Category - Bureau Posting News

2,200 Bureau cards received from RSGB 13/07/2022.

Please use OQRS only! – Sending us bureau cards wastes time, money and labour. Please USE OQRS only. Thank you

3,200 Incoming Bureau cards arrived from the RSGB Bureau on September 24th 2021.
Cards sorted and processed through OQRS as of today 4th October. You know! You do not need to send Bureau cards for DXpeditions or rare DX. Just use OQRS. You can get your bureau cards 2 years quicker that way!

Brazil – The parcel sent in March to Brazil QSL Bureau was returned for the 7th time. Unable to deliver to Brazil QSL Bureau.
Croatia – Parcel returned uncollected from July. Posted back to the Croatia Bureau 05/10/2021.

Two Bureau packages have been re-posted to Turkey and Belarus after they were returned from their respective Customs for no “Pre-Advice Electronic Data” The IARU are reluctant to provide the data we need to send Bureau parcels because the IARU believe that this data contravenes GDPR regulations.

Since posting these again the Turkey QSL Bureau was again returned by customs. Sorry TA hams… This is a problem that only IARU can sort out. 

There are many countries now that do not allow any import of packages that do not have Pre advice Electronic Data. The Universal Postal Union made it compulsory for ALL International parcels to provide the following data, the recipient’s name, telephone number and email address must be supplied electronically.

However, when reading the regulations, it is clear that “Personal Communications” (QSL Cards) are exempt from the regulations. It is though for the customs of the recipient country to determine if they allow the parcel to be forwarded to the recipient, returned or destroyed. Sending Bureau cards is a lot more complicated these days. 

QSL cards have been posted to 103 World Bureaus – Monday 5th July 2021

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A few months ago I considered closing the Bureau option on some of my call signs on OQRS as the demands and costs are getting unsustainable. I actually decided NOT to do that and at this current time, all Bureau cards are now ready to be dispatched in the next couple of weeks.
However, the global pandemic has caused a major restriction on air freight worldwide which has led to enormous increases in costs. For example, 10 small packages to ARRL have increased from £14 in total to £103, while the parcel to Japan JARL from £50 to £160, if you multiply the increases to all 90 IARU Bureau destinations the cost is quite a shock to bare.

I therefore had no choice but to introduce a $0.30c charge on Bureau cards on OQRS to help alleviate losses in my future Bureau mailings.

I appreciate to some, this may not be very popular but let me stress, this is NOT about making money. Applying a small charge/contribution will go a huge way to combat the deficit in Postage Costs to World Bureau’s. Without it the Bureau service will cease.
So you think Bureau is free? Since February 2014 we have paid £5,051.05 to get the Bureau cards posted… Free is not a word i recognise!

Thank you for your understanding…

Brazil QSL Bureau parcel that we sent last year to the new PY address has been returned endorsed “UNCLAIMED” 

I would like to express my gratitude to LABRE for solving this matter very quickly this week. Today i received the following letter from LABRE:

“Dear Tim Beaumont,
LABRE comes by means of this, to clarify some problems faced by you in sending cards QSL for Brazil.
In March 2014, LABRE transferred the management and treatment of cards coming from abroad to the São Paulo branch, and in that time, the national administration did not inspect or as the
work was being done. In 2020, there was a change in the entire Board of Directors, and we opted for the return of QSL’s management to Brasília, at the address that is currently on the IARU website https://www.iaru.org/reference/qslbureau-2/
Regarding the emails sent by you, we do not know the reason for the non-response because they did not arrive to us, we ask for your understanding and request that you use the email secretaria@labre.org.br to deal with
any matter with LABRE.
We emphasize that there was also a failure of communication between the Brazilian postal service and LABRE, as we did not receive reports that there were packages awaiting payment of taxes for the
completion of submission.
We are also surprised by this occurrence, as we have received several cards from other countries usually. In view of these occurrences, we have adopted the procedure of consulting weekly for
possible remittance from abroad, and with that we hope to eliminate the problems caused.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused and here we reinforce our longing for receive the cards that unfortunately returned.”

Dear LABRE,
I would like to express my gratitude to LABRE for solving this matter very quickly this week.
I have updated my website blog and added the letter very kindly sent to me by you today.
As far as i am concerned the matter is now resolved, any further loss of mail will be reported directly to you in future.
Regarding the emails, there were many email, and i got the email addresses from the LABRE Website which were obviously incorrect and have now been removed from the LABRE website. So maybe the website was not up to date? I also confirmed the email address with IARU which also gave me the wrong email address for LABRE. Again this matter is now resolved. I will be posting this parcel again to you for your members using “Printed Media Business Mail”
Some of the parcels i had sent to you in 2019 and 2020 that got returned were returned because of the new worldwide Pre Advice Delivery Data that is requested by Customs, Duane. Personal Correspondents such as QSL cards are EXEMPT from these new regulations, but Brazil Duane / Customs do not recognize the parcels as Personal Correspondents and return the parcels to sender. This was what the contents of my previous emails to ask for help from LABRE to allow these QSL parcels through customs / duane. So that was just for your information to help you understand why some of your parcels are required to pay TAX, this is because of the new worldwide Pre Advice Data for parcels, but there should be no TAX to pay on personal correspondents like QSL cards.
Once again, thank you for your co-operation and help. Please stay safe in these difficult covid times.

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1,100 Incoming Bureau cards arrived from the RSGB Bureau on December 24th 2020.

I am still having difficulty in getting this message to DL, JA, F and EA radio amateurs, that you must NOT send cards through the bureau for DXpeditions, SES or Contest Qs, or for ANY call sign that is not an RSGB member. Instead you must use OQRS as explained in the QSL policy for all DXpeditions.
Also, another problem coming from these countries is that they are then sending a second QSL through bureau to say “TNX QSL” You must not do this. Please use OQRS and correctly mark your log as QSL SENT so that you DO NOT send a QSL to DXpeditions. They are NOT needed, and cause extra costs and slows down the bureau system.
Worse are those that use OQRS, but then send a Bureau QSL and then send another Bureau QSL every month until they send a Direct QSL because the Bureau card still has not arrived. Bureau will take up to 3 years. Please understand this! As many JAs & DLs send one QSL per QSO this can lead to up 60 follow up QSL’s being received here for each DX call from 1 station.
Please USE OQRS! Thank you