by: Alex Gundel

In this article, the term remail is examined. Different remail covers are discussed to better under- stand the issue. Remail is a legal concept from the 1980s. A detailed description of this concept is given in the book “The Rise of Global Delivery Services” published by the US-American lawyer James I. Campbell [1].

The rules of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) allowed intercepting remail, to return it to the sender or to charge postage due. In order to make the UPU-rules for remail more comprehensible and suitable for court, the remail concept describes the country of origin of a mailing as A, the country where the postage was paid to the Public Postal Operator (PPO) as B, and a third country as C. The UPU rules of 1924 (§23) prohibited so-called ABA-remailing. Campbell [1] describes country B as the country where mail is posted. Since paying postage is a well-defined part of posting, I have replaced the somewhat indistinct verb to post by the expression to pay postage to the PPO.

By the way, my everyday approach in identifying remail is very simple. I am not thinking about countries A, B, or C, but I am searching just for covers for which postage had not been paid to the PPO of the country where the sender resides.

In the 1980s the UPU-rules for remail were in conflict with the competition laws in the EU and the USA. PPOs avoided interfering with remailings possibly because of the on-going debate. Private remailing companies, e.g., DHL or TNT, did not use ABA-remail as an option for business. However, sometimes ABA-remail covers are encountered.

The (physical) ABA-remail cover depicted in Figure 1 probably resulted when the sender did not separate domestic from international mail, and unsorted mail reached the DMC. Anyhow, this cover documents a clear violation of UPU-rules.

In contrast, Figure 2 depicts a non-physical ABA-remail cover. Here, the German company Gesellschaft für Zahlungssysteme GmbH GZS (Frankfurt/Main) tried to use a supposed gap in the UPU-rules and electronically sent credit card statements for Visa and MasterCard to Denmark. There,

Figure 1
Figure 1. German ABA-Remail that was sorted and processed in the Dutch Mail Center (DMC) in Amsterdam in 1997. The DMC processed international mail that was collected by DHL like this cover [2]. The letter was delivered by Deutsche Post.

the statements were printed and mailed with a Danish postage paid indicium (PPI) to customers in Germany. Also, other companies have used non-physical ABA-remail for their purposes.

Figure 2
Figure 2. German non-physical ABA-remail that was mailed by GZS in 1995. The logo on the back of the cover (blue-boxed inset) shows that the cover had been manufactured in Germany.

Deutsche Post AG took legal action against Gesellschaft für Zahlungssysteme. The European Court of Justice fully confirmed Deutsche Post’s legal opinion on ABA remailing on February 10, 2000. The Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt (the higher court in Frankfurt/M.) was responsible for the final enforcement of the law. GZS mailed the statements from Denmark for the last time in January 2001. In March 2001 they were mailed as ePost with Deutsche Post.

By the way, the GZS mailings allow an interpretation differing fundamentally from press and internet reports. The letters may have been produced completely in Germany, e.g., in Frankfurt, and then Post Denmark handed them over to the exchange office of Deutsche Post in Frankfurt. At least, this would be the most economical way to use the lower Danish postage.

According to the Universal Postal Convention, the PPO of the destination country receives terminal dues for its services, in particular for delivery. The amount of the terminal dues largely determines the economic benefit for the remailer; the lower the dues the better for the remailer. The terminal dues system is relatively complicated and cannot be dealt with here. This system has been adapted over the years to make remail less attractive.

ABB-remail (Figure 3) and ABC-remail (Figure 4) are encountered far more often than ABA-remail. I am estimating that about half of the international letter mail was remailed at times.

Figure 3
Figure 3. ABB-remail. This letter from Abu Dhabi (country A) was flown by DHL to England where it was metered as a domestic letter (country B) on March 15, 1989, and delivered by Royal Mail in Manchester (country B). The postage meter (Pitney Bowes) shows the DHL logo.

Figure 4
Figure 4. ABC-remail. The figure shows the upper part of a window envelope that was mailed from Queensland, Australia (country A), to Germany (country C). The cover has an Australian PPI (postage paid impression) and an Australian return address. However, postage was paid by TNT in the Netherlands (country B). The PPI of December 31, 1991, reveals the proper return address in Rotterdam “BP 71120, NL-3000 PC Rotterdam”. The letter was delivered by Deutsche Post.

