ONE (Ocean Network Express Pte Ltd), a global container shipping company, jointly owned by Japanese shipping companies Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and K Line, has become the first mainline ship operator to adopt the electronic delivery order (eDO) via the government’s Port Community System called PCS1x.
This is the strongest endorsement yet that digitisation was gaining popularity among service providers in the export-import chain. Masaki Osawa, managing director, ONE India said: “We continue to strengthen on business processes with customers through increased standardisation and digitisation to improve customer service quality and promote ecommerce”.
ONE is a member of THE Alliance, one of the three major global shipping alliances, with a fleet of over 250 vessels and having presence in all trade lanes.
“This initiative will significantly improve efficiency while also taking Indian logistics closer to becoming a paperless regime,” said Janardhana Rao, Managing Director, Indian Ports Association (IPA), which launched a value-added Electronic Delivery Order (eDO) facility on its cloud-based new generation Port Community System, in association with technology partner Portall Infosystems, an arm of logistics conglomerate J M Baxi Group. IPA is an autonomous body attached to the union shipping ministry which owns and manages the PCS1x.
Remote management
All eDOs of ONE India will, henceforth, be released directly via PCS1x through application programming interface (API) for ships calling at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and their respective container freight stations (CFS) and inland container depot (ICD). It will be extended to other ports such as Kolkata, Mundra, Pipavav, Hazira, Goa, Mangalore, Kattupalli and Krishnapatnam.
The API integration assists remote working by reducing human interaction, minimising the exchange of hardcopy documents for verification, reducing data loss and the time lag from one system to the other, making document processing and exchanges fully-automated and real-time.
With the roll-out of the service, ONE India customers will save time and money in clearing cargo and speed up delivery order extension and the empty offload processes. Field agents of importers and customs brokers need not wait at line offices.
The eDO on PCS1x is a free module to perform all eDO-related activities including e-invoice and e-payments for which IPA and the shipping ministry has drafted a detailed standard operating procedure, with highly secured data interchange between the requester and provider. Stakeholders can now request for and view invoices, make payments and secure eDO on PCS1x itself or via other service partners.
Source:- The Hindu Business Line
