Singapore Post (SingPost) has reached a significant milestone in the development of its self-service parcel locker network with the installation of its 100th POPStation (pick-own-parcel station).
Lim Ann Nee, senior vice president of Singapore Parcel at SingPost, said, “SingPost invested in POPStation to further raise the level of convenience for customers, particularly with the growth of e-commerce items. It was very well received as it has revolutionized parcel collection and delivery processes for both customers and service providers in Singapore.
“We were inundated with requests for more POPStations during the six-month pilot. We worked hard to roll out and within a short span of 1.5 years, increase the number of POPStations from five to 100, deploying one POPStation every four working days. We have also added new innovative features to enhance the customer experience such as the POPStation app, posting of parcels, and a payment service for online purchases. POPStation is popular with consumers and parcel volumes to the lockers have increased six-fold.
“We are committed to continuing to meet the needs of our customers. POPStations are scalable and they are just the thing to meet the boom in e-commerce as well as lifestyle needs and the priorities of online shoppers. We have just rolled out the android version of the POPStation app. To make online shopping easier and more convenient, we plan to double the number of POPStations to 200.”
As part of the celebrations, SingPost also took the opportunity to unveil its new prototype P-POPS (personal POPStation) parcel collection and delivery system, developed in partnership with technology firm TZ Limited. The new lockers have no user interface and are entirely managed by the customer’s smartphone. The new system does not require 3G/4G or wi-fi access to unlock the locker, as it will communicate using Bluetooth technology.
Mark Bouris, executive chairman of TZ Limited, said, “We are pleased to be a key technology provider of the POPStation network. We are looking forward to the further expansion of the network throughout Singapore and to closer collaboration and cooperation in the future. Our latest innovation, the individual and personalized locker, branded by SingPost as P-POPS, will be piloted this year and should set another benchmark in expanding the boundaries of last mile parcel delivery.”
May 20, 2015