Maltapost's communications coordinator has helpfully explained why many people are not receiving registered mail, but the explanation does not properly address the frustration at the consumers' end.

Although we have finally learnt that postmen make no attempt whatsoever to deliver registered mail to other than ground-floor dwellings (unless there's a doorbell and people can scamper downstairs in time to catch them), the problem is only starting at that stage.

The postman puts a note in the letter box saying that he was "unable" to make the delivery, and advising the addressee where to collect it. (This, by the way, is not at the local post office, as it would be in the case of a parcel, but at the central sorting office.) All that morning, however, the letter is doing the rounds of the mail.

Next morning, guess what? The letter has gone off yet again in the mailbag, even though the postman knows that he is not going to deliver it. He has no intention of delivering it. He is officially "unable" to deliver it, because postal workers apparently do not climb stairs.

The only exception to this rule appears to be the delivery of parking tickets, when staircases are suddenly manageable. How does that come about, exactly?

On the third day, which would typically be after two visits to the sorting office, if the addressee is lucky he can collect his post. If the addressee misses this opportunity then, as several correspondents have pointed out, there is every chance of the package being returned to its sender as undeliverable.

By definition there is usually some amount of importance, and perhaps even of urgency, attached to mail that has been entrusted to the registered service.

Nobody is blaming the postmen. They don't make the rules. But Maltapost has one primary duty (even more important than constantly producing new postage stamps)... which is to deliver the mail.