What is the difference between 1PL, 2PL, 3PL, 4PL, and 5PL?

What is the difference between 1PL, 2PL, 3PL, 4PL, and 5PL?

"Known as a massive chain network, logistics is a detailed organization responsible for carrying out various delivery and shipment related operations. Whenever you buy a product from an online store these logistics are the ones, that takes care of your shipment and makes sure you get the right product in your hand. The rise of e-commerce has made a significant contribution in a world economy and so did these logistics. Without logistics, a concept of e-commerce could have never been possible to be implemented. This blog explains different types of logistics available like 1PL 2PL 3PL 4PL 5PL and how they are unique in their own way.

1PL: 1st Party Logistics

The 1st party logistics to referred to a firm or individual, that has their own cargo, freight and can transport goods and merchandise from one point to another point. They are the specifically the consigner of different goods and products and organizes the transport of products to their respective destinations. It mainly consists of two parties that get benefit from the transaction. The manufacturer or the supplier and the person buying it. There are no other middlemen involved in the whole process.

2PL: Second Party Logistics 

A 2nd party logistics involves transport of goods from a particular transport area of the supply chain like rail, road, sea or air. They are the asset-based carriers and includes like transport using ships of own lease and airlines that they are contracted with. They are mainly used for international transportation of heavy and wholesale goods and for trading purpose as well.

3PL: 3rd Party Logistics

A 3rd party logistics is a supply chain that primarily concerns the transportation and delivery of different products but also includes various types of additional services as well. The functions of 3PL include warehousing, terminal operations, customs brokerage, supply chain management and many more. It also includes logistics IT software products and analysis services, for tracking and tracing the delivery status of different products. These 3rd party logistics delivers all the above-mentioned services and also manages various obstacles that come in the way. They specialize in domestic and offshore warehousing and also takes care of your other supply chain management systems.

4PL: 4th Party Logistics

Among the 1PL 2PL 3Pl 4PL and 5PL, the 4th party logistics is a new concept which is coming into the market, and it involves employing an overseer for managing an entire supply chain of a company. These logistics are often called Lead Logistics provider and they are often treated as a consulting company for many supply chains. They act as a head administrator and takes care of every aspect of these supply chain companies.

They are frequently contracted with many 3rd party logistics and for maintaining neutral management and for providing feedback regarding various 3pl logistics services. With increased efficiency 4pl is becoming the next big thing in the logistics sector. They provide a single invoice solution and streamlines logistic work like no other.

5PL: 5th Party Logistics

A fifth party logistics provider is also known as a logistics aggregator. They will aggregate the demands of the 3PL and others into bulk volume for getting better rates with different types of airlines and shipping companies. This type of logistics is not asset based. It usually works seamlessly across all disciplines.

Advantages of 3rd Party Logistics

Out of 1PL 2PL 3PL 4PL 5PL, the 3rd Party Logistics is the most convenient and well known logistic service in India. They provide more than just shipping and delivery, and some of the major points are listed down below.

It is Cost Effective : 3pl has been ruling the logistics sector for quite a time now, and it has been seen that people who make contracts with third-party firms always saves money on an overall basis. Not only that, but these logistics also meet the technical requirements of the clients. Their expertise is extremely superior that deals with delivery and product shipment on a much affordable cost and totally maintain the time boundary. These logistics not only reduce product return requests but also helps in reducing inventory costs as well.

There is an extremely low capital commitment  : These logistics doesn’t make you trade a fortune while you come on the deal with them. If a company wants to outsource their logistics to a third party firm, then they don’t need to worry about maintaining and managing an inventory. This not only saves money but also reduces capital commitment. These 3pls have their own management and transport systems which reduces the overall maintenance cost. Not only these logistics take care of warehousing, transportation, but also takes care of other operations more efficiently and with more knowledge than the client himself. All these services come under an extremely viable price and allow you to sit and relax while they take care of everything for you.

