10 fascinating facts you certainly didn’t know about SingPost

Last Updated on 2016-05-19 , 1:53 pm

Everyone in Singapore, local and foreigners alike, depend on SingPost for the delivery of their mail and parcels from and to around the world. This company has been such a big and regular part of our lives that many times, we take it for granted.

How many of us can bravely say we know a lot about SingPost besides it being the place where we got to pick up our online shopping from? Here are 10 really interesting facts about SingPost I’m sure many of us have no inkling about.

Oldest post office
It is in Geylang. Did you guess correctly? It was opened in 1930, way before I was born. Wow.

The number of mail handled daily is…
3 million. And 85% of them are sorted according to the mailmen’s sequence of the day.

Do you know where the most isolated postbox is?
If you can get this right, you are really smart. Or perhaps you know our history enough to know. For such a tiny island like Singapore to have an ulu postbox, it has to be off our shores right? So yes, this postbox can be found on Pulau Ubin. Surprised?

Postage stamps used for the first time in 1855 were Indian stamps
These Indian stamps were inscribed in the denomination of Indian currency and overprinted with diamond dots to indicate that they were sold in Singapore. For the first 9 years though, the stamps were not sold at the Post Office but by a clerk in the Resident Councilor’s office.

The first employed postman
SingPost employed their first neighbourhood postmen in 1996

Next-day delivery of mail was introduced in 1992
Mail that was posted by 7pm in the CBD and by 5pm outside the CBD was guaranteed delivery the very next day. This was a significant change for mail processing staff from a predominantly day to an overnight operation.

Women employees
The first women recruited as Assistant Postwomen and Postwomen was in 1974.

The first airmail was despatched from Singapore on 5th October 1928
It was sent by sea to Marseilles and then to London by air.

Enhancement of mail security
All the 800-plus posting boxes are equipped with an electronic system to enhance mail security since 2009

Lost and Found
Over 8,500 wallets, purses and other interesting trinkets have been found in the post boxes in 2010. All of these items have been returned to the relevant organisations or parties as much as possible.