Singapore Post Private Limited (SingPost), a subsidiary of Singapore Telecom (Singtel), is the body in charge of the country’s postal system and services.[1] Its history can be traced back to the early days after Singapore was founded in 1819. At the time, the Post Office was part of the Marine Office and was located in the former Parliament House.[2] In 1858, it was hived off from the Marine Office to become a separate department.[3] After the Straits Settlements dissolved in 1946, the administration of the Singapore Postal Department was placed under the Postmaster General of Malaya. It then became a fully autonomous body known as the Postal Services Department two years after Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965.[4] In 1982, the department was absorbed into the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore. This union lasted until the postal service was privatised resulting in the incorporation of SingPost on 1 April 1992.[5]
At the time of its formation, SingPost was managing 808 postal outlets. Mail collected from its 722 post boxes was processed and sorted at the Mail and Parcels Centre at Chai Chee Industrial Park.[6] To handle the growing amount of mail and parcel items, SingPost moved its sorting operations to the Singapore Post Centre in Eunos in 1998. The new complex has a state-of-the-art sorting facility that allows all mail and parcel items to be sorted automatically based on postal codes.[7]
Besides improving backend operations, Singpost also increased its selection of services for customers in its formative years.[8] For instance, the company introduced a courier delivery service known as SpeedPost for overseas delivery and Local Urgent Mail (LUM) for local delivery.[9] It also started turning its post offices into one-stop centres for non-postal services, such as the purchase of international bank drafts and traveller cheques, as well as payment of utility bills, taxes and parking fines.[10] To improve the efficiency of its services, SingPost invested heavily in technology. In fact, shortly after SingPost’s incorporation, the company began using barcode stickers on its mail items to allow customers to track their packages.[11] The Internet portal or vPost was introduced in 1999 to enable customers to perform postal-related transactions, pay their bills or shop online.[12] Similar transactions could also be performed using SingPost’s Self-Service Automated Machines (SAM) found mainly at post offices and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations.[13]
References
1. Telecom and Singapore Post given exclusive rights for 15 years. (1992, April 2). The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
2. Singapore Post Pte. Ltd. (1993). Annual report 1992 (p. 8). Singapore: Singapore Post. Call no.: RSING 383.495957 SPSPAR-[AR].
3. Singapore Telecoms. (1985). The GPO: A renewed commitment to service (pp. 9–10). Singapore: Telecoms. Call no.: RSING 383.495957 GPO.
4. Singapore Telecoms, 1985, pp. 9–10.
5. Singapore Post Pte. Ltd., 1993, p. 8; TAS to split into 3 bodies tomorrow (1992, March 31). The Straits Times, p. 3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
6. Singapore Post Pte. Ltd., 1993, p. 2.
7. Faster mail soon with new sorter (1998, September 12). The Straits Times, p. 31. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
8. Singapore Post Pte. Ltd., 1993, p. 10.
9. Singapore Post Pte. Ltd., 1993, p. 20.
10. Singapore Post Pte. Ltd., 1993, p. 3.
11. Keeping track of urgent mail through bar-codes (1992, September 29). The Straits Times, p. 24. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
12. Tan, T. (1999, January 10). Stamping out the old ways with vPost. The Straits Times, p. 32. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
13. The Straits Times, 10 Jan 1999, p. 32.
The information in this article is valid as at 2014 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.