SingPost to raise postage rates from October

SINGAPORE — With rising costs and declining volume of domestic mail, SingPost will be raising local and international postage rates for the first time in eight years starting next month.

Local rates will increase by between S$0.04 and S$0.20, while international rates will rise by between S$0.05 and S$0.25. A piece of standard mail weighing up to 20g will cost 30 cents to post, from 26 cents currently. Standard mail weighing up to 250g will cost 90 cents to post, up from 80 cents — which has been the rate since 1972.

SingPost announced the new rates yesterday after the media previewed its new S$45 million integrated sorting machines, which boast a faster and more accurate sorting service.

Explaining the hike, SingPost’s Group chief executive officer Wolfgang Baier said since postage rates were adjusted in 2006, costs have risen by nearly 50 per cent, while the volume of domestic mail is declining.

In 2012, it delivered 119 million letters, 8 per cent fewer than the 130 million letters in 2011.

SingPost is also being charged more by countries for delivering mail there, due to Singapore being reclassified by the Universal Postal Union as a developed country in 2009. To offset the increase in rates, SingPost will be giving a free stamp booklet containing six first local stamps to every household. Small and medium enterprises which use its franked mail service will also get a 5 per cent rebate for a year.

Citing “tremendous pressures”, such as “e-substitution” and high service expectations, Dr Baier said it is necessary to invest in its domestic letter mail service.

Under its S$100 million service improvement plan, SingPost will install 16 new automated sorting machines, which will be fully operational by November and will increase letter sorting capacity by 17 per cent. It will also hire 200 more postmen, provide more three wheelers for them, and roll out 50 more POPStations — 24/7 automated kiosks from which consumers can pick up their e-commerce parcels — by the end of the year.

In recent months, SingPost has been in the news for a series of flubs. In April, it was fined S$30,000 for losing a mail bag while, in August last year, it was fined S$10,000 after it fell short of standards for postal delivery.

Asked how the increase would be justified given the perceived dip in service standards, Dr Baier stressed that the number of complaints had not risen. “But with lifestyle changes and social media, some of these complaints obviously can get a lot of echo,” he said. “So, this is an investment by the Singapore postal service to address those changing customer service expectations.”

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) said it had approved the revisions to ensure basic mail services remain sustainable in future, given a shrinking market for physical letters and rising operating costs.

“In allowing the rate increase, the IDA took into account SingPost’s commitment to investing in measures to improve its services, such as upgrading its postal infrastructure, increasing its manpower, as well as improving the welfare of and investing in postal workers,” said its spokesman.

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this report, we reported that SingPost was fined S$10,000 last August for failing to deliver 40,000 letters on time. SingPost has clarified that this is a statistical extrapolation. It had failed to deliver five out of a sample size of 1,153 letters on time. We apologise for the error.