APM Terminals Mumbai is reducing its container dwell times after vessel discharge by embracing a ‘Direct Port Delivery’ (DPD) service from the Indian government.
The DPD protocol aims to create substantial savings of time and money for importers as part of the country’s initiative to enhance its access to the global logistics chain.
APM Terminals Mumbai currently handles the highest DPD volumes at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, (JNP) India’s largest container port and accounted for 44% of all India’s containerised cargo traffic of 10 million TEUs in 2015.
Kamal Jain, APM Terminals Mumbai CEO, said: “We are committed to support ‘ease of doing business’ initiative the Government of India has championed. We were among the first terminal operators in India to offer DPD service in 2006 and since then have continued to support the reforms and initiatives of the Indian Ministry of Shipping and JNP, as well as the Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House.”
In the first two quarters of FY 2016-17, the number of Indian importers utilising the service at APM Terminals Mumbai tripled, with half of these being small and medium enterprises with less than 100 TEUs per month.
In the past, import containers were sent to Container Freight Stations (CFS) one to one-and-a-half days after arriving by vessel. With DPD, importers can bypass these through a streamlined procedure, allowing import containers to be delivered to the end user directly from the port with an average dwell time of only one-and-a-half days.
Ravi Gaitonde, APM Terminals Mumbai COO, said: “We have introduced several trade-friendly services ourselves as well to improve ease of doing business. This includes initiatives such as Paperless Transaction, delivery of import cargo within six hours of vessel discharge, RFID tracking, Inter-terminal transfer through virtual gates, integrated rail sidings and improved gate turnaround times. We are working closely with customers to introduce other new services as well.”
To enable greater efficiencies in the overall transportation and logistics supply chain, the Indian Central Board of Excise and Customs, merged the ‘Accredited Client Program’ with the recently introduced ‘Authorized Economic Operator’ program.
This resulted into extension of the DPD service to small and medium scale importers, who account for a significant portion of India’s world-leading GDP growth of 7.6% in 2016.
Containerised trade has expanded at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 10% over the past 10 years in India. It is projected to continue growing at a similar pace as India undertakes infrastructure expansion projects.
