Maltapost has pledged to deliver its clients' Christmas cards in time, as the postal company turns over a new leaf in a determined drive to bring about more efficiency and eliminate complaints.
Over the last two weeks, no fewer than 99 per cent of all letters have been delivered by the following day, up from the 70 per cent in July 2003, clearly reflecting Maltapost's leap in standards, chairman Joe Grioli said.
Maltapost on Thursday held a business breakfast on the theme Present And Future Perspectives to show that it was putting its house in order after several months of bad press.
Maltapost chief executive officer Stephen Sultana did his utmost to explain and sometimes justify the shortcomings and misconceptions held about Maltapost over the past year, though he continuously underlined the need to look ahead with optimism.
He explained that new systems were being phased in and time was needed for staff to get used to them. The apex of reforms took place within a few weeks of Christmas last year, when Christmas cards kept trickling in into the new year, infuriating hundreds of people.
Mr Sultana said that the delays were a combination of factors including unusually late mailing patterns, productivity issues and a considerable backlog of mail destined for Malta stranded at Heathrow.
To exacerbate the problem, clients did not conform to previous trends with over 2.1 million items posted a week before Christmas last year.
This year, Maltapost has launched a "mail early" campaign and the appointment of a representative to monitor incoming mail destined for Malta via Heathrow during December.
Turning to more general issues, Mr Sultana said that most postal administrations worldwide were feeling the brunt of increased competition and declining revenues as a result of rapidly dwindling volumes of traditional mail as more people switched to e-mail. Maltapost estimates that the volume of traditional mail has dwindled by about 25 per cent in the last two years alone.
Downsizing is likely to remain a fact of life as traditional mail continues to decline. The reduction of some 200 employees from Maltapost over three years meant that the company avoided losses of between Lm500,000 and Lm1 million a year.
Despite public perception, Maltapost's speed of delivery was among the most efficient when compared to other countries, Mr Sultana said.
The service levels achieved in the UK in terms of next day delivery was in the region of 92 per cent and 70 per cent in Ireland.
He explained that practically all outgoing international mail from Malta leaves within 24 hours after it is posted. Normally almost all incoming international mail to Malta is delivered to households the day after it arrives.
Mr Sultana said that erratic service levels and delays in some countries, especially France, the UK and Italy were out of Maltapost's control.
Turning to complaints about the non-delivery of some parcels, Mr Sultana said it was worth noting that most books and DVDs do not fit in letter boxes and for the sake of safety and to avoid damage these are sent to post offices for collection.
Mr Sultana said that Maltapost was working on a new national postcode to be introduced in 2005 to bring about more efficiency in the delivery system. A very small portion of local mail arrived late - usually not more than two days after posting - partly because the reforms had rendered some postcodes obsolete. This means letters were being sent to the wrong hubs.
The new postcodes will be phased in over a period of time, starting in 2005.