In the 1st half of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused changes to usage patterns for postal services and operational difficulties impacted postal services traffic and revenue.
Total postal services traffic fell 13.5%, the most significant fall since 2005. There was also a trend towards an acceleration in the fall in outgoing national and international traffic and a reduction in incoming international traffic.
Postal services revenue totalled around EUR 294.5 million, 5.6% less than in the first half of 2019. This is the steepest fall in revenue since these indicators were first collected (in 2012).
On the other hand, parcel traffic increased 20.8%, the highest increase since the first half of 2013. Parcel post had fallen by around 19% in the week the state of emergency was declared (16 to 22 March). After this initial impact, traffic increased, reaching its highest volume in the early weeks of May. Since mid-May, there has been a trend towards a fall in traffic, and the volume of traffic at the end of July was at a level similar to before the pandemic was declared. The weight of parcels on total traffic stood at 9.0%, the highest value recorded thus far.
Of the total of objects distributed, 96.1% were for the national market, while the remaining 3.9% were for other countries. Letters represented 76.9% of postal traffic, while editorial mail and addressed advertising corresponded to 7.5% and 6.6%, respectively.
Around 78.1% of traffic and 56.3% of revenue corresponded to postal services included under the ambit of the universal service. The weight of the universal service on total traffic fell 4.0 percentage points compared to the first half of 2019.
In terms of human resources, there were 14,400 employees engaged in postal services. The number of employees fell 3.7% compared to the same period the previous year. This is the biggest fall seen since the first half of 2012. The variation seen was certainly influenced by the effects of the pandemic.
During this half year, the number of CTT – Correios de Portugal post offices increased 0.9% compared to the same period the previous year while the number of postal services offices fell 0.7%1.
1 The number of CTT post offices and postal services offices for the first half of 2020 are provisional.
Consult the statistical report:
- Postal services - 1st half 2020 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1563723
