regret to inform that the recent worsening of the COVID-19 situation in Italy, resulting in the daily absence of thousands of workers, has placed huge pressure on our operational networks. Nevertheless, we will make every possible effort to meet our targets.

2) The second problem stems from various changes applied to logistics and custom clearance processes necessary to comply with new regulations. These have led to structural software adjustments to allow our systems to generate and transmit the expected tracking events. New system developments are required in turn (implying the support of our data transmission network providers) in order to ensure the accuracy of the newly created data flows.

Despite some delays in the rollout phase, since the second half of December 2021, the new systems and software are proving to be efficient. We have organized an ongoing recovery process for tracking events occurring over the last few weeks, which we estimate will be complete by the end of January 2022.

Current situation:

• For parcels/EMS: EMD and customs-related events generated at OEs but not transmitted during the months of November and December 2021; we are at par. Recovery of delivery events is currently ongoing and the procedure, which is constantly being monitored by our IT Department, should be finalized over the next few days.
• For packets: all missing events have been recovered and transmitted, although some EMD events are still missing. Our IT Department is currently assessing the causes and the associated recovery actions for these missing EMDs.

Finally, the misalignment between international tracking data and our internal systems has been solved.