Last-Mile Delivery Innovations for Parcels Collection in Singapore

The last-mile delivery industry has been adapting and implementing innovations to enhance its overall service. With the ubiquity of e-commerce, the number of parcels to be delivered rapidly increased. This created logistics and urban-transport challenges, especially in densely urbanised and populated areas – such as Singapore. Singapore, a tropical island country in South East Asia, is steadily becoming an example of a “smart-nation”. Since the year 2016, the country has been working to improve the last-mile delivery system. Initial developments included providers “dropping” parcels at shops, transport stations, or selected residences for the customer to collect at their own convenience. Then, other innovations, such as self-collection parcel lockers, began to be implemented. As of 2022, a nationwide parcel locker network – available to all last-mile delivery providers – is available in Singapore. The virtually unmanned and 24–7 available lockers can enhance logistics efficiency, reduce costs due consolidation of goods, reduce failed deliveries, and provide flexibility for customers’ parcel collection. This paper presents an overview of Singapore’s evolution of last-mile delivery innovations related to parcels collection. A discussion on logistics, urban planning, and sustainability impacts is provided – in relation to the country and how these could be used as learning points in other (tropical) countries for improving last-mile deliveries. Finally, potential innovations are highlighted and future research directions are suggested.