Bringing together innovative solutions to enhance last-mile deliveries

1  Imagine a future with robots delivering parcels to your doorstep, or one where you can deliver a parcel enroute to your destination, earning some income in the process. For the first time, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has brought together last-mile delivery innovations that could enable more efficient and safer last-mile deliveries as well as enhance our urban logistics ecosystem in the future, at the 11^th edition of the Urban Lab exhibition series.

2  Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration, Mr Desmond Lee, launched the “Delivering into the future: Enabling safe and efficient deliveries” exhibition at The URA Centre today. The exhibition showcases ongoing efforts by the government and industry to improve last-mile deliveries, and aims to encourage the cross pollination of ideas and collaborations across different sectors to develop more innovations in this area. It also reflects the Draft Master Plan 2025’s (DMP2025) focus on “Strengthening Urban Resilience”, where URA and agencies pursue new urban solutions to strengthen Singapore’s ability to respond nimbly to changes and challenges. Refer to Annex A [PDF, 115kb] for more details of the DMP2025.

Progress in partnering delivery stakeholders to improve e-commerce experience

3  With the rise of e-commerce platforms, the proportion of online retail sales has more than doubled, while the proportion of online F&B sales has almost tripled over the last five years¹. In response to this trend, agencies have been studying and implementing measures to improve last-mile delivery efficiency, ensure the safety of e-commerce platform workers as well as minimise any disamenities caused by delivery pick-ups and drop-offs.

4  Past efforts to improve last-mile deliveries include partnering industry associations to publish a best practice guide for smooth delivery processes at private residential areas, and engaging delivery stakeholders to gather ideas on measures that can be implemented within developments. Building on these partnerships, agencies formed a Tripartite Workgroup in November 2023 to strengthen engagement with key stakeholders to seek industry feedback and study the feasibility of implementing measures within developments to improve delivery processes.

5  In September 2024, agencies also formalised the Courier Hub Scheme to facilitate increased productivity of logistics companies, by allowing them to utilise designated car park lots in selected multi-storey car parks in public housing estates to unload and sort parcels. More details of agencies’ efforts can be found in Annex B [PDF, 60kb].

Engagement and innovations drive next leg to improve last-mile deliveries

6  The “Delivering into the future: Enabling safe and efficient deliveries” exhibition showcases concepts and ideas contributed by stakeholders during engagement sessions organised by the Tripartite Workgroup. They include possible infrastructural improvements to make delivery journeys more efficient, such as through the provision of waiting bays for delivery personnel to park their vehicles and pick-up and drop-off deliveries quickly, and the provision of lockers for dropping off and collecting parcels, which reduces the number of trips required for delivery personnel to serve an area.

7  The exhibition also features innovative solutions such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate job assignments and fleet-sharing across courier companies as well as crowdshipping, which taps on members of the public to make deliveries for a small fee by picking up and dropping off parcels along their journeys. By leveraging real-time data, these new delivery models could support companies in completing deliveries in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Other innovations such as the use of autonomous delivery robots to deliver parcels within high density urban areas could reduce the need for security clearance for multiple delivery personnel, while the use of electric two-wheelers supported by battery-swapping stations could reduce downtime for delivery riders.  A summary of the innovations presented in the exhibition can be found in Annex C [PDF, 166kb].

8  Collectively, these innovations help goods reach customers more quickly and efficiently by enabling delivery personnel to complete consecutive jobs seamlessly. They also reduce the number of trips made while increasing delivery volume, thus reducing the overall carbon footprint of delivery vehicles.

9  Mr Chiu Wen Tung, Group Director (Research & Development), URA, said, “The Urban Lab exhibition series provides a platform to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration among industry players in new frontiers that will make Singapore an even more liveable, inclusive and endearing home. As the e-commerce sector continues to grow, it is important that our infrastructure and practices support smoother delivery journeys to benefit consumers and the industry. By leveraging technological innovations, we can potentially do more with less and scale up feasible solutions to respond nimbly to evolving lifestyle changes and industry needs, enabling more sustainable delivery practices.”

10 “Delivering into the future: Enabling safe and efficient deliveries” will be exhibited at The URA Centre Atrium from 15 November 2024 to 25 January 2025. Admission is free. Members of the public can sign up for free guided tours of the exhibition on Tuesdays, Thursdays and selected Saturdays at go.gov.sg/SafeEfficientDeliveries-Tour.

11 To further raise awareness within communities on the good practices that could be adopted by developments, residents and delivery personnel, parts of the exhibition will also rove to heartland areas around Singapore.

12 More information on the exhibition can be found at go.gov.sg/DeliveringTheFuture.

¹ Monthly Online Retail Sales proportion and online F&B sales proportion from SingStat from March 2019 - Apr 2024.