You can focus on other important work : Giving your logistics responsibility to a 3rd party reduces a great amount of a headache. There is no hassle and chaos of taking care of every step necessary for delivering a product. You focus on other important works while this 3rd party does everything for you.

India is growing and the future of logistics is predicted to be extremely bright. These different logistic services are not only bridging the gap between seller and customer but are also proving that the world is really small and all it takes is a little management to connect people all across the world.

Keep on trucking without driver cabins : Autonomous Trucks without Driver Cabins

Volvo Trucks' Ver has received its first assignment

What would trucks look like if they didn't need to accommodate a human driver? Volvo Trucks' Vera vehicle is an exploration of this idea, doing away with the cabin entirely so it can more efficiently tow goods around ports and factories. The freewheeling four-wheeler has just been assigned its first task, and will soon go to work delivering containers to a port terminal in Sweden.

Revealed in September last year, the autonomous Vera is powered by the same drivetrain and battery packs found in Volvo's electric trucks. It is, however, more electric sled than electric big rig, consisting of four-wheels and a low-profile body that can be latched onto by standard load carriers and trailers.

The thinking is that one day fleets of connected Veras can scurry around ports, factories and other facilities with large loads on the back. Communicating with one another via a control center over the cloud, this could optimize traffic flow, keep operations running smoothly and minimize waiting times. Volvo Trucks is now set to see how well this works in practice, with Vera receiving its first assignment towing containers from a logistics center in Gothenburg, Sweden, to a nearby port terminal for distribution around the world. The pilot is a collaboration with logistics company DFDS, and will involve short strips with speeds limited to 40 km/h (25 mph).

Industries are looking to streamline transport assignments and make them more sustainable, therefore considering self-driving vehicles. mines and large closed construction sites are examples of environments that are favorable for these type of vehicles since they are well-controlled locations. the scania AXL is perfect for this as it is steered and monitored by an intelligent control environment. in mines, for example, the autonomous operations are facilitated by a logistics system that tells the vehicle how it should perform.

The Dawn Of Low-Carbon Shipping

The Dawn Of Low-Carbon Shipping

Container ships and other maritime vessels currently run on pollutant-intensive heavy fuel oil. The world's largest container-shipping company, Maersk, has promised to make its operations zero carbon by 2050. Doing so will require using new fuels such as hydrogen.

The Enormous Growth of Global Shipping Industry ! @what Cost?

The global shipping industry is enormous — thousands of ships carry billions of dollars of goods each year across nearly every ocean on the planet.

Those ships run mostly on a particularly dirty type of fuel known as heavy fuel oil, or bunker fuel. It's thick and sooty, and when it burns, it emits sulfur and particulate matter that can cause respiratory illness. It also emits greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, which trap heat in the atmosphere and cause global warming.

"If shipping was a country, it would be the sixth-largest polluter in the world," says Nerijus Poskus of the shipping technology company Flexport. "About 3% of global emissions are released by ocean freight shipping."

The industry is growing so steadily, he says, that it's projected to produce more than 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury if ships continue to burn the same fuel, which is a real possibility considering that most cargo ships are designed to last at least 30 years.

Maritime shipping vessels like this coal-carrying ship are powered by enormous engines that burn thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil every day when they're at sea.

Yet there are signs that the status quo is changing and that a new fuel could make cargo ships among the cleanest transportation methods on Earth.

The international body that helps create global shipping regulations has clamped down on emissions of some air-polluting substances when ships are in or near ports. The new regulations, which started going into effect in 2012 and which decrease limits dramatically in January 2020, require ships to significantly cut the amount of sulfur pollution they emit when they're near land. For the U.S., the regulations apply anywhere within 200 miles of its coastline.

The easiest way to comply with the new regulations is to burn a different, less pollution-intensive type of diesel fuel.

The fuel oil that ships burn produces air pollution, greenhouse gases and waste sludge. The crew of the Premiership, a bulk vessel owned by Seanergy Maritime, collects the sludge in 55-gallon drums on board.

