Almost everyone knows the excitement of coming home from a long day of work and finding that long-awaited package waiting at the door. But even the most dedicated online shoppers might not know the complex journey their parcels make to reach their doorstep.
Recently, SingPost has pulled back the curtain on its newest Automated Parcel Sortation Facility, revealing how the $30 million upgrade is helping get our online hauls sorted and shipped faster than ever. We’re just as curious, so we visited the hub for a behind-the-scenes look at the scale of operations that keep parcels moving.
ICYDK, here’s a quick recap of how your parcels are delivered every day by our national postal service.
It all starts with parcel collection. Postmen travel every day to collect parcels and letters from over 700 Posting Boxes, 50 POPDrop machines, 160 POPStops, and around 40 Post Offices. Imports from overseas are also rounded up from the Airmail Transit Centre and Bulk Mail Centre.
Image credit: SingPost
Then, the letterbox mail is routed to the SingPost Centre in Paya Lebar, while bulkier parcels are brought to the Regional eCommerce Logistics Hub in Tampines for sorting.
Once they’re good to go, the parcels are sent off to the receiving homes and businesses, but it’s more complicated than just getting a parcel from point A to B. Over 1,600 delivery staff, 850 vehicles, and 5 regional delivery bases are involved in mailing parcels all across our tiny island.
Located within SingPost’s 553,000sqft Regional eCommerce Logistics Hub, the $30 million sortation facility is part of the brand’s larger investment in AI and automation. This upgrade has helped to automate 75% of workflows and streamline operations for peak campaign seasons like 11.11 and Black Friday.
While items were previously sent to 2 separate sorting centres, the new facility now enables all small, medium, and large packages to be processed together in the same spot. With processing times reduced by 50%, you’ll be glad to know that your parcels spend less time sitting in the warehouse and more time making their way to your doorstep.
To achieve this, the hub has been upgraded with 2 automated machines powered by Chinese technology. The new tech allows for thrice as many small and medium parcels – 300,000 to be exact – to be processed in a single day. Combined with large parcels, that’s as many as 400,000 parcels processed per day, compared to 200,000 previously.
Here’s a BTS look at the technologies that help our parcels reach us faster:
Whether it’s everyday letters or Amazon book orders, the 3D Sorter handles it all. The machine processes up to 6,000 flats, letters, small packets, and books per hour, including ultra-thin parcels from 5mm. For reference, that’s about the width of a pencil eraser top or shirt button.
Small packages ranging in weight from 10g to 5kg are fed through one of 6 induction stations where they’re measured, weighed, and scanned as they pass through. Each parcel’s barcode is scanned, and pre-advised customer data is used to sort parcels with over 99% accuracy, even for packages with damaged labels.
They’re then moved via carriers at a speed of 0.65m/s, dropped into stacked layers, and sorted to 580 outputs for dispatch. Think of it like the Genki Sushi “trains” that deliver your sushi to your table – the 3D Sorter does the same thing with your mail, using the scanned information to deposit it in specific baskets for faster delivery.
This automated system cuts processing times by up to 3 hours daily, and with the machines operating 24/7, you can imagine how much time gets saved in the long run.
When bulkier parcels don’t fit in a letterbox, that’s when the Intelligent Flexi Sorter (IFS) comes in. In short, it’s a bulk sorter designed to handle items between 20g and 40kg, roughly the size of a heavy-duty portable charger to a large dog crate.
The massive machinery can handle as many as 16,200 parcels per hour – that’s a whopping 270 parcels per minute. They’re then sorted into 327 chutes according to local delivery clusters.
SingPost CEO Mark Chong standing next to the Intelligent Flexi Sorter.
Everything starts at the infeed, AKA the “mouth” of the IFS. Packages are piled up on the conveyor belt before they are separated and sorted onto individual carriers.
Any oversized packages will be redirected to a reject chute for manual handling, while the rest of the packages are sent along the line for further scanning.
At a glance, the 2-tier conveyor belt almost reminds us of that Toy Story 2 scene where Woody and his gang are stuck in the airport baggage system, though the mechanics behind this setup are much more sophisticated.
The weight and dimensions of each package are recorded as they pass through the conveyor belt system. Equipped with 6-sided scanners powered by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, the cameras capture parcel information accurately, even if items are upside down.
