Total postal services traffic in 2019 decreased by 6.7% compared to the previous year, to reach 685.9 million objects, a fact that did not prevent revenues from rising 1.8%, with the average revenue per object increasing 9.1%. The fall in postal traffic is explained by the reduction in traffic from letters, editorial mail and direct mail, which was partially compensated for by the increase in parcel traffic of 13.4%. The increase in income was due to the 11.8% increase in revenue from parcels.
In total, revenues from postal services provision amounted to 637.7 million euros, 1.8% more than in 2018, a growth that is explained by the 11.8% increase in parcel revenues, to 207 million euros, against a 9.8% increase in 2018. Parcel revenues now account for almost a third of total sector revenues.
Due to the aforementioned behaviour, the average revenue per object increased 9.1% in 2019 compared to 2018. Unit revenue from letters, editorial mail and direct mail increased by 6.1%, 1% and 1.8%, respectively, while unit revenue from parcels decreased by 1.4%.
Analysing all the objects distributed, it was seen that 95.5% were destined for the domestic market, while the remaining 4.5% were destined for other countries. The weight of national and international traffic in total traffic has remained constant over the years.
As regards the type of object, letters represented 78% of postal traffic in 2019, while editorial mail and direct mail represented 7.6% and 7.1%, respectively. The weight of parcels in total traffic was 7.3%.
Postal items per capita reached 66.7 postal objects per inhabitant and per year, having decreased 4.8 objects the previous year.
As regards the Universal Service (US), this represented 80.6% of the total for postal objects, having decreased 9.1% between 2019 and 2018, to 552.8 million objects. The weight of traffic covered by the US limits in total traffic decreased 2.1 percentage points compared to the previous year and 5 points compared to 2015. As regards revenue, the US represents 60.5% of the total.
As for the position of market providers, the CTT Group had a share of total postal traffic of around 88.4%, 2.6 percentage points less than in 2018. As regards the traffic covered by the US limits, the CTT Group held a share of approximately 97%.
The postal network indicators showed that, at the end of 2019, there were around 14.8 thousand employees engaged in postal services, representing an increase of 1% of total employment compared to 2018.
In 2019, and compared to the previous year, the number of access points decreased by 0.6%, the number of distribution centres decreased by 2.1% and the vehicle fleet decreased by 4.2%. This decrease in network access points is based on a 0.8% decrease in the number of postal agencies, simultaneously with an increase of 0.2% in the number of CTT post offices – in 2019 there was an inversion in the downward trend in the number of post offices, which started in 2014.
As regards the other material resources (which belong entirely to the universal postal service concessionaire), there was a slight year-on-year increase in the number of PO Boxes and a decrease in the number of letterboxes (-0.2%), in the number of stamp vending machines (-4.9%) and the number of outlets where only stamps could be purchased (-0.2%).
Consult:
- Postal services - 2019 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1514881
