A Trip to the Local Post Office

Sometimes it's the little differences that can be particularly interesting. Take a trip to the post office, for example. With Mothers Day coming, we needed to post some cards and figured we'd just bring them to the PO. Besides, the main branch near where we live was just recently upgraded, so we wanted to check it out.

The Singapore Post Office, SingPost for short, has a history that dates back to the 19th century and Sir Stamford Raffles. (This is not surprising because just about everything here has or at least claims some connection to Raffles.) It is a very modern and efficient enterprise. If you mail something before 5:00 PM anywhere on the island, it will be delivered to any address in Singapore the next working day. Sure, it's a small island, but still it generates about 2.7 million pieces of mail every day. One of the tricks of the trade is the postal code system. Each major building in Singapore has it's own six-digit postal code. And it's not just SingPost that uses this. You can hail a taxi by sending a text message from your cell phone with the postal code of your location.

Posting a letter locally costs 26¢ (US 17¢) for 20g (about 0.70 oz) or 32¢ (US 21¢) for 40g. Overseas to the USA costs $1.10 (US 74¢) for first 20g and 35¢ (US 23¢) for each addition 10g. Airmail postcards are 50¢ (US 34¢). Typical delivery time for airmail to the US is 6-8 working days; surface mail is 6-10 weeks. By comparison, it's only 3-5 days to Japan or Hong Kong for airmail.


Upon entering the Killiney branch, the first thing you notice is the lack of queues. Instead, you take a number from a machine and have a seat until your number is called. Or, if you have the need, you can shop for a new cell phone or rice cooker. The PO is also a retail center with items that go far beyond the usual philatelic novelties like commemorative editions (although they have these, too). When your number comes up on the display board, you go up to the counter and transact your business. What's a bit different is that they will sell you the stamps, but you need to affix them and then take them outside to the posting box.

And if you don't want to queue, there are also Self-service Automated Machines (SAMs) all over the island, in shopping malls and subway stations. You can buy stamps; and many will weigh your mail and calculate the postage for you. Payment is by credit card, a NETS card, or cash card. (The last two items are local EFT and stored value cards.) You can also pay bills, pick up movie tickets, and a variety of other transactions. One thing that's a bit peculiar (but perhaps consistent with the counter service) is that there is no place to actually post your letters at a SAM. You have to take them to the post office.

The entire process took about 15 minutes and we were back on our afternoon walk.