The remail-paragraph, §23, was extended in the version of 1979 of the Postal Union Convention with the aim to also stop ABB- and ABC-remail. Mainly in the USA, a discussion about the economic competition caused by remailing ensued. This debate led to the political decision that international remail was allowed on August 19, 1986. The US-Government argued that remail promised lower costs and better services for postal customers and therefore would strengthen customers in their international environment. This political move exerted pressure on Europe where many remail companies emerged at the time.

European PPOs reacted to the changes in the competitive situation by taking over the remail business themselves. The Dutch PPO purchased TNT, the largest competitor, in 1996; Deutsche Post took over DHL in 1998. In addition, Deutsche Post purchased many smaller remail companies, mainly in the UK and in the USA [2].

The experience with ABB-remail led to consistently further developing the remail concept. The European postal treaty REIMS II of 1998 and the UPU Congress in Beijing in 1999 agreed that all industrialized countries must have mutual access to their domestic postage rates for Direct Entry Mail how it is called. The sender can use a PPI of the country where the mail originates or where it is destined. The return address must fit the country of the PPI (Figure 5).

To be eligible for the lowest postage rates, larger number of pieces of mail have to be posted. Some Direct Entry Mail cannot be distinguished from traditional ABB-remail.

Figure 5
Figure 5. PPI from REIMS II Direct Entry Mail originating in the Netherlands (2004). Postage was paid in Aachen, in the destination country. The return address is the P.O. Box of the Dutch postal service provider ABC Mail (Chapter 5.29.1) at the IPZ 2 in Niederaula[2]. IPZ stands for Internationales Postzentrum (international postal center) of Deutsche Post.

The European PPOs offer another Direct Entry service, the so-called IDM or International Direct Mail for smaller numbers of mail pieces (Figure 6).

Figure 6
Figure 6. PPI printed on an IDM cover to France (2020). The PPI on all IDM mail shows the IDM logo and a two-digit country code. The return address is a P.O. Box at the IPZ 2 facility at Niederaula.

Private companies started to further develop ABC-remail already in 1992. TNT had recognized that operational costs could be reduced if mail that was shipped as air cargo to London was also sorted there and forwarded to destination countries. This would save an additional transport to the Netherlands or to Belgium. To use Belgian or Dutch postage, appropriate PPIs had to be applied in London. TNT used the index letters B or Z to label the PPIs (Figure 7).

TNT had invented what the UPU later called an Extraterritorial Office of Exchange (ETOE). The practice, applying a PPI in a country different from that where postage was paid to the PPO led to misunderstandings among collectors. The description of such covers often reads, “ABC-remail to e.g., Germany via the Netherlands” though the cover has not been in the Netherlands. Remail posted after 1990 should be checked whether it has actually been in the country where postage had been paid to the PPO.

Figure 7
Figure 7. The figure shows the upper part of a window envelope that was mailed from Queensland, Australia, to Germany. The cover has an Australian PPI and an Australian return address. However, postage was paid by TNT in the Netherlands. The PPI of February 6, 1992, reveals the proper return address in Rotterdam, “BP 71120, NL-3000 PC Rotterdam”. The letter was delivered by Deutsche Post (compare with Figure 4). This is the earliest known use of a PPI with the index letter “B” (lower right corner of return address panel; indicated by black arrow). Probably, the letter never went through the Netherlands when it was transported from Queensland to Germany.

The term ETOE has been coined by the UPU. Since 2003, the UPU is keeping a register of ETOEs. PPOs voluntarily register their facilities with the UPU. There are facilities that work like an ETOE without being registered. Deutsche Post AG has registered 45 ETOEs, in Austria, Australia, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and in the USA. In principle, ETOEs must provide their services in accordance with the laws of the host country.

The following four covers (Figures 8-11) illustrate how ABC-remail was further developed and how ETOEs were used in processing international mail.

Figure 8 shows a PPI label from a mailing for which terminal dues were not relevant. Two business units of Deutsche Post AG, DHL Global Mail in the USA and Deutsche Post in Germany, managed the shipment from sender to recipient.

Figure 8
Figure 8. This label with a PPI of Deutsche Post was applied to a consignment of books from the USA to Germany (December 2010). The package was processed in the ETOE at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), which was run by DHL Global Mail (DHLGM) for Deutsche Post AG. The route of the shipment led via London Heathrow (LHR) to Germany. This shipment was exclusively processed within the Deutsche Post Group.

