The declining trend in the use of traditional postal services continued in 2016. This is one of the findings of the survey on the use of postal services in Portugal, carried out by ANACOM in November 2016.
The survey, which involved 1,340 interviews with individuals aged 15 years or over living in mainland Portugal, Madeira and Azores, also reveals that users are satisfied with the overall performance of postal services during 2016.
"Customer service", "mail delivered undamaged" and "clarity and transparency in provided information" were the factors that generated the highest levels of satisfaction among users of post offices and postal agencies (average of 8.6 to 8.5 points on a scale of 1 to 10). Meanwhile, "waiting time for service" (11 minutes on average), "number of postal establishments" and "mail delivered on time" generated the lowest levels of satisfaction.
According to the survey, "sending correspondence" was the most used service (34.9%), followed by "sending/receiving postal parcels" and "registered mail".
The analysis also shows that e-commerce is a new business opportunity for postal service providers, particularly in the area of parcel delivery.
According to the European Commission, there was an increase in the percentage of individuals in Portugal making purchases or orders online (23% of individuals aged 16 to 74 – increasing by 6% versus 2014), although take-up of e-commerce in the country remains below the EU28 average (22% below). In this respect, it is notable that there was no reduction in the percentage of individuals who received parcels (22%), contrary to the trends reported for other postal services.
In terms of new services provided in post offices alongside traditional services, "topping up mobile phones" is a service used by 18.3% of respondents and was the service which reported the biggest increase in use between 2014 and 2016 (increase of 10.1%). Other less popular services also gained awareness and use, for example, "payment of tolls" and sale of "lotteries" and "transport tickets."
In addition, about 9.5% of respondents reported that they knew of Banco CTT, launched in March 2016, while fewer than 4% of respondents actually used the services of Banco CTT.
ANACOM is available to provide anonymised microdata from this survey. Requests may be sent by email to dee.stats@anacom.ptmailto:dee.stats@anacom.pt.
Consult:
- Survey on the use of postal services 2016 - residential population https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1404531
