To compound the current woes of Portugal’s post office business, whose share price has sunk to an all time low, the number of complaints received by the regulator Anacom has almost doubled since 2015.
The delay in the delivery of mail, particularly outside large urban centers, and the waiting time to get served in a post office are two recurrent complaints.
The main complaint though, according to the regulator Anacom, is about the delays in the delivery of mail.
If this collapse in finances and the deteriorating service levels continue at CTT, the postal service can be returned to public management if there is data to justify that decision.
The management of the postal delivery part of the post office's remit was concessioned in 2013 through a contract that is to be reassessed every five years.
In parliament, João Cadete de Matos, the president of regulator Anacom, said there had been a degradation in the quality of the universal postal service, but, "despite this deterioration, CTT has only failed one of the 11 indicators of quality of service in 2016, which justified an Anacom decision to impose a price reduction on this postal service."
When the figures come in for 2017, the downward trend in quality of services should be maintained, thus putting art risk the concession to run Portugal’s postal service.
"The data, still provisional, relating to the first nine months of 2017, show a general degradation of the compared to the same period of 2016," said Cadete de Matos, flagging up that things are going to get a lot worse for Portugal’s post office service, before they get better.
