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2 NEWS 21.4.2022 A majority of business who make use of the postal bulk mailing service are sat- isfied with the service, a survey by the Malta Communications Authority has found. e MCA surveyed 40 Maltese busi- nesses using the postal bulk mailing service, reporting a minimum of 750 addressed letters in a year for market- ing campaigns, and circulating printed bills and periodical documents amongst others. Bulk mail concerns the delivery of 50 or more items with the same dimen- sions (in terms of size, weight and for- mat). e postal delivery of the mail items is carried out by MaltaPost, with this activity falling part of the Univer- sal Service that MaltaPost is expected to cover in its role of Universal Service provider. Most of the businesses participating in the survey are satisfied with the ser- vice they are getting, but nonetheless reported that they are using the service less. Respondents indicate that bulk mail volumes are down compared to 2019. A good share of respondents also envisage that this trend is expected to continue given the digitally oriented en- vironment surrounding businesses. e survey was carried out via the use of video calls (using Microsoft Teams), between October and December 2021. e following is a synopsis of the sa- lient outcomes that emerged from this survey. Bulk Mail Items Sent Yearly Heavy users of bulk mail declined sig- nificantly since 2019. Items between 10,001 and 100,000 saw a drop of 9% from 2019 to 2021. Contrastingly, the number of respondents who send be- tween 1,000 and 10,000 bulk mail items saw a rise, from 37% in 2019 to 45% in 2021. Mail Volumes Bulk mail activity in 2021 declined in terms of volumes compared to the 2019 survey, with 53% of businesses using the bulk mail service (hereafter referred to as bulk mailers) saying that the number of letters sent remained the same. 30% indicated a decrease, whereas 17% of re- spondents say that they saw an increase in bulk mail volumes, with the majori- ty of these claiming printed bills as the reason behind this. Expected Future Use 83% of respondents declared their in- tention to continue making use of the bulk mail service in the 12 months fol- lowing this survey. From those indicat- ing they will keep using the service, 64% anticipate no change in the volumes of letters to be sent. 27% anticipate a rise in volumes, whereas 18% are envisaging a decrease. Frequency of Use Bulk mailers are seemingly making less frequent use of the service. Use on a daily basis dropped in half from 2019 and weekly use decreased from 37% to 20%. Furthermore, the bulk mailers us- ing the service on a monthly basis rose from 10% in 2019 to 25% in 2021, while bi-weekly frequency of usage remained at 10%. Another increase was recorded in the proportion of respondents making use of the service every 4 to 6 months (from 20% to 24%). Use of Postcodes e use of postcodes facilitates the sorting and distribution of postal arti- cles and in assisting the postal operator in reducing the potential of mis-deliv- ered mail and other delivery related er- rors. Bulk mail presented to the postal operator pre-sorted by postcode speeds up the sorting process of the operator. Significantly, 45% of bulk mailers have regularly included postcodes when sending out bulk mail items and 40% responded have used it occasionally. On the other hand, 13% never use post- codes. Moreover, 63% of bulk mailers did not ask MaltaPost to assist them in us- ing the postcode as part of the address, suggesting that more awareness should be created about the service offered by MaltaPost. 75% of respondents reported that they pre-sort their items by post-code before being collected by MaltaPost. Price reasonableness 10% of bulk mailers claim to have spent from €1,000 to €5,000 on the bulk mail service in a year, whereas annual expenditure rises to an amount in the region of €25,000 to €50,000 for 7% of bulk mailers. As for the price charged for the ser- vice, which is currently regulated by the MCA, 55% of bulk mailers could not say whether these were reasona- ble or not (neutral stance), up from 41% in 2019. 20% of bulk mailers did say they find the prices as unreason- able, up from 10% in 2019. Slightly more than half of respondents within the latter segment also indicate they would not opt for an alternative if the regulated price were to increase by 5-10%, which suggests a level of de- pendency on the bulk mail service by organisations. Alternatives to Bulk Mail if Prices increase The number of respondents who would not consider shifting to an al- ternative non-postal service if there was a price-hike of 5-10% in bulk mail increased from 44% in 2019 to 53% in 2021. On the other hand, 61% would opt for alternatives, with the number of respondents who would consider switching to email was up by 8%, from 37% in 2019 to 45% in 2021, whereas other alternatives such as telephone, messaging and online platforms ob- served a decline, amounting to 3%, 5% and 8% respectively. The postal service delivery week 37% of the respondents would find the reduction of service availability from 6 to 5 days - i.e. in terms of the clearance and delivery of bulk mail items - as a major inconvenience. Meanwhile, 75% of respondents would be unwilling to accept a price increase for the 6-day delivery week to be maintained. Deferred service for cheaper prices and acceptable lead-time If prices had to be discounted for a deferred service, 32% of respond- ents say they would find it acceptable whilst 58% would not accept such trade-off as a viable alternative. A tenth of the respondents would con- sider the deferred period, depending on the urgency. Shifts in what was considered as an acceptable lead time followed the pre- vious trends, whereby preference to- wards a next-day delivery decreased to 40% whilst more than half of the respondents (55%) consider two days as an acceptable lead time. Quality of Service 68% of respondents say that they are satisfied with the overall quality of MaltaPost's bulk mail postal services, whereas 25% felt neutral and 7% were not satisfied. In addition, 90% of re- spondents say they have never made a formal complaint with MaltaPost on the bulk mail service. Use of MaltaPost's bulk mail services on the decline but business remain satisfied with quality

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