MaltaPost’s unaddressed mail business continues to provide a lucrative revenue stream, culminating in the installation of their second Duplo automated collating solution, just 2 years after their first investment.
“Now that all set collation is handled on the first Duplo Collator, the machine runs 16 hours per day, 6 days per week. Consequently we have no spare production capacity, nor sufficient time to carry out routine maintenance, even though the machine has been extremely reliable,” explains MaltaPost’s COO Adrian Vassallo. “Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find staff willing to work the afternoon/evening shift.”
The latest addition of Duplo’s DM Mini Collation System has enabled MaltaPost to move all production to mornings only, and provides both back-up and extra capacity at peak periods, typically elections, Black Friday and Christmas.
Such is the importance of this business, MaltaPost employs a dedicated team exclusively for the delivery of its unaddressed mail sets to households. Controlling labour costs is a key contributor to profitability, and since the introduction of the first Duplo system MaltaPost has reduced its workforce by over 20%. But with an allocation of over 1,000 households per person per day, at critical times of the year they can occasionally struggle to meet their tight deadlines.
“This second system will also provide us with more flexibility at peak periods. For example, we could split production into subsets across the two systems, and share the delivery of some of the unaddressed mail sets with our postmen.”
Advertisers insist on completely loose sets and maximum flexibility
Duplo’s automated collating solutions provide MaltaPost with the flexibility to either collate sets without a wraparound cover, use one of the documents as the cover, or employ their own pre-printed cover. However, advertisers rejected the idea of being wrapped in another advertiser’s document, and MaltaPost could not justify the additional cost of producing their own pre-printed cover. Thus all sets are collated completely loose.
“We do not like to put any restrictions on our advertisers, so the collating equipment must also be able to collate together a wide range of different formats.”
Despite the dramatic increase in e-commerce and digital advertising, unaddressed mail volumes have remained buoyant, with each household set consisting of 9-10 documents on average.
Although only one operator remains from the original five who were trained by Duplo in 2018, the equipment’s ease of use means that operators with a few months experience are able to train new ones.
Find us at the Small Posts and Islands Postal Forum, 12th-14th May 2020, St George’s Bay, St Julian’s, Malta
Later this year MaltaPost will be hosting this unique event arranged especially for postal operators in smaller jurisdictions:
- to hear and share latest ideas, best practice and innovative approaches
- to benchmark and learn from colleagues facing the same challenges
- to discuss important topics and be inspired with new opportunities
For further information please contact us
