Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1517369
NEWS 14 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 MARCH 2024 THE volume of bulk mail letters sent through the bulk mail ser- vices has increased when com- pared to 2021, according to a survey carried out by the Malta Communications Authority. The MCA carries out sever- al perception surveys to assess the use of postal services in Malta as well as the perceived reasonableness of price and quality of service. The most recent survey con- cerned the bulk mail service, classified to encompass the de- livery of 50 or more mail items, each of the same dimensions (in terms of size, weight and format). MaltaPost is required to offer the bulk mail service in Malta, as this postal activity falls part of the Universal Ser- vice that MaltaPost is expected to cover in its role of Universal Service Provider. The bulk mail service is typi- cally used by business users and entities. The MCA therefore surveyed a number of business- es using the postal bulk mailing service in Malta. Survey respondents reported an increase in the volume of bulk mail letters sent through the bulk mail services when compared to 2021. This is re- flected through a 14-percent- age point increase in those respondents who sent more than 10,000 mail items in the 12 months prior to the survey, from 25% in 2021 to 39% in 2024. Furthermore, the overall perception of the price rea- sonability for the bulk mail services remains positive. 29% of respondents think that the price is either reasonable or very reasonable whilst 51% of respondents have a neutral stand on this aspect. Further- more, 85% find the shift from a 6-day week to a 5-day week to be either acceptable or a minor inconvenience, and there was an increase in those who prefer the next day delivery. Bulk mail volumes Compared to the previous survey analysis, which was car- ried out in 2021, an increase in the number of bulk mail sent was registered in every group except for the smallest mail group category, which com- prises of those businesses (i.e. the bulk mailers) that sent out from 750 to a maximum of 1,000 addressed letters in bulk. 36% of the respondents sent out between 1,001 and 5,000 addressed letter mail items, up from 33% in 2021. This was followed by 17% who sent more than 50,000 mail items (10% in 2021) and 15% which sent between 5,001 and 10,000 mail items (13% in 2021). In terms of changes in the vol- ume of bulk mail in the previ- ous 12 months, 53% responded that the volume of bulk mail remained the same, followed by 27% which reported a de- crease and 20% which report- ed an increase in the volume of bulk mail. Those who stated that they have sent less mail items remains 7% higher than those who reported an increase in bulk mail. The business respondents re- porting a decrease in bulk mail say this is attributed to higher usage of online platforms. An- other reason cited by respond- ents relates to the use of social media, at 18% of the respond- ents. Other reasons includ- ed "Messaging Services" and "Other Reasons", with a score of 9% each. Overall, this indi- cates that the usage of the bulk mail service is impacted by the continued shift towards digital communications channels is emphasized. Frequency of use In comparison to the 2021 perception survey, there were no drastic changes in the fre- quency of service usage. The share of respondents using the service on a weekly basis re- bounded from 20% in 2021 to 32%. This means that the biggest share of respondents in terms of use is that on the weekly co- hort. The share of respondents who make use of the service monthly fell from 25% in 2021 to 17% in 2024, accounting for the second most common fre- quency of use of the service. Postcodes The current postcode format was introduced in 2007 and it consists of a combination of three letters and four numbers which represents a specific area code. Its aim lies, among others, in the facilitation of sorting and distributing post- al items to reduce the risks of mis-delivered/undelivered items. From 2021 to 2024, there was a shift in the usage of this code by the responding bulk mailers. All bulk mailers in the 2024 survey state that they use post- codes when sending out bulk mail, be it always (32%), some- times (61%) or rarely (7%). In 2021, 12% of respondents stated they had never made use of postcodes. Of note however, is the decrease in the share of respondents that always use the postcode, from 45% in 2021 to 32% in 2024. Pricing On average, 39% of survey re- spondents say that they spent between €1,001 and €5,000 on bulk mail services annually, followed by 17% who said that they spent between €500 to €1,000. Another 15% say they spent more than €25,000. An effective comparability analysis cannot be made with the responses of the 2021 sur- vey, as then, 70% had stated that they did not know how much they spent (the 'do not know' option was not available in the 2024 survey). In relation to the price of bulk mail services, participants were asked how reasonable they per- ceive the price to be. Similar to findings in previous years, about half (51%) are at a neu- tral stance about the topic. Even though there was a de- crease in those who perceive the price to be "very reasona- ble" (from 15% in 2021 to 5% in 2024), it is noted that in 2024, 20% perceive the price to be not reasonable whereas 29% perceive the price to be reason- able or very reasonable. Six to five day service 15% of survey respondents see a transition from a 6-day to a 5-day delivery week as a major inconvenience, down from 37% in 2021. Another 20% and 24% of respondents state that such a change would be either a mi- nor inconvenience or a worka- ble inconvenience. 41% of re- spondents perceive this change to be acceptable compared to 47% in 2021. 10% of survey respondents think that it would be reason- able for the price of bulk mail to increase in order to maintain the current 6-day week fre- quency of delivery, down from 25% in 2021. Quality of service 59% of the respondents are ei- ther satisfied (44%) or very sat- isfied (15%) with MaltaPost's bulk mail service, decreasing by 9 percentage points between 2021 and 2024. 90% of the respondents stat- ed that they have never lodged a complaint with MaltaPost with regards to the bulk mail service. Volume of bulk mail services up when compared to 2021