In layman terms, it works the same way as Google Translate does when you scan a menu or signboard overseas – the words get picked up and converted into text to be digitally read and recorded. This allows for real-time status updates, making it easier to track where each parcel is on its journey.
Multiple OCR scanners are situated along the belt, and the 2-tier belt system keeps the process going – so if one section encounters an issue, operations can continue without grinding to a halt.
Each carrier on the belt also has an in-built motor that knocks packages into chutes after processing, kind of like those coin pusher games in arcades. These parcels are then distributed into 580 sorting totes, which deliverymen can grab and go without having to individually sort the parcels themselves.
Every step of the process at the facility is automated. Instead of manual pallet jacks, 40 autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) move in sync with the machines.
Engineered with sensors, cameras, radars, and LIDAR – the same tech used in self-driving cars – for a continuous 360° view, the AGVs are designed to move safely and efficiently. Each AGV can carry up to 600kg worth of items and can sustain itself for an impressive 8-hour run on a single 1.5-hour charge. They’re basically like your robo-vacuums at home, but smarter and stronger.
The AGVs take parcels in cages from loading bays to separate areas for holding, and then move them to be processed at the 3D Sorter or the IFS.
Once sorted, they move the parcel cages back to the staging area for dispatch, preventing any manual handling risks and bottlenecks. Parcel and mail ambassadors then do a final sorting by block and floor for the most efficient delivery route.
In partnership with one of the world’s largest RoboVan enterprises, Zelostech and SingPost have been test-running autonomous vehicles (AVs) to move parcels across the 3 levels of the logistics hub.
While the AVs are being used in-house for now, SingPost is currently working with the Land Transport Authority to deploy the driverless vehicles on public roads. They would be used for transfers between hubs and sorting centres, and even smaller-batch dispatches to delivery points island-wide.
The hope is that this would be a more sustainable transport solution, while also opening opportunities for more on-demand and off-peak deliveries. Who knows, one day you might just spot a SingPost AV cruising alongside one of the self-driving shuttles already operating in Punggol.
While the new automated hub speeds up backend processing for faster shipment, SingPost is also making it even easier to mail out your Carousell orders right from your doorstep with the new SingPost@MyBlock service.
Image credit: Singapore Post via Facebook
Under the new initiative, you can skip the extra travel fare and hassle of going to a post office or post box. Instead, letters and small parcels can be posted directly from your HDB or condominium block via designated slots known as letterbox nests, with as many as 30,000 of these nests to be set up across the heartlands.
For those staying on landed property, you’ll still have to rely on the post boxes, as the letterbox nests are only being set up in residential blocks for now.
After successful trials across 5 areas, the service is set to be progressively rolled out island-wide by 30th September 2026.
Here’s a breakdown of the rough timeline:
| Timeline for rollout | Participating Town Councils |
| Phase 1: By 31st July 2026 |
|
| Phase 2: By 31st August 2026 |
|
| Phase 3: By 30th September 2026 |
|
Items with a Prepaid label or Smartpac, as well as overseas mail, can be posted at these letterbox nests as long as they’re correctly addressed, have the right postage stamp, and fit securely into the slot. Drop-offs made before 10am will be delivered the next working day.
Returns are also easier than ever. If you receive any mail that’s not intended for you, simply indicate “Recipient moved out” on the envelope and slip it into the designated slot.
Image credit: Singapore Post via Facebook
Take note that trackable services like Registered Mail and Speedpost must still be lodged at a post office, POPDrop, or POPStop. Don’t worry, the 40 existing post offices will remain open and won’t be replaced by the letterbox nests, so you can still head down if you need specific assistance with a parcel delivery.
As for the roadside post boxes, they’re not going anywhere for now, though that doesn’t mean they won’t be repurposed or removed in the future.
Based on what we’ve gathered from the SingPost staff, the upgrade is intended to reduce the cost-to-serve by at least 10%, but that doesn’t guarantee that mailing services will be cheaper as that depends on a whole range of factors. Guess we’ll have to cross our fingers on that one.
All things considered, the time saved on getting our parcels still sounds like a win to us.
You can stop obsessively refreshing your order status and waiting for your parcel to arrive – thanks to the new upgrades, your parcels should be getting to you faster than ever. In the meantime, check out our Taobao guide to shop like a pro while waiting for your next package.
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Photography by Ashley Hoon.
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