Singapore Post hiring more staff as mail volumes increase

Singapore Post is stepping up its recruitment efforts and increasing existing salaries to beef up its collection and sorting staff. The move comes in response to the seasonal surge in mail, but also the general changing nature of the mail, which the company said was putting “considerable” strain on its services.

From June to November 2010, the volume of mail handled by the company’s 2,700 staff grew by 30% compared to the previous year.

SingPost said it was also responding to a significant rise in online shopping, which it said had prompted a 90% increase in the volume of parcels in November 2010 compared to November 2009.

So many more parcels meant a “huge constraint” on the company’s resources, it said, since a postal workers could deliver only 18 packages per hour, compared to about 750 letters per hour, while parcels also take up more space.

Along with efforts to recruit more collection staff, SingPost said it has hired more indoor mail sorters and will increase salaries for mail sorters by 10% from this month, to retain existing workers.

Woo Keng Leong, Executive Vice President for Mail, said: “The tremendous surge in volume during this festive peak season, both incoming and outgoing from Singapore, and changing profile of mail have put a considerable strain on our resources. We have since stepped our efforts by engaging additional manpower, reviewing and improving our processes as we manage the surge in volumes.”

SingPost has about 990 full-time and part-time postal delivery workers, delivering to about one million addresses domestically.

The company faced criticism in the local media last year, following its move to stop Saturday services and switch to a five-day working week.

Following the complaints about delays and delivery problems, SingPost said last week it has also adopted new quality checks to improve its service level. Extra postal inspectors have been taken on to carry out checks on items at delivery points or letter boxes, to ensure accuracy of delivery.