The Office of the Commissioner for the Regulation of Electronic Communications and Postal Services (BERET), within the framework of its responsibilities, has conducted for the second consecutive year two nationwide surveys to collect data and information related to the use of postal services, such as the frequency of their use, total expenditure on postal services, etc. The first survey was addressed to citizens and the second one to small and medium-sized enterprises. The two surveys were carried out in parallel in the period October-December 2022 on a sample of 1002 citizens and 508 small and medium-sized enterprises belonging to the retail sector that regularly send parcels to their customers.
The main results of the surveys are the following. [*]The use of postal services for receiving letters and parcels is about four times higher than the use for sending letters and parcels. [*]Cyprus Post remains the main postal provider for the receipt of letters (97%) from citizens, while for the receipt of parcels the main postal providers are ACS Courier (61%), Cyprus Post (59%), GAP Akis Express (28%) and DHL (21%). [*]Cyprus Post remains the main postal provider for sending letters (93%) while for sending parcels the main postal providers are Cyprus Post (61%), ACS Courier (47%), GAP Akis Express (31%) and DHL (13%). [*]The average frequency of letter delivery decreased from 40 times per year in October 2021 to 33.4 times in November 2022, while the average frequency of parcel delivery increased slightly from 14.2 times to 14.3 times per year. [*]The average frequency of sending letters decreased from 21 times per year in October 2021 to 19 times in November 2022, while the average frequency of sending parcels increased slightly from 11.1 times to 11.5 times per year. [*]People consider the cost of sending letters to be reasonable while they consider the cost of sending parcels to be high, although 75% do not go to the trouble of comparing the prices offered by different providers. [*]Citizens' satisfaction with the process of receiving parcels from private postal providers is higher than for Cyprus Post and both have shown increased satisfaction compared to October 2021. In particular, citizens' satisfaction has increased from 8.3 to 8.5 for private providers and from 6.7 to 7.5 for Cyprus Post. [*]The average annual expenditure compared to October 2021 has decreased for sending/receiving letters from €44 to €37 and for sending/receiving parcels from €85 to €83. [*]The main criteria for choosing a postal service provider are habit - previous cooperation (30%), convenience - i.e. being close to the place of residence/work (24%), good service (24%), low prices (20%) and reliability of the company (14%).
In businesses
[*]The percentage of SMEs using private postal providers for sending parcels has increased compared to October 2021 from 53% to 63%, while the percentage of those using Cyprus Post has decreased from 47% to 44%. [*]The average annual expenditure of SMEs for both parcels and letters has decreased compared to October 2021 from €654 to €612 and from €295 to €288 respectively. [*]66% of SMEs send small parcels, 48% send medium-sized parcels and 16% send large parcels. [*]SMEs use Cyprus Post once a week on average while private providers 2.3 times a week, an increase from twice a week in October 2021. [*]The main postal providers used by SMEs to send parcels to their customers are GAP Akis Express (39%), ACS Courier (36%), Travel Express (19%) and DHL (9%).[*]Businesses' satisfaction with the services offered by private postal providers is higher than for the services offered by Cyprus Post and both have shown increased satisfaction compared to October 2021. In particular, satisfaction has increased from 8.3 to 8.4 for private providers and from 7.5 to 7.6 for Cyprus Post. [*]The satisfaction of small and medium-sized enterprises with the process of receiving parcels from Cyprus Post has decreased compared to October 2021 from 7.5 to 7.2. [*]A very low percentage of SMEs (6% for letters and 7% for parcels) consider the charges of Cyprus Post to be high while 35% of SMEs consider the charges of private providers to be high. [*]About half of the businesses have some kind of agreement with one of the private providers on how to send and/or charge. [*]The proportion of SMEs that have received complaints from their customers about the postal provider they used to send them parcel post has fallen from 11% to 8% compared to October 2021. [*]35% of SMEs compare prices offered for sending parcels-postcards by different providers before sending and to a greater extent for sending parcels than letters. [*]The main criteria for choosing a postal service provider are delivery time (52%), ease of sending (35%), cost (32%) and the delivery method to be used (19%).
The detailed results of the surveys are available in power point format at the following link:
https:/ocecpr.ee.cy/el/content-menu/3-eikona-agoras/3-ereynes-katanaloton
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