Additional increasingly stringent emissions standards are planned for the next two decades. The largest container-shipping company in the world, Maersk, announced in 2018 that it intends to make its operations carbon free by 2050, though it's still unclear how the company would achieve that goal.

Old technology, new economy

The search for a cleaner, more climate-friendly maritime shipping fuel has turned up two real possibilities: liquefied natural gas and hydrogen.

Research at the U.S. Energy Department's Sandia National Laboratories suggests that of the two, hydrogen is the most promising.

Using hydrogen to generate electricity is very clean. Hydrogen fuel cells combine hydrogen with oxygen and create electricity and water. The electricity can be used to turn a propeller, for example. The exhaust from fuel cells is moist air — with no greenhouse gases.

"There's been a lot of interest in putting hydrogen fuel cells on boats," says Leonard Klebanoff, a researcher at Sandia. Around 2014, he and his then-research partner, Joe Pratt, started systematically analyzing whether current ships could be retrofitted to run using hydrogen fuel cells instead of fossil fuels.

Pratt says the project started when a San Francisco Bay ferry operator asked the Energy Department whether it was possible to switch his fleet over to hydrogen power. Although hydrogen fuel cell technology has existed for decades, at the time no one in the U.S. had ever analyzed whether fuel cells could be used to power the world's shipping fleet.

The answer, they found, was yes.

The main issue was about size. For each unit of energy, liquid hydrogen is about four times larger by volume than conventional diesel, so many engineers worried that it might not be possible to fit enough fuel onto ships. Liquefied natural gas has a similar size problem and doesn't come with the zero-carbon benefits of hydrogen.

But "the efficiency of a fuel cell is about twice as much as a diesel engine," Klebanoff says, "[so] you end up needing only about twice as much volume for the same endurance." And the gigantic internal combustion engines that currently take up lots of space on ships would be unnecessary on a vessel powered by hydrogen.

When they analyzed the entire system, Klebanoff and Pratt found that it would be possible to retrofit most types of existing vessels to run on hydrogen and even easier to construct a new ship powered by fuel cells.

"The technology is all here," Pratt says. "There's no reason why we couldn't make all these vessels zero emission today."

In 2018, Pratt left Sandia to prove it. He co-founded a company called Golden Gate Zero Emission Marine, drew up detailed construction plans for a hydrogen-powered ferry and persuaded the state of California to contribute $3 million to fund a pilot project.

The ship's exhaust will be moist air, devoid of sulfur, soot and greenhouse gases. In fact, the drinking fountains on the ferry will feature water recycled from the exhaust system.

When the ship — it's a passenger ferry — is finished this fall, it will be the first hydrogen-powered vessel to operate in the United States. It will be used to carry passengers across the San Francisco Bay and for tours of the area, and a Sandia National Laboratories team will study the vessel's performance.

Hydrogen vessels in use by 2030?

The quest to prove that hydrogen-powered vessels are viable is also underway in Europe. Hydrogen-powered vessels are under construction in Norway and France, also funded in part with public dollars.

But Pratt sees signs that a commercial market for such vessels exists. He says that since his company formed, it has been contacted almost continuously by ship operators wanting to know more about hydrogen vessels. "It's not just a few lab scientists thinking about it," he says. "There are people out there who want it."

Even so, Poskus says, it will be another decade before the shipping industry could begin to adopt hydrogen fuel cells. And, until there is more demand for fuel cell technology, hydrogen fuel will remain significantly more expensive than other, more polluting, shipping fuels.

"Technology is being tested. It's promising. I do think once it proves that it actually works, by 2025-plus, people will start ordering [new ships]," he says. "It takes three to five years to build a ship, so maybe by 2030 we will start seeing hydrogen ships."

SAP and Uber Freight Join Forces to Deliver On-Demand Logistics Through the Power of Networks

Uber Freight and Cloud software market leaders SAP have announced a partnership to modernize the freight industry through intelligent process automation and increase supply chain efficiencies.

