SINGAPORE — Online shoppers living in Punggol and Bukit Panjang will no longer have to wait at home for their parcels. Instead, they can conveniently pick it up from more than 60 sites located across the two towns at any time of the day.

The Locker Alliance, a pilot programme for Singapore's Federated Locker initiative, was launched on Friday (Dec 7) by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

The lockers will be located within 250m of all HDB blocks within the two towns, which have 78,000 households in total.

Local postal company SingPost has installed 39 locker sites around the HDB blocks in Punggol. Four other sites will be located at Punggol, Sengkang, Buangkok and Hougang MRT stations.

Over at Bukit Panjang, residents will be able to find 23 locker sites from Blu near their homes. Four other lockers from the home-grown retail logistics company have been installed at Bukit Panjang, Chinese Garden, Lakeside and Boon Lay MRT stations.

The IMDA said it will evaluate whether to add more sites across the island once the year-long pilot is over.

The Locker Alliance aims to provide a "single interoperable platform" for the online marketplace by bringing together various industry players — such as locker operators, logistics service providers and e-marketplaces.

Companies that have signed up for the initiative include Esprit, Lazada, Qoo10 and Taobao.

What this means for customers is that regardless of which logistics firm is handling the delivery, their parcels can be deposited in these lockers. A notification will be sent to the customer when the item is ready for collection.

Customers will also be able to return parcels, if needed, at any of these lockers except for those located at MRT stations. This is due to public transport security measures, according to the Locker Alliance’s website.

There will be no extra charge for customers who opt to have their parcels delivered to the lockers.

Mr Pierre de Bellescize, chief executive of Lazada eLogistics Singapore, said the pilot initiative allows customers to decide "when and where" to collect their parcel.

The system improves efficiency as a delivery driver only has to make a single trip to a locker site before moving on to the next, instead of having to make several door-to-door visits, he said.

IMDA chief executive Tan Kiat How said: "Implemented islandwide, logistics service providers can potentially see a 50 per cent reduction in distance travelled by drivers and see a five-fold improvement in delivery efficiency."

The IMDA also announced on Friday that it has signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) with regional locker operators such as Thailand's Box24, Hong Kong's Pakpobox and Indonesia's Popbox Asia to explore the potential of establishing a regional locker network.

It will be engaging local stakeholders during the three-year period under the MOI.

If the plans take off, it could address the issue of a consumer wanting to order a product from these countries, only to discover that it will not be shipped to Singapore.

"As these operators have locker infrastructure in Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia, the Locker Alliance model of interoperability aims to open up e-commerce opportunities for businesses and logistics players, and address cross-border last-mile delivery," said the IMDA.