Beware! The US Postal Service has submitted a new plan to clean up cross-border logistics

In cross-border logistics, in order to save costs, some logistics companies will use false waybills to ship goods. This operation cost is almost zero and it is also convenient to pick up goods at a low price.

In the past, even if the United States Postal Service ( USPS ) found clues, it could only return the package. But recently, the USPS submitted a new plan to the federal government on how to deal with fake shipping labels and packages. If approved, mail with fake shipping labels will be directly destroyed in the future. Cross-border logistics may face a change, and some logistics prices may rise as a result, which cannot be ignored by both logistics companies and sellers.

The US Postal Service has submitted a new plan to destroy parcels with fake mailing labels

In the past two years, fake delivery orders have become increasingly common in cross-border logistics. The industry calls the accounts that operate fake delivery orders "water accounts" or "technical accounts". Accounts can be reused, and fake delivery orders have almost no cost, so logistics companies can use great price advantages to attract sellers and customers.

Li Lin, a senior logistics expert in the industry , said: "For a while, there was a fixed price in the market, which was directly cut in half from the lowest price announced by the US Postal Service, and the delivery was not divided into different regions. The US Postal Service has discovered this problem, but it has no law enforcement power and can only return the parcels after discovery. Some people who have connections can continue to rush to various outlets."

But this situation may change next.

Recently, the United States Postal Service submitted a new plan to the federal government on how to deal with fake shipping labels and packages. On February 15, the United States Postal Service announced the incident and will solicit public opinions in the following month.

"If the US government agrees to the amendment plan, the U.S. Postal Service will obtain law enforcement powers and can directly impose fines and destroy false waybills when they are discovered. This will definitely have a certain impact on the so-called water-laundering accounts in the market and will also indirectly affect sellers. For example, the prices of the China-US dedicated lines on the market will go up," Li Lin analyzed.

(Part of the announcement)

The USPS stated in the announcement :

“In recent years, there has been a surge in the use of false shipping labels in the mail stream. It is a criminal offense to knowingly use or sell a counterfeit shipping label, which is an attempt to obtain service without payment.

In response to this issue, the Postal Service is filing a Federal Register notice to amend the USPS's mailing standard, the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®), to allow the Postal Service to dispose of items found with false mailing labels. 'As America's most trusted government agency, we will continue to work with other law enforcement and government agencies to protect the sanctity of the postal system,' said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale.

The Postal Service's proposed changes will provide the public with notice regarding the disposition of items with false mailing labels. Under the revisions to DMM 604.8.4, items found in the mail with false mailing labels will be considered disposed of and may be opened and disposed of at the Postal Service's discretion.

Consumers who purchase items online may be surprised to find that the seller has mailed the goods using a forged shipping label. Under the new regulations, such items will be considered discarded and handled at the discretion of the postal service. When this happens, consumers will have to seek compensation from the supplier .

According to the analysis of Zhimeitong Research Institute, according to the current DMM, even if the risk control department of the US Postal Service finds fake waybills used in batches, it has no right to destroy or open the packages for inspection. If the amendment to DMM 604.8.4 is successfully approved, US Postal employees will be collectively authorized to inspect all suspicious packages and centrally destroy packages confirmed to be fake waybills without the need to notify the consignee or sender individually or obtain permission.

If the proposed amendment is passed, it will inevitably have a significant impact on cross-border logistics.

A large number of China-US special lines use fake waybills, and the market may be cleaned up

At present, the use of false waybills is very common in the industry. Li Lin revealed that in order to save costs and increase the attractiveness of receiving goods in the market, some Sino-US dedicated logistics companies on the market are using false waybills, which can be easily seen from the current large differences in the US Postal Quotes.

At the end of last year, the United States conducted a strict investigation on fake shipping labels, and many sellers suffered losses. At that time, there was no legislation, and the U.S. Postal Service returned the problematic mails found to be using fake accounts. The relevant logistics companies could only replace the real shipping labels through the U.S. overseas warehouse and hand them over to the U.S. Postal Service again. In this way, the extra-long delivery time caused the sellers to violate the platform's time limit regulations, which had a negative impact on their accounts.

If the new plan of the USPS is successfully modified, it will affect all delivery methods using USPS accounts in cross-border logistics, including domestic direct delivery and overseas warehouse drop shipping, etc., and both independent sites and third-party platform self-delivery sellers may be affected. For example, under the severe crackdown of the USPS, the logistics industry has turned to using formal accounts, and logistics prices will naturally increase, which will also affect sellers' profits to a certain extent.

On the Amazon platform, sellers often use sea trucks or sea express for the first leg of shipping. Sea trucks are sea freight + last-mile truck delivery to FBA warehouses or overseas warehouses. Sea express means shipping the goods to the United States by sea, then picking them up and putting them in overseas warehouses. The last leg is delivered by FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc. Sea express is usually for large items, and the United States Postal Service is rarely used, so it is almost impossible to be affected.

It is understood that the discounts offered by the US Postal Service are not much different. If the US Postal Service conducts strict inspections on fake shipping documents and the industry stops using "water-laundering accounts", most logistics companies will face rising costs, but the overall impact of cost increases on competition in the logistics market will also be relatively limited. Without gray areas and increasingly transparent prices in the United States, logistics companies will start competing on services, first-leg, airfare, and last-leg customs clearance advantages, which will place higher demands on company operations and resources.

Sellers also need to carefully choose the logistics companies they cooperate with. After all, the market has taught us many times that cheaper is not necessarily better. Especially after the plan was revised, the emails found to have false shipping labels may be destroyed, and the sellers who fall into the trap will face the dual risks of buyer complaints and cargo losses. These problems cannot be easily erased.

A logistics person told me that fake waybills account for a large proportion of the total parcel volume in the entire industry. Because too many people use them, many data cannot be counted, but some companies have been using regular accounts. If the US Postal Service's revised plan is passed, it will undoubtedly purify the market .