Advantage Customer

The integration of Uber Freight into SAP Logistics Business Network will let customers access transportation rates from Uber’s digitally activated carrier network and gain real-time quotes and guaranteed freight capacity, greatly simplifying load management and execution.

“Finding and booking freight can be the most expensive and often the most complex piece of the supply chain,” said Hala Zeine, president, SAP Digital Supply Chain. “This combined solution will remove roadblocks and offers a simpler, more automated approach that streamlines operations, delivers tangible cost savings and ultimately creates a better customer experience. Adding Uber Freight to our SAP Logistics Business Network will help our customers optimize their logistics and put their customers at the heart of their digital supply chain.”

SAP Logistics Business Network, built on SAP Cloud Platform and the SAP HANA business data platform, expands transportation management to enable shippers, freight forwarders, carriers and other logistics partners to easily onboard, collaborate, exchange logistics information and share insights. With this industry-first Uber Freight integration, shippers and carriers can work together using innovative tools that bypass traditional roadblocks, enabling shippers to select from a much broader carrier base and perform real-time pricing of shipments, while gaining improved utilization and efficiency.

“For the world’s biggest shippers, an efficient, digitalized supply chain is critical to their success,” said Bill Driegert, senior director, Uber Freight. “Uber Freight is partnering with SAP to bring shippers and carriers together at the level where freight decisions are being made. This innovative tech-forward approach to freight means shippers can spend less time sourcing quotes and capacity and more time getting goods to market.”

The Value of a Networked Approach

With this partnership SAP and Uber Freight will work to connect both sides of the freight marketplace, increasing visibility and transparency for all players. These efforts will support easier and faster decision-making based on real-time pricing for shippers and carriers, empowering organizations to maximize daily work time and make more informed decisions about their operations.

A networked approach can also help minimize unloaded mileage, reducing costs and carbon footprint. Uber Freight provides a highly available, dense carrier network that shippers can access directly through SAP Logistics Business Network. Shippers can gain access to capacity by unlocking a larger ecosystem of drivers, and carriers and drivers gain the ability to see and choose loads that fit their business and schedule. This improves utilization, reduces time to plan and minimizes costs at all levels of shipping operations.

An Environmental Advantage

Current entrenched inefficiencies in the supply chain can lead to waste. Every year, underutilized trucks generate 200 million tons of emissions. By leveraging technology to change the freight planning process and better utilize capacity, the industry can make a positive impact toward environmental sustainability.

Source: https://news.sap.com/

The Future Of Logistics is GREEN In India

In today’s world, it has become important for both individuals and companies to work to do their bit for preserving the environment. Worldwide, there is focus and attention to, along with widespread awareness of the impact on our world. There is an increased enlightenment and realization that we each must do our bit to contribute to helping the environment and reducing the negative impact to it. One of the ways of doing this is reducing carbon footprint, which is reducing the amount of air pollution largely contributed to by CO2e (Carbon Dioxide) emissions into the atmosphere. This is something that had been largely ignored in the past, but cannot be ignored any longer, with the impact of global warming and other deadly environmental factors such as air pollution, looming large. 

With Delhi/NCR having been found to have deadly PM2.5 levels that are 10 times higher than the safety limit prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and four times higher than even the Indian safety limits in a recent air monitoring survey, our first initiative has been piloted in the National Capital Region (NCR). 

Green is not just another catchword

The term ‘Green’ was just a catchword for organizations and individuals to highlight their methodologies to protect the environment. The tide slowly turned to pave the way for the ‘Go green’ initiative, which became a global phenomenon when people started associating it with every business; logistics being no exception. 

A proven source of carbon emissions, conventional transport vehicles constitute to nearly 30 per cent of particulate pollution in metro cities. Having a negative impact on the local air quality, transportation of goods also generates noise pollution, leads to accidents and, in totality, makes a high-magnitude input to global warming. Being a major contributor to environment degradation, it became essential for logistics units to follow sustainable practices for their business. 

