Sometimes QSL work can be challenging and changing times mean that we have to adapt to demands and also now national security. What this means is that many countries are tightening up security on sending “parcels”
There are new legislative requirements from certain countries security that have requested that when we send parcels to the IARU Bureaus we will need to send new “New Electronic Pre Advice Data” which include:
1) Name of recipient, telephone number, email address.
2) Name of sender, telephone number, email address.
3) As well as the usual description and value of the contents.
This has nothing to do with our carrier but will affect ALL carriers sending parcels to the affected countries of USA, Russia, Japan and Brazil, from April 2018 and ALL countries from April 2019.
I have consulted with the IARU who were unaware of the new changes, at this time the feedback I got from the IARU was that they did not feel that the IARU Bureaus would publically list this information.
So at this time I am unsure exactly how this is going to affect our outgoing Bureau dispatches from April 2018. At the very least it could mean that if IARU are not able to conform to these requirements, dispatches may be delayed at customs and at the very worst our Bureau dispatches may be subject to handling fees and surcharges for not meeting customs requirements. I suspect that many bureaus would then refuse to pay the charges and parcels would be sent back to us.
As yet we do not have the answers but could this be the death of the bureau QSL?
Every quarter we receive a box of cards like this incoming from the bureau, most of which are sent to recycling once processed 
