Total postal service traffic reached 350.2 million objects at the end of the first half of 2019 (1H19), reflecting a 9.1% decrease compared to the same half year in 2018. This behaviour was due to the reduction in traffic from letters, editorial mail and direct mail, which was only partially compensated for by the increase of 6.9% shown in parcel traffic. The fall in traffic was reflected in postal items per capita, which reached 34.1 postal objects per inhabitant per half year, 3.4 objects less regarding the corresponding half year of 2018.
The revenues generated by the providers legally qualified to provide postal services totalled around 308.7 million euros, 1.5% less than in the first half of 2018. All revenue components decreased with the exception of parcels which registered an increase of 5.3%.
Average revenue per item increased by 8.3% in 1H19 in comparison with the same half year in the previous year, with unit revenue from direct mail and parcels decreasing, while unit revenue from letters and editorial mail increased 6.3% and 3.7%, respectively.
Of the total distributed objects, 95.9% were destined for the domestic market, while the remaining 4.1% were destined for other countries. Letters represented 79.2% of postal traffic, while editorial mail and direct mail represented 7.4% and 7%, respectively. The weighting of parcels in total traffic was 6.4%.
Around 82.1% of traffic and 63% of revenues corresponded to postal services forming part of the universal service (US).
The CTT Group had a share of total postal traffic of around 89.5%, 1.8 percentage points less with regard to the same half year of the previous year. As regards the traffic covered by the US limits, the CTT Group held a share of approximately 97.2%.
As for human resources, there were around 15 thousand workers related to postal services operations at the end of 1H19, which means that there was an increase of 1.5% compared to the first half of 2018.
As regards the postal network indicators, the statistics for 1H19, and in comparison to the corresponding half year in the previous year, indicate that the number of access points increased 0.2%, the number of distribution centres increased 0.5% and the vehicle fleet decreased 1.7%. This increase in access points in the network occurred at the same time as a 7.2% reduction in the number of CTT post offices.
As regards the other material resources (which belong entirely to the concessionaire of the US), there was an increase over the corresponding period of the previous year in the number of post office boxes (+1.1%) and a decrease in the number of letterboxes (-0.3%), in the number of automatic machines selling stamps (-16.3%), and in the number of outlets where only stamps could be purchased (-1.4%).
Consult the statistical report:
- Postal services - 1st half of 2019 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1483966
