Singapore Post will switch to 5-day delivery ceasing to collect and deliver mail on Saturdays from15 May 2010 onwards in response to a significant drop in mail volumes.
Over the last few years, public letter mail including stamped and franked letters declineddue to the emergence of new communication tools such as E-Mail, SMS and other technologicalplatforms, Singapore Post said in a statement. In addition, many companies and organisations arenow operating on a 5-day-week basis which also led to significantly lower volumes on Saturdays.
However, the postal operator will extend its opening hours by one hour on Fridays to 8 pm forbranches in the Central Business District and 6 pm for the others to offer more convenience tocustomers.
Ng Hin Lee, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer of SingPost said: “Globally, postalorganisations are facing declining letter mail volumes due to changing lifestyle preferences.SingPost has been actively managing the increasing cost of providing an efficient mail service.Implementing this initiative will help us to optimise resources to stay competitive while upholdingthe high level of service. We will extend the posting hours on Fridays as an added convenience tocustomers.”
Singapore Post confirmed that it currently sees the lowest mail volumes on Saturdays.Discontinuing mail collection and delivery service on Saturdays will therefore optimise resourcesand help maintaining costs enabling SingPost to remain competitive.
An independent survey carried out in March 2009 revealed that 91% of the respondents who wererecipients found it acceptable to receive mail on Monday instead of Saturday. Similarly, 92% of theshippers found it acceptable that their recipients receive the mail items on the following Monday.