Adhering to these situations, an increased concern for the ecosystem has been observed among the public and government entities. This increased consideration towards nature has also led to an excessive amount of pressure on Indian business firms to decrease the environmental impact of their logistics operation.

DOT or ‘Go With DOT’ was founded to provide eco-friendly and sustainable solutions for the logistical needs of individuals and organizations. It offers first and last mile delivery services using its fleet of e-cargo vans and electric bikes.

E- Mobility is Green Mobility  : a sustainable alternatives

The concept of e-mobility is sustainable and can mitigate the problems of air pollution. Among a few players in India, a Delhi based startup DOT is a pioneer in providing environment-friendly and sustainable solutions for logistical needs of individuals and organizations through the concept of green mobility. “The purpose of DOT is to assess how sustainable urban mobility can achieve zero emissions with effective customised mobility solutions,” says Pratik Dasgupta, COO DOT. The services of ‘DOT’ are focussed around creating an eco-system that is electric, safe, cost-effective, sustainable and eco-friendly. When DOT started in 2015, it was observed that there was a gap in mass transit modes; So DOT started E-Bike Taxis for the passengers traveling via mass transit modes like metros and buses, offering them to and fro transportation to their workplaces. “During the lean periods, the same E-bikes were used for delivering packages, which were cost-effective as compared to the conventional existing modes of logistics,” says Pratik.

British bread firm Hovis, has introduced all-electric vehicles to its fleet for deliveries up and down the country.

Need of the hour: Green Logistics

Countering the impact of traditional logistics practices, Green logistics attempts to measure and minimize the ecological impacts of logistics activities. It encompasses a wide variety of sub- sectors viz. warehousing, transportations, packaging, distribution and disposal. 

Catering to these benefits, there are firms in India focusing on transportation through environment friendly and sustainable logistics solutions with their green and emission free vehicles thereby contributing towards cleaner environment. Gaining a steady pace, following the path of green mobility services is becoming a common practice amongst various firms in the country.

Corporates and individuals are shifting towards using green and environment friendly logistics services with sustainable development goals. However government’s intervention by laying down regulations and enforcing them is still vital. Corporates also need to support such green initiatives and other firms following suit, not just for their own carbon foot print but caring about the environment while they economize on their logistics costs over all. 

As adoption requires capital and it can only come when companies do realize that this over all impacts their carbon foot print care to environment and customers while sincerely incentivizing initiatives so they can grow and plough back earnings into more research and product development. Electric vehicle owners can use solar or renewable sources and can be given incentives from the government to sell energy back to the grid at peak times.

Though now large corporates are extensively partnering to push for sustainable business practices with twin-fold objective of cutting down costs and contributing their share to the Environment, going green has still not become an advantage for Indian logistics industry due to consumer indifference. In other words, not all the logistics firms have realized the compatibility of green logistics with their mainstream services. 

But with the constantly changing scenarios, the time is not far when both consumers and entrepreneurs will become accustomed to green logistics practices and will implement them in full swing which will further lead to the booming of Indian logistics sector while maintaining the originality of our environment.

How the global economy will shape shipping

We have had one of the most dramatic March month in our lifetime. The Brexit discussions, critical US – China trade talks, Venezuela in total chaos, a nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan and Kim Jong-un readying more nuclear weapons ... these are a some of the few matters keeping at least some of us up at night!

Uncertainty is bad news

Uncertainty will reduce growth for the global economy and by extension for most shipping sectors. I do not see a recession, just a protracted period of slower growth.

The world is more worried about growing protectionism around the world than the slowing Chinese economy. We are genuinely concerned about the weakening Chinese economy – and you should be too. Fact: there are 65m empty apartments across China. 65,000,000 unsold properties! You wonder how banks can survive such a catastrophe. In a way you could argue the US actually now holds the whip hand in the ongoing trade talks. Also, the US economy is getting overheated with the lowest unemployment in 100 years .

