The postman may not ring twice anymore as he used to do in the past but Christmastime remains one of the busiest periods with items to be delivered ranging from a tiny envelope to hampers and similar heavy items.
Maltapost has reported one of its busiest periods ever over the past fortnight. "Hampers and bulky items come in hundreds every day and, no matter the volume, they are simply delivered to the recipient in no time, as in any other day during the year," a company spokesman said.
During the festive season, 476 operations employees are on duty almost round the clock six days a week, with each of them working extra hours in their shift. Extra collections are held and delivery goes on till about 4 p.m. and even 6 p.m. on peak days.
Items delivered at this time of the year are not necessarily Christmas-oriented. In fact, the Maltapost said the mail varies from cards, personal letters and direct advertising to service-related bills, hampers, electronic equipment, vehicle parts and even blood samples from public health clinics to Mater Dei Hospital, In addition there is an ever-growing volume of items resulting from contract work and online purchases. The latter is one of the fastest growing areas in the company's portfolio.
Maltapost handles about 55 million items annually, with the mail volume being more than three times the norm during the peak Christmas period. Considering that most of the processes are still manual, Maltapost proudly reports that it reaches and exceeds the set standards and receives only one complaint for every 11,500 items handled. "This is only achieved by continuous monitoring of the processes using stringent quality measurements," the spokesman said.
Apart from the usual mail, the number of locally-posted Christmas cards delivered this year to date exceeded 1.5 million, together with 60,000 bulky items and 2.5 million unaddressed mail items. Hampers ran into thousands.
In this period, with the euro changeover round the corner, Maltapost's Philatelic Bureau, together with Lombard Bank, is also involved in the issue of a special commemorative set of Malta euro coins 2008 and miniature sheets. The presentation pack will contain a set of euro coins issued in 2008 and protected in a blister pack, one numbered Malta lira decimal coinage philatelic miniature sheet issued and franked on December 31, 2007 and one numbered Malta euro coinage philatelic miniature sheet issued and franked on January 1, 2008. This year, Maltapost's Christmas stamp set features details from one of Giuseppe Calì's paintings, The Nativity, found at St Andrew's parish church, in Luqa. This Christmas set is being issued as part of a joint issue with the Philatelic and Numismatic Bureau of the Vatican City. The Vatican will feature the same imagery as that shown on the Malta stamps.
Postal workers will not be on duty on New Year's Day and on January 2.
"We know how busy this time is for all our employees. We're doing our best to make their experience as pleasant, expeditious and stress-free as possible. We have also upgraded our IT and operative systems to increase efficiency and we can now guarantee a next-day delivery, even during this busy period," Pierre Montebello, chief mails and systems officer at Maltapost, said.