SingPost’s ongoing quest for a digital post office involves smartphones and NFC

A SingPost courier at an NFC-tagged delivery point. Photo credit: SingPost.

SingPost is no stranger to new technologies and the demands of our always connected age. It’s embraced ecommerce, tested deliveries by drone, and now it’s launching SmartPost. This is meant to be a digital infrastructure project that will connect its processes, from collection to last-mile delivery.

SmartPost will rely on tech like near-field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), online notifications, digital imaging, and more. The tools will be used by SingPost staff to improve their efficiency and make their jobs easier.

Initially, the program will involve delivery of registered mail and other trackable deliveries. SingPost couriers will be issued smartphones loaded with apps that will help them keep track of deliveries and send out real-time notifications. The company expects to equip 1,000 workers with such phones.

SingPost couriers will be issued smartphones loaded with apps to keep track of deliveries.

Customers will be able to get updates on their own devices about their items. They can even collect deliveries they missed at the post office using just their phone instead of the old-fashioned “missed delivery” notification slip.

This should tie into a greater system including NFC tags placed on more than 50,000 delivery and collection points across the city-state. Data gathered from this entire system could result in improved services across the board.

SingPost expects to complete the project by March 2019.

After a rough year marked by major executives leaving the company, including CEO Dr. Wolfgang Baier (who moved on to a chief executive position in Luxasia), and the fallout of an acquisition deal gone sour, SingPost needs to show it’s going full steam ahead with its digital reinvention.

New CEO Paul Coutts has just taken up his position, joining SingPost from Toll Global Forwarding, a division of the Japan Post-owned logistics and transportation company Toll Group.

“SmartPost has been designed to help our postal team work better and smarter, enhancing their capabilities and efficiency for the digital age. We are starting at the last mile as this is the most vital and demanding part of our business,” says Coutts in a statement.