Snail mails withdraw from our life, possible? By Vicky

Source:
Weizhen, T. (2010, February 11). Postmen to rest Saturdays. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from Straits Times: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_489168.html


Original article:
Singapore
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Feb 11, 2010
Postmen to rest Saturdays
Move is to give postman a break as popularity of snail mail is declining
By Tan Weizhen

SingPost will be extending the collection timings on Fridays. -- PHOTO: SINGPOST
HOW many letters or cards do you post a year? About six, by Singapore Post's calculations. With the popularity of snail mail slowing, SingPost wants the postman to take a break on Saturdays starting from May 15.
It added that e-mail, SMSes and other new communication tools have contributed to a decline in the amount of snail mail sent out, a trend experienced the world over. Singapore's postman collected and delivered more than 181 million items in financial year 2002-2003. But just 139 million items were handled in FY2008-2009.
Also, companies no longer send out mail on Saturdays as most are on five-day work weeks. SingPost said that on Saturdays, the volume of mail is 40 per cent less than on a usual weekday.
To make up for the shortfall, SingPost will be extending the collection timings on Fridays.
SingPost deputy group chief executive Ng Hin Lee promised that there will be no drop in service standards - 99 per cent of mail posted within the Central Business District (CBD) and more than 98 per cent posted outside the CBD will be delivered by the next working day.
Singapore joins about 70 countries, such as Australia, Brunei, Canada, South Korea, Sweden, the Philippines and most recently, the United States, which have adopted a five-day week for their mail delivery service.


Reflection:
I refer to the article "Postmen to rest Saturday" written by Tan Weizhen and published on 11 Feb, 2010. In this article, due to the decline in the amount of snail mails recent years, SingPost decide to give postmen a Saturday rest starting from May 15. Though there would be no work on Saturday, the chief executive Ng Hin Lee of SingPost deputy group guaranteed that the standard of their service would not be affected and the collection timings on Friday would be extended.

As the article has mentioned, Singapore follows about 70 countries which have Saturday rest, and the USA has already adopted the 5-day week for their mail delivery service. The trend of working days is obviously decreasing, which makes me wonder if it is possible that the snail mails will withdraw from our daily completely one day. There are several reasons for people not to use snail mails. First and foremost, with the popularity of computers, e-mails and MSN are widely used among people, which are more convenient than the snail mails. We can send our messages without a pen or a piece of paper at anytime and anywhere and we do not need to worry about if the receiver has moved to another city. In addition, if the information we want to send is not that much, we can just make a phone call or SMS. Secondly, snail emails are quite time-consuming. In such a fierce competitive society that time is money, especially related to the information. The faster we can exchange our information the more likely we will succeed quickly. Last but not least, the functions of e-mails are much more than snail mails. Besides the word context, e-mail can also include pictures, sounds and videos. Furthermore, e-mail can add attachment such as e-books which may occupy very large space when sending the books.

Though the majority can use computers now, it is still not everyone, so snail mails are still necessary. Also the snail mails are needed in some specific fields. However, I think one day in the future, the computer will dominate the information market and the postmen do not work anymore.

——Vicky