SingPost fined S$30,000 for losing bag of mail

SINGAPORE — SingPost has been fined S$30,000 for losing a bag containing 400 to 500 articles meant for delivery to six Housing and Development Board blocks in Woodlands after a postal worker left her mail trolley unattended last September.

The bag went missing on Sept 5 after the postal worker hid her mail trolley behind wood debris at a void deck in Woodlands Circle, then left it unattended for about 10 minutes, while she used a washroom across the road.

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), which imposed the fine, yesterday said the missing mail was a breach of SingPost’s Public Postal Licence, which requires the postal service provider to ensure that the risk of loss, theft and damage to letters is minimised.

The maximum fine for a breach is S$1 million. Last June, SingPost was fined S$10,000 for not meeting quality of service standards in mail delivery time.

The IDA’s investigations into the missing mail incident found that SingPost’s mail trolleys had no lock or chain and that the nylon mailbags used were only slightly water-resistant. The postal worker had left her trolley unattended because it was raining heavily that day and she did not want the letters to get wet.

SingPost has since introduced measures to tighten its operating procedures, such as upgrading its delivery equipment to include lockable and water-resistant canvas bags as well as a lock-and-chain set for trolleys used by neighbourhood postal workers who deliver on foot. Postal workers who deliver on bicycles have been issued bikes with lockable boxes.

SingPost yesterday said its 1,200 postal workers had been reminded to not leave mail unattended and to be vigilant against theft by keeping a lookout for people loitering nearby and for unauthorised access to letterboxes.

The service provider said it would not be appealing against the IDA’s decision, “although this is an isolated theft due to non-compliance of standard operating procedure”.

The 57-year-old postal worker involved has been counselled and sent for retraining, it added.

Asked about the loss of mail, the postal worker yesterday said: “I was very sorry that my trolley got stolen. I have been delivering so many things for 17 years and I have always been careful. But that day, it was raining and I really urgently needed to go to the toilet. I did not want the items to get wet, so I did not take them with me to the toilet. I hid the items as carefully as I could. I looked around and there was no one there. I think maybe somebody must have been watching me. I immediately reported the loss. I was so frightened and so sorry.”

Despite a search that lasted four days in the area surrounding the Woodlands Circle void deck, the mail was never recovered. SingPost later set up a hotline for affected residents. Among the 10 who called, six asked about their e-commerce deliveries, while the rest shared their concerns on mail security.

As to whether the stolen mail had led to any cases of credit card or identity fraud, SingPost said: “We do not know for sure the contents of the mail (and) we believe that they are mainly mail from service providers, promotional mail and publications.”

SingPost does not track non-registered mail, and the IDA said it was not aware of complaints from corporate clients.