2014: MCA Perceptions Survey - Postal Services - Households

The household survey was carried out via telephone interviews to randomly chosen respondents within a representative sample. A total of 500 households participated in this survey.

Compared to a similar survey which was conducted two years ago, present results indicate that the majority of households claimed to have received and sent the same volumes of addressed letters. However, a significant number of households declared that they have reduced the number of addressed letters and resorted instead to other alternatives such as emails and eCommerce. Meanwhile, 38% of these households said that they would switch to non-postal alternatives, should the price of addressed letters be increased by 5% to 10%.

On the other hand, results from this survey show that demand for parcel post services has grown.  Indeed, in contrast to 47% in 2011, this time more than half of the interviewed households confirmed that they had received a parcel during the last 12 months. Interestingly, 20% of the households revealed that their parcel was delivered by an operator other than MaltaPost, with 41% of these identifying DHL as the delivering operator.

In terms of expenditure patterns, 51% of households perceived that they spent less than €20 a year on postal services. Nonetheless, 34% did not know how much they spent, presumably due to the minimal use of postal services. Concurrently, only 37% of households claimed to be satisfied with the general price levels of MaltaPost. This contrasts with 66% registered in the 2011 survey.

With regards to the popularity of post offices in Malta, this survey indicates that 70% of households claimed to have been to the post office during the last 12 months. However, one of the main uses of postal outlets by the public is for services that are not of a postal nature, in that 50% of households claim to have made use of the post office network for the payment of bills. Meanwhile, satisfaction levels with the waiting time at the post office decreased from 70% in 2011 to 57% in 2014.

When referring to postal deliveries, 64% of households insisted that they expected postal articles to be delivered on a next day basis. To this effect, 45% of households said that they would not opt for a cheaper service in exchange for delayed delivery. At the same time, 28% of households would consider choosing such a service, while 4% responded that they would accept this deferred service if the postal article being sent is not urgent.

With respect to MaltaPost’s website, the survey shows that the use of this site is still very low, with only 20% of households claiming to have accessed it. In general, households have used MaltaPost’s website to track parcels, to search for prices of postal services and other related information, and to search for post-codes. With regards to the latter, it is interesting to note that according to the survey results, 71% of households write the post-code when sending a postal article.

According to this survey, 89% of household respondents are satisfied with the overall quality of postal services provided by MaltaPost. However, the number of formal complaints with MaltaPost has increased from 7% to 11%. Moreover, when compared to the result of 54% in 2011, presently, only 28% of households which made a formal complaint with MaltaPost, were satisfied with the way this matter had been handled.

View Survey Results