Washington – The U.S. Postal Service is banning international shipments of electronics with lithium batteries such as smartphones, laptops and iPads, citing the risk of fire.
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Beginning Wednesday, consumers may no longer make the shipments, including to army and diplomatic post offices. That means friends and family will have to use more expensive private companies such as UPS and FedEx to ship electronics to U.S. troops based abroad.
The Postal Service cited discussion by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Universal Postal Union. They issue semi-binding guidelines for global trade.
Officials expect that U.S. consumers can resume shipments in most cases after Jan. 1, once the agency develops a new policy “consistent with international standards.”
Lithium batteries are believed to have caused at least two fires on cargo planes since 2006.
Couldn’t find the answer… does this also affect Hawaii and Puerto Rico? (and, for that matter, Canada and Alaska?)
Sounds like a great idea to lose even more money.
If that’s the case, why should they be allowed on passenger planes?
The post office under obama is always looking for new ways to lose money
Whereas passengers are subjected to extensive searches, the cargo in passenger planes in the luggage compartment, is not always searched as extensively as the passengers. In fact, the cargo shippers fought to the bitter end to precent any type of screening of their precious cargo, stating that “they would be inconvenienced”.