The problem for the world economy and by extension shipping is that there is no country that can replicate what China did since the dawn of the millennium in terms of growth. Hopes that India might replicate such a stunning economic transformation are misplaced.

Europe and Brexit

Back in Europe, meanwhile, once Brussels has finally resolved its Brexit discussions, EU-US trade talks are fast approaching and these two have been at each other’s throats in recent months. And Europe might now have to pay for the bad way they have treated US imports for many years.

Boxship sizes have plateaued 

All of which leads me to agree with comments made by Søren Skou, the CEO of AP Moller-Maersk, earlier this month, suggesting that boxship sizes have plateaued finally.

We have surely reached a limit on boxship sizes as there is now very limited benefit of adding another 1,000 teu in size while growth for liners going forward will increasingly come from local and regional trades rather than the main east-west trades. And then there’s the threat posed by 3D printing, but maybe that’s a whole other column for another time.

With a DWT (deadweight tonnage) of 191,317 metric tons, the OOCL Hong Kong has a cargo capacity of 21,413 TEU, making it the world's largest container ship.

Like the liner trades, the current woes facing the global economy would suggest dry bulk’s travails could be extended for quite some time. Indeed, the only areas set to profit from all that is going on are in energy transport.

What’s bad for the world is good for the tanker market:  Changing oil patterns are going to work out just great for tankers with growing ton-miles!

Bright future for Clean energy shipping

We can expect a very bright future for those involved in clean energy shipping such as LNG and hydrogen – a bright spot to end!

Unlike power plants and automobiles, cargo ships don’t face any restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions or mandates for clean energy, at least for now. And more fuel-burning ships are expected to make more deliveries as global demand for consumer goods grows. Shipping and aviation officials have argued that their industries are too complex to comply with carbon regulations. That rationale helped exclude ships and planes from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which commits nearly 200 nations to limiting global warming

OMG! BLANK SAILINGS ! Blank sailings explained and what you need to do?

As we head into a traditional off-peak season, carriers are announcing blank sailings that will impact services for shippers,

According to the loadstar, a number of blank sailings are being introduced by carriers over the next few weeks, as early indications suggest that post Chinese New Year volumes will be lower than originally expected.

The 2M Alliance have announced that the Feb/Mar loops of the MSC Eloane and Estelle Maersk will be withdrawn, while other carriers are expected to follow suit.

Blank sailings are scheduled journeys that are cancelled for one loop, or that skip one or more ports, due to low volume or to enable a vessel that is running late to catch up. Blank sailings are not uncommon around Chinese New Year as export production comes to a standstill during the period.

While volumes are expected to be slow in the next couple of weeks, there is more capacity being introduced between Asia and Europe shortly.  The Ocean Alliance, The Alliance and HMM are collectively adding around 28,000 TEU through upsizing to new vessels during April.

What is a blank sailing?

A blank sailing is when a carrier cancels a particular sailing for a vessel. Vessels call a specific set of ports in a “string” on a regular basis. For example, a string may have 6 vessels that rotate through calling Shanghai every Monday and then heading on to Ningbo and Los Angeles before returning back to Shanghai. These vessels run regularly in this loop to ensure consistency in transit time and supply on trade lanes.

When carriers announce blank sailings, this means that a vessel on that string will be pulled out of the loop for a week, resulting in a skipped week of service. Carriers can either plan to roll all cargo to the next vessel for that string or load containers onto other strings servicing the same ports during the week of the blank sailing. Either way, in the short-term, global supply has been reduced on that route.

