I spent 1 hour 14mins at SingPost, trying to send an envelope overseas. I could not believe SingPost could be that inefficient. But basic research shows I was wrong.
SingPost is the designated public postal licensee for domestic and international mail in Singapore. It is also partially owned by Singtel (hmmm...), now given NCS is also owned by Singtel, sounds more like SingKnow than SingTell. Anyway, today is about SingPost.
SingPost has been in the news recently for shall we say interesting management appointments and decisions culminating in the firing of the group CEO, group CFO and CEO of their international unit. (1)
This is after a whistleblower report in early 2024 alleging manual entries on a large scale in some accounts apparently without supporting documents.
This manual entry took place in international deliveries,
apparently to avoid contractual penalties.
3 things stand out
1 it is not very difficult, in the system, to make manual
entries. Chances these are not tracked, else either this practice has been
going on for a long while and this didn't show as a spike in manual activities.
While SingPost argues that there are no fraud-proof systems
(2), this kind of manual overrides are usually tracked.
It is way too easy to play hanky-panky when manual entries are common in operations. To me these are systems almost designed to be used in interesting ways.
2 Even if manual corrections are allowed, there usually is a process that involves management approval. This, together with the fact that the alleged irregularities were designed to avoid SingPost paying penalties, point to likelihood of management involvement in the scheme.
3 the system that allows the manual changes without proper tracking has been designed this way. This is therefore a deliberate decision by SingPost management. Now note that I am not saying that this is a system that management created to allow fraud, but more the mindset that automation is optional, or that manual handling somehow adds business value to SingPost. My recent experience suggests the latter.
Not surprisingly profitability of SingPost has been going down. Profits fell from $83m in 2021/22 to $24m (after excluding divestment proceeds) in 2024/25, the share price from 72c in 2022, 41c nowadays.
Sure, post offices around the world are facing profitability
challenges. How you respond is the key. And to me, SingPost is bound to continue
its downward spiral unless a serious change of direction and management takes
place.
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Have you been to a SingPost branch recently?
First of all, so many have closed that I had problems finding one.
Most of us know that SingPost has become a point where you can pick up Singapore passports and cards. That's a positive thing, customers can use SingPost branches still open, rather than go to ICA in town. I am sure SingPost gets paid for the use of their premises and staff.
They also have tie ups with banks and insurance companies and SingPost branches are now lelong-lelong market with financial touts. They occupy a large chunk of the premises, bothering SingPost customers, and blocking the way to services.
Self-service stuff like weighing machines to help you count your postage costs are hidden, with poor instructions.
So, you have no choice but to queue, and find only a limited number of counters to postage related stuff, some non-exclusively.
When your number is finally called, there's a fun activity, at least for me. You see, I had earlier bought and envelope from SingPost itself. And it had the template to fill up senders and recipients using old fashioned pen on the paper. I did.
When I reached my counter, I had to verbally communicate the details written on the envelope, then lo and behold I was asked to scan a QR code, and fill up electronic form which requires the same info. Then after multiple queries due to lousy form design, a sticker was printed out which I had to stick on the envelope, walk to a post office box, and drop it in myself.
Not only does SingPost push a lot of admin stuff to the customer but it does it so badly that unless you are a regular user, you will get stuck. And it is not just me, quite a few other customers were fiddling with their phones, filling up the forms and asking for assistance from the counter staff they had dealt with.
May be that's a ploy to justify the presence of staff at the counter. But seriously, better form design would have saved everybody a lot of time.
Better still make the whole thing automated. If the staff's main answer is "that's the system" then I might as well deal with the system directly.
In a word, the designed operations of SingPost suck. Big time. A straight F. I have worked in making operations more efficient, I have experienced postal services in many countries, including in the 3rd world.
SingPost is the worse I have experienced. It is not the staff's fault, is purely design and management. And given the above, it is no surprise things are going downhill.
I actually asked the staff at the counter, isn't answering customer questions more tiring and take more time than filling things up yourself as was done before. She said is about the same.
Imagine that, spend millions, and have "about the same" efficiency.
Who will use SingPost postage services if posting an envelope takes 1hr14mins? This is just another example of horrible management, unable to make operations efficient and show care for customers by designing systems accordingly.
