Ceva hands last-mile delivery to Paack: what it means for Singapore parcels

A quiet logistics reshuffle is changing who actually rings your doorbell — here is what it means for the parcels you forward into Singapore.

What the Ceva–Paack deal actually changes

If you have ever tracked a parcel from China, Japan or the UK and watched it sit on “out for delivery” for two full days, this news is about that exact gap. Ceva Logistics has put Paack in charge of its last-mile parcel delivery, according to FreightWaves — a reshuffle that hands the final and most visible step of the journey to a specialist delivery-tech partner instead of keeping it in-house.

Why should a shopper in Singapore care? Because the last mile is the only part of the chain you actually experience. Ocean freight, air freight, customs clearance and linehaul are all invisible to you. The knock on the door, the delivery window, the photo proof, the “we missed you” card — that is the last mile, and it is now being run by a different company than the one whose name sits on the container.

For anyone forwarding or consolidating parcels, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the more hands a parcel passes through, the more important it becomes to control the handover. One consolidated shipment arriving as a single delivery is far easier to chase than five separate parcels with five separate couriers and five separate reference numbers. That principle holds whether the final courier is Paack, a local Singapore operator, or a postman on an e-bike in Tampines.

Why the last mile is where Singapore parcels go missing

Ask anyone in Singapore who orders from overseas and they will tell you the same story. The parcel clears customs fine, clears the sorting hub fine, and then vanishes into the last mile for three days. It is rarely lost. It is usually stuck on one of a handful of very avoidable problems.

The first is the address. Six-digit postal codes help, but unit numbers written as “12-345” get mistyped, “Blk” versus “Block” confuses automated scanners, and condominium names get abbreviated in ways only the resident understands. The second is timing: nobody is home between 9am and 6pm, and most delivery attempts happen inside that window. The third is access — concierge desks that close at 6pm, lifts that need a resident card, or offices that reject parcels for staff who have already left.

Then there is the reschedule problem. When a delivery fails, the parcel goes back to a depot or a collection point, and the rescheduling process runs on a phone number. If that number is a Singapore mobile (+65) but the booking was made on an overseas site with an overseas number, the SMS never arrives. The parcel sits for a week and gets returned to sender. This is why consolidating several orders into one well-labelled shipment, with one correct local phone number and one address format, removes an enormous amount of last-mile risk before the parcel ever leaves the origin warehouse.

What actually drives the cost of that final doorstep

Most people assume the expensive part of shipping is the long haul across the ocean or the flight. In practice, the last mile and the handling around it are where budgets quietly blow out, because that is where every exception gets charged.

Four things move the number more than anything else. Volumetric weight — a light but bulky box of cushions or a pram can be priced on the space it occupies rather than the kilos it shows on a scale. Remote or restricted access, which covers certain industrial estates and buildings where couriers need appointments. Re-delivery attempts, which are often billable after the first failure. And consolidation, which is the one factor you can control: five small parcels shipped separately will almost always cost more in total than five parcels repacked into one carton, because you pay for the handling and the delivery five times over instead of once.

Because every route and every carton is different, nobody can quote you honestly without your actual dimensions and destination. Rather than guess, run your numbers through our calculator and see the real figure for your route before you commit:

How Ebaoguo takes the guesswork out of the final step

You cannot choose which courier a global forwarder appoints for its last mile, and you cannot control the reshuffles happening between companies like Ceva and Paack. What you can control is what reaches the doorstep: how many parcels, how they are packed, how they are labelled, and how easy they are to deliver on the first attempt. That is exactly the part Ebaoguo handles for customers shipping into Singapore and across the region.

Instead of five separate orders arriving from five sellers with five tracking numbers, your purchases land at our warehouse, get checked, repacked into one carton, relabelled with your correct local address and mobile number, and shipped onward as a single consignment. One delivery attempt. One person to contact if something goes sideways. It is a small change in logistics that removes most of the reasons parcels fail at the final step.

Depending on what you are sending, these two services usually cover it:

Frequently asked questions

Yes. FreightWaves reported that Ceva Logistics has put Paack in charge of its last-mile parcel delivery. In plain terms, the company managing the long-haul and warehousing side is now leaning on a specialist partner for the final stretch to the door.

Possibly at the margins, but not dramatically. Clearance, linehaul and port handling usually decide the overall transit time. The last mile affects the final day or two, plus how quickly a failed delivery gets rescheduled. If your parcel is already consolidated and correctly labelled, the courier change is mostly invisible.

Usually one of three reasons: the address could not be matched to a unit, nobody was home and the reschedule failed, or the parcel is waiting at a collection point for a signature. Check that the mobile number on the booking is a working local one — an overseas number is the single most common cause of a stuck reschedule.

Generally no. Forwarders and carriers appoint last-mile partners based on volume, postcode and service level, and those arrangements change — as this Ceva and Paack news shows. What you can control is consolidation, packing quality and accurate delivery details, which reduce your dependence on any single courier performing perfectly.

Ship one consolidated carton instead of several loose parcels, use the full address including block, street, unit number and six-digit postal code, add a local mobile number, and note any concierge or lobby instructions clearly. If you are rarely home, choose a delivery arrangement that works around your schedule rather than hoping the timing lines up.

Get an honest number for your route before you ship — book a quick chat with our team at https://cal.ebaoguo.com/ and we will map out the simplest way to get your parcels home.