Communications Improve the reliability of postal services
In the past, we have a reliable postal service. This has deteriorated over the past two decades or so, after Sing Post was privatized and it spent more attention to other activities to increase its revenue and profits, rather than its core business. 

In recent years, the public has experienced the following mistakes:

a) Mails were late in delivery
b) Mails were delivered to wrong addresses
c) Mails were not delivered.

What can be done to improve the standard of postal services?

Let me deal with the problems, which are:

a) A large increase in the volume of mail, due to growth of the economy.
b) A greater reliance on contractors and part time workers to deliver the mail 

We should deal with the root cause of the problems effectively. I suggest the following measures:

a) Use e-mail to replace postal mail
b) Create a digital platform for business to send business mail
c) Encourage digital payment to reduce the volume of mail for sending of cheques
d) Improve the tracking of the postal delivery workers

Let me comment on these proposals in more detail.

The government is paranoid about the risk of sending e-mail. They are worried that e-mail could be read by hackers or be diverted or altered fraudulently. This risk can be mitigated by using encrypted channels for delivery. 

As a further measure, e-mail can be used only for routine mail which do not contain sensitive information. They probably represent more than 90% of correspondence.

Communication that contain sensitive information can be sent to a digital platform, similar to WhatsApp. The recipient can retrieve the encrypted mail from the server and store it in his personal device. The mail can be deleted from the server,

Greater effort should be made to encourage the use of digital payments. Businesses should disclose their bank accounts for their customers to send payments through digital transfers, to replace payment by cheques.

There will still be some communication that has to be handled through postal delivery. Sing Post can develop an app to track the movement of the delivery workers during their hours of work. It will ensure that the workers deliver the mail, rather than thrown them away. It still does not prevent mail being delivered to the wrong address, but the recipient can make a report. Sing Post should make it easy for the public to submit this kind of report.

We can improve the reliability of our postal service and restore it to a high standard. I hope that my suggestions can help Sing Post will act to deal with the problem,. 

Tan Kin Lian
 

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