Sixty-eight per cent of large bulk mailers rate the overall quality of postal services provided by MaltaPost as very good, according to a survey published today by the Malta Communications Authority.
The survey also found that 48 per cent of those interviewed claimed to have seen an improvement in the services currently provided.
The survey was carried out between January and February, to gauge organisations' perceptions and satisfaction levels with regard to MaltaPost's bulk-mail service.
The service refers to postal articles consisting of 50 items or more (of identical format, size and weight step) that are deposited with a postal operator, at the same place and at the same time to be conveyed and delivered to the addresses indicated on the postal articles. 40 organisations participated in this survey.
The majority of organisations (29) using the service did so every week; eight of which sent between 5,000 – 10,000 addressed letters per batch while five sent more than 10,000 addressed letters each week.
The survey also shows that 30 per cent of participating organisations claimed to have increased the number of addressed letters they sent using the bulk mail services.
The vast majority of these organisations operate in the financial intermediation, real estate & rent, and business activities sector.
Twenty-five per cent of participating organisations claimed to have decreased the number of addressed letters they sent and resorted to other alternatives, namely email and eCommerce, while the remaining 45 per cent of all organisations say the number of letters sent has remained relatively the same over the past 12 months.
'Despite the onset of new technologies that facilitate communication, this survey shows that postal services remain popular, particularly amongst the business community,' said MCA executive chairman Philip Micallef.
'It is evident that electronic communications and postal services can, or more importantly should, work in tandem with each other for an efficient business operation. Both sets of services have proven to be indispensable in their own individual way,' he said.
With regard to price levels, 61 per cent of participating organisations said that the prices of the bulk mail services were reasonable. Forty-eight per cent of all surveyed organisations claimed to be highly satisfied with such services.
The majority of large bulk mailers claimed to have used only MaltaPost's postal services with the remaining 18 per cent said they used both MaltaPost and alternative postal service providers.
As for other services offered by MaltaPost, namely collection and delivery of parcels and collection and delivery of registered mail, although the majority of interviewed organisations claimed to be generally satisfied with these services, 33 per cent claimed to have lodged a formal complaint with MaltaPost about a particular aspect of the postal services.
The most mentioned complaints refered to loss and delay of postal articles and post office operation hours.