SingPost fined S$300,000 for service lapses in 2018

SINGAPORE Post (SingPost) has been fined S$300,000 for not meeting quality of service (QoS) standards for the delivery of local basic letters, as well as registered and international mail in 2018, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced in a statement on Friday.

Under IMDA's Postal QoS framework, SingPost is required to deliver 99 per cent of local basic letters to an address within the Central Business District (CBD), and 98 per cent of local basic letters to destinations outside the CBD areas by the next working day.

SingPost failed to so in March, April, July and August 2018, when it did not deliver 99 per cent of local basic letters within the CBD by the next working day.

SingPost is also expected to deliver all local basic letters and registered mail by the second working day. However, it failed to meet the requirements for the delivery of local basic letters by the second day for nine months last year, and did not deliver all registered mail by the second working day for four months in 2018.

In addition, the Postal QoS framework requires SingPost to deliver 99 per cent of international incoming basic letters received before 3pm at SingPost Centre to an address within the CBD, and 98 per cent of international incoming basic letters to destinations outside the CBD by the next working day. SingPost also has to despatch 100 per cent of processed outgoing basic letters to departing flights by the next working day.

However, the company failed to meet the requirements for the delivery of international incoming basic letters within the CBD in the months of March, April, and June last year.

IMDA said that in assessing the penalties, it took into account that SingPost had 20 incidents of non-compliance in 2018, versus nine incidents in 2017. These were repeated failures, and in some cases involved lost letters, IMDA added.

That being said, the authority also noted that the failure margins in 2018 were generally lower on average compared to the year before.

Separately, IMDA announced that it has completed investigations of the postman who had discarded returned mail and advertisement mails at Reflections at Keppel Bay last year.

The postman, Liu Zhengang, was dismissed by SingPost after the incident and has since returned to China.

IMDA's investigation found the postman to have breached the Postal Services Act for discarding postal articles and has issued an advisory to him. He will be barred from employment in Singapore, and will be arrested if he returns to Singapore.

The authority added that it has issued an advisory to SingPost, reminding it of its obligations to safeguard mail integrity and security, as well as to train and educate its staff to perform their task properly.

"IMDA takes a very serious view of any lapses in SingPost's mail services and has directed SingPost to take urgent steps to improve its service standards and restore public confidence in its postal services," it said.

To this end, IMDA notes that SingPost has implemented measures such as hiring more postmen, extending delivery slots for basic mail parcels to weekday evenings and on Saturdays, and increasing the number of dedicated counters and staff at post offices for mail or package collection.

SingPost has also pledged to conduct an overall review of its operations to improve its service standards.

IMDA said it will continue to work with SingPost to improve the quality and reliability of its postal delivery services.

As at 12.45pm on Friday, shares in SingPost were trading at S$1.01 apiece, up one per cent, or one Singapore cent.