Private and public delivery services battle it out

Cypriots increased their use of delivery services for post and parcels by the end of 2022, while businesses are turning to the private sector for the same, the Office of Electronic Communications & Postal Regulations (OCECPR) said on Monday, about a study carried out from October to December 2022.

According to the study, out of a sample of 1002 people and 508 small to medium sized businesses, 95 per cent of people said that they used postal services for the delivery of documents or packages, while 63 per cent of businesses said they used private delivery services for the same.

In comparison to last year in the same period, the amount of people using postal services increased by two per cent, while the amount of businesses using these services increased by ten per cent.

The study also found that people were receiving mail or packages four times more than they were sending letters or packages.

For the general public, the Cyprus Post remains the main postal provider for receiving letters (97 per cent), while for parcels the main providers are ACS Courier (61 per cent), Cyprus Post (59 per cent), GAP Akis Express (28 per cent) and DHL (21 per cent).

Cyprus Post remains the main postal provider for sending letters (93 per cent) while for sending parcels the main postal providers are Cyprus Post (61 per cent), ACS Courier (47 per cent), GAP Akis Express (31 per cent) and DHL (13 per cent).

Meanwhile, the percentage of small and medium-sized businesses using private postal providers to send parcels has increased compared to October 2021 from 53 per cent to 63 per cent, while the percentage of those using the Cyprus Post has decreased from 47 per cent to 44 per cent.

According to the study, 66 per cent of SMEs send small-sized parcels, 48 per cent medium-sized, and 16 per cent large parcels.

Small and medium businesses use Cyprus Post once a week on average, while private providers use 2-3 times a week, increasing from two times a week in October 2021.