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Log Hub to keep online commerce moving

SingPost offers warehousing, logistics and delivery services at highly automated facility

Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
A 500m-long cross-belt sorter automatically guides parcels to one of 291 designated parcel sorting chutes which are categorised according to area of delivery, ready to be placed into vans by dispatch staff. SingPost's $182 million logistics hub in Tampines is one example of how the company has been able to capitalise on the e-commerce wave, and showcases its continual investment in technology for new postal and logistics solutions. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
SingPost's Regional eCommerce Logistics Hub in Greenwich Drive opened in 2016. It operates 24 hours daily and sorts up to 100,000 parcels a day. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery vans parked next to the parcel sorting chutes. Each courier covers a specific area - or "beat" - in Singapore, and packs the parcels into his van according to his route, with the outermost parcel's destination being his first stop, and the innermost one's destination his last. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
Packages pass through an optical character recognition - or OCR - scanner, which scans the labels on each one so that they are automatically sorted into the parcel sorting chutes situated on level one of the SingPost Regional eCommerce Logistics Hub. Everything in the facility is scalable, which means it can be upgraded to meet the needs of the future. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
A customer's order is picked from a storage tote and put into the customer's order tote below. The display indicates the number of items ordered. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
When an order is received, the Carousel system retrieves and transports storage totes containing the items to a picking station, where a staff member transfers the items into the customer's order tote. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
Staff transporting totes in the Logistics Hub. In the background are shelves of storage totes constituting the automated Carousel warehousing system. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
Customer orders are assigned to blue baskets called "totes". The orders are scanned onto unique bar codes stuck on the sides of the totes. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Couriers from SP Parcels check a parcel before it is placed in a delivery van. Speedpost is a last mile door-to-door express delivery service by SP Parcels, a subsidiary of SingPost. Couriers loading parcels containing customers' orders onto delivery
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At its regional logistics hub for e-commerce in Tampines, SingPost handles an array of services spanning warehousing, logistics and last-mile delivery for several big-name e-commerce players well-known in Singapore, like Lazada.

The sprawling 553,000 sq ft, three-storey facility boasts two warehouse floors, 150 simultaneous loading bays and an office block. The ground floor includes a fully automated parcel sorting facility, which can sort up to 100,000 parcels a day, while level two is a cornucopia of goodies from household brands, fashion labels and various e-commerce companies. Items range from cosmetics and sportswear to baby products and home electrical appliances.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 16, 2018, with the headline Log Hub to keep online commerce moving. Subscribe