Figure 9
Figure 9. This cover was collected by arriva, a private postal operator in Freiburg (Germany),and received a date stamp of July 21, 2015. It was handed over to the ETOE of Swiss Post International (SPI) in Cologne, Germany. The ETOE applied a Swiss PPI (Exchange Office SPI CGN). The letter was delivered by La Poste in France.

Figure 10
Figure 10. Window envelope of a letter from Sesto San Giovani in the Milan metropolitan area, Italy, to Germany. The PPI was applied in the Milan ETOE of PostNL. The letter was delivered by RegioPost Pfalz (April 14, 2015) as a service for postcon. The letter only left the PostNL group for delivery by a regional private postal company. Of course, no terminal dues were paid to Deutsche Post.

Finally, there is another cover with the romance of the South Sea: (Figure 11).

Figure 11
Figure 11. This part of a cover shows a PPI and a return address from Samoa. The cover has been mailed by an Australian lottery company to Germany (2015). This ABC-remail has not been processed by a registered ETOE and it is very unlikely that it has been in Samoa.

There is another type of remail for which postage had not been paid to any PPO. A printed magazine for the members of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), UK, is exported as freight to the countries where foreign members of the RHS live. In Germany, these exports go to the company MD Media Publishing Service ([2] Chapter 5.13.4) in Hamburg for further distribution (Figure 12).

Figure 12 Figure 12 Figure 12
Figure 12. In January and in February 2020, MD Media prepared envelopes containing the RHS magazine as ABB-remail using its Deutsche Post license ZKZ 21668. In January, postage was paid to Deutsche Post (PPI in the top panel), which delivered the magazine in Frankfurt/Main. In February, MD Media applied an adhesive label that covers part of the PPI (center panel). The label suggests that the magazine was conveyed and delivered by the Mail Alliance (MA) given the sender as MA 2031, perhaps the Mail Alliance number of MD Media, and the delivering partner as MA 6031 (mailworXs Rhein-Main). For delivery, another label was applied by Postcon (603-2; bottom panel) ZUP stands for “Zustellpartner”, i.e., partner companies for delivery.

The return address in the PPI is RM, i.e. Royal Mail Netherlands ([2] Chapter 5.29.4). PPIs applied by MD Media have been also seen with the company name Comprador. Comprador has been taken over by RM NL.

Two networks of private mailing companies exist in Germany, the Mail Alliance and “Die Zweite Post P2”. It is beyond the scope of this article to describe their operations in detail. It is not clear whether MD Media is a real member of the networks. MD Media does probably not fall under the state monopoly for letter mail and is not registered by the German “Bundesnetzagentur” (Federal Network Agency). But MD Media seems to use the services of both networks. Full partners of the networks have an identification number, e.g., MA 6031.

Figure 13 shows another MD Media label for the April 2022 issue of the RHS magazine. The magazine was imported by MD Media and delivered in Frankfurt. The envelope does not show a PPI. The MD Media label is very similar to that of Figure 12, but shows with MA 9039 a different Mail Alliance number for MD Media. Actually, MA 9039 belongs to mailworXs Würzburg.

Figure 13
Figure 13. 2022 MD Media label from April 2022.

Also, mailings from Columbia University in New York City are sometimes processed by MD Media (Figure 14).

Figure 14
Figure 14. Jersey Post PPI covered by an MD Media label was found on a cover from New York, NY, to Frankfurt, Germany (October 2021).

MA 6031 appears on all shown MD Media labels since my collecting interests are supported by recipients of such mail living in Frankfurt/Main.

This completes the examination of the term remail. I am almost sure that there are other covers that would add more aspects to the discussion of remail.

Given the dynamics of remail development over the past 30 years, I anticipate that new international postal products will continue to emerge in the coming years, particularly for eCommerce.

Finally, I must point out that remail covers offer a lot of room for research and the building up of very individual collections. I would appreciate comments sent to alex.gundel(at)gmail.com.

References
[1] Campbell JI (2001) The Rise of Global Delivery Services. JCampbell Press, Washington D.C.
[2] Gundel A (2019) Remailing Initiated the Globalization of the Mail Market. Self-published eBook.
(Two earlier books were published in print in 2000 and in 2003, respectively.)