SingPost to raise postage rates from October 2014

By Jacqueline Woo, The Straits Times, 3 Sep 2014

LOCAL and international postage rates will go up on Oct 1, SingPost said yesterday.

Local rates will increase between four cents and 20 cents, while international rates will rise by five cents to 25 cents, depending on the weight.

The revised rates come amid a challenging postal business environment, group chief executive Wolfgang Baier said yesterday. "Around the world, postal peers have been hit by the onslaught of the digital era," he said.

Domestic mail volumes have declined for the second year running, falling 3.16 per cent from 2011 to last year.

"This is further compounded by escalating operating costs, largely driven by manpower costs," said Dr Baier.

While labour and fuel costs have each gone up by more than 30 per cent from 2006, SingPost's rates have not been adjusted since then.

Some other postal organisations have raised their rates at least three times during this period due to rising operating costs.

The United States Postal Service, for example, has adjusted its rates six times since 2006, sending postage prices up by as much as 24 per cent.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore said in a statement yesterday that it has given the go-ahead for SingPost to effect the "reasonable increases" in postage rates, as they will help ensure that the basic mail services remain sustainable.

"Even with the rate revision, SingPost's postage rates remain one of the lowest in the world," said a spokesman.

To mitigate the impact of the new rates, SingPost will give out a free booklet containing six 1st local stamps to every household, or 10 million stamps in total.

Small and medium-sized enterprises will get a 5 per cent rebate for franked mail for a year.

SingPost said it is continuing its $100 million service improvement plan, which includes installing new automated sorting machines, upgrading delivery vehicles to a fleet of three-wheelers with bigger carrying capacity and hiring up to 200 more postmen.

Mr Allan Lim, chief executive of home-grown biodiesel maker Alpha Biofuels, said higher postage rates will not add much to his costs.

"We hardly communicate by (postal) mail these days. Everything is done through e-mail, and even monetary transactions are processed electronically," he said.

Wanted: More than 200 postal delivery staff
Channel NewsAsia, 6 Sep 2014

SingPost is hiring more than 200 postal staff to improve its mail delivery service.

In a statement released on Saturday (Sep 6), SingPost said it will be more than tripling its current pool of 25 quality control (QC) officers so that every postal sector has a dedicated QC officer. These officers will focus on the accuracy of mail delivery through checks and improvements to minimise human errors.

The national postal service provider also said it currently has 1,200 postmen and that the additional manpower will help it better serve the increase in population and new housing estates.

As for hardware upgrades, SingPost said it will be replacing its two-wheeled scooters with the three-wheeled version. The three-wheeled scooters were introduced in 2011 as they are more stable and improve work safety.

SingPost said with these three-wheelers, productivity of mail delivery is also boosted as they come with a bigger pannier box, which allows postmen to carry more items and reduces the number of return trips to the delivery bases.

SingPost added it recently introduced the second generation three-wheeled scooters which come with a windscreen, a sun roof, an enlarged pannier box, four compartment boxes and a stronger horsepower. The enlarged pannier box and the four compartment boxes together provide 25 per cent more storage space than the first generation three-wheeled scooters.