Singapore Post Limited SGX: S08 (Chinese: 新加坡郵政有限公司; or SingPost, Chinese: 新加坡郵局) is Singapore's only postal company, providing local and international postal services. It currently manages over 60 post offices, about 200 Self-service Automated Machines (SAMs), over 800 postboxes, as well as extending its service via about 80 authorised postal agencies and over 660 stamp vendors in the country.

SingPost has three main operational divisions, namely the Mail Division, which handles the bulk of day-to-day mail delivery locally and those bound for international destinations. The Logistics Division handles door-to-door distribution services, the SpeedPost services, as well as other supporting services such as warehousing and storage of goods to be delivered. Finally, the Retail Division takes charge of front-line postal services through the various post offices as well as external vendors, plus managing the vPOST (virtual post) internet portal service.

History

Singapore Post traces its history to the founding of modern Singapore in 1819, when a single post office was established in the former Parliament House. The small amount of mail handled required just three persons to operate. Accelerating trade and development, however, led to the growth of the office into a separate department from the Marine Office in October 1858.

Under a Malayan Postal Union Agreement in 1949, the Singapore Postal Department was linked with the Postal Department of the Federation of Malaya. A colonial postal system was imposed which standardised rules, regulations, procedures and postage rates in both territories. The operation of international postal agreements, introduction of new services or modification of existing services was centrally administered by the Postmaster General of Malaya from the joint administrative headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. However, the government of that territory retained revenue collected in each territory.

Singapore took over its own postal functions in stages after its independence on 9 August 1965 and was admitted to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) on 8 January 1966. The Singapore Postal Services Department became a fully autonomous body on 1 January 1967.

In 1982, the Postal Services Department merged with the then Telecommunication Authority of Singapore, known as Telecoms. With the merger, the Assistant General Manager (Postal Services) was responsible for the development and administration of all postal facilities in Singapore. In 1992, the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore was split into three entities: the reconstituted Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS, now part of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore), Singapore Telecommunications Private Limited (now Singapore Telecommunications Limited) and Singapore Post Private Limited, a subsidiary of Singapore Telecommunications. Singapore Post Limited was listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange (SGX-ST) on 13 May 2003.

Singapore Post is the first Public Postal Licensee. TAS granted the licence in 1992 in accordance with section 42 of the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore Act 1992. As a licensee, Singapore Post is empowered to operate postal services with the exclusive privilege of receiving, collecting and delivering letters and postcards from one place to another until 31 March 2007.

Post Codes

Singapore was originally divided into postal districts in the 1950s, with a number being allocated to each district, for example, the Orchard Road area was in District 9.

277 Orchard Road Singapore 9

This was superseded by a new four-digit system in 1979, with the last two digits representing a sector in each district.

277 Orchard Road Singapore 0923

In 1995, this was replaced by a six-digit system, in which every building was given its unique postcode, the first two digits of which represented the old sector.

277 Orchard Road Singapore 238858

Although the old districts are no longer used by Singapore Post, they are still widely used to refer to locations of properties for sale or rent.[1]

External links

• Singapore Post Limited