Impact of Blank sailing

• Blank sailings may impact shipments in the following ways:
• Blank sailings will lead to tighter space on vessels. There will be higher demand for the remaining operating services, which could result in overbooking of active vessels. Overbookings can lead to rolled containers.
• As carriers adjust sailing schedules and cargo loading plans around blank sailings, shippers can expect there to be congestion at the ports.
• As carriers revise schedules and filter-in/out vessels, space release may be slower than usual as projecting the amount of space available on an upcoming vessel could be delayed (as a 12,000 TEU vessel could be coming online in lieu of a 15,000 TEU vessel).
• Blank sailings could lead to more uncertainty and volatility in the market

To mitigate issues and help with planning, shippers should:

• Book in advance & try to avoid last minute bookings:  Book three weeks before cargo ready date (CRD) to avoid space congestion with last minute bookings.
• Be flexible on routing. There might be blank sailings impacting your usual routing through LA to Columbus, consider routing via Canada or the USEC for a few weeks.
• Work proactively with your supplier to make sure they’re also prepared for fewer sailings–shifting CRDs could result in more delays than normal as there could be fewer overall options 

Maersk to start using Ganga National Waterway-1

Maersk to start using Ganga National Waterway-1

 For the first time in Independent India, container vessel movement has begun on the Ganga river. PepsiCo is moving 16 containers from Kolkata to Varanasi on vessel MV RN Tagore, over river Ganga. The development has been hailed as a huge potential for inland waterways.

The world's largest container shipping company Maersk Line will on Tuesday move 16 containers on the Ganga river from Varanasi to Kolkata, the Shipping Ministry said on 12/02/2019 "

Maersk Line will move 16 containers on river Ganga (National Waterway-1) from Varanasi to Kolkata tomorrow. The firm is onboard India's inland waterways for the first time," the ministry said in a statement.

On November 12, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated India's first riverine multimodal terminal on river Ganga (National Waterway-1) at Varanasi to the nation.

The government is developing NW-1 under from Haldia to Varanasi with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank at an estimated cost of Rs 5,369 crore. Earlier firms like PepsiCo, Emami Agrotech, IFFCO Fertilizers, DaburNSE -0.03 % India, had moved their containers on river Ganga.

More info: 

 India’s first inland voyage by a container ship since it gained independence from Britain 70 years ago ended when the vessel docked in the holy city of Varanasi on 12th November 2o18. Officials hope that these developments will help shift cargo from the country’s congested road and rail networks.

The 1,390km (863 miles) Ganga watercourse is one of the 111 waterways spanning 20,276km that India is reviving or planning to build. The World Bank-assisted Ganga waterways project—costing Rs5,370 crore ($738 million)—will enable the commercial navigation of vessels and is set to be completed by 2023.

Transforming country’s waterways could be a game changer for India as it will reduce the cost of transportation—50% less than highways—as well as easing congestion on roads. The move is designed to encourage companies such as NTPC Ltd, India’s biggest power producer, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the nation’s largest carmaker, Fertilizer Corp. of India Ltd and Tata Chemicals Ltd to use waterways to move cargo from cement to cars.

Shifting to water-based cargo transport should have happened at least 15 years ago, said K. Murali, professor at the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts in the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. “Over time it will pick up steam to become more economical and more sought after mode for shifting cargo—there will be certain cargo which will have preference to move in waterways."

The vessel that sailed from Kolkata on 30 October was carrying food and snacks of PepsiCo Inc. in 16 containers, which is the equivalent of 16 truckloads. The Inland Waterways Authority of India vessel will make its return journey with fertilizers from Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd.

To promote inland waterways, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has started dredging channels, building terminals and adding barges and has now set about convincing companies to use them. Modi was in Varanasi—which is also his parliamentary constituency—to receive the vessel and inaugurate the new terminal.

Still, India need to overcome challenges including night-time navigation, maintaining consistent water levels and creating more infrastructure, said Murali. India’s first container cargo movement “will provide some momentum to the industry to boost commercial activities, social development and curb carbon footprints, among others", he said.

Modi’s administration also has plans to integrate coastal and inland waterways. His government has unveiled a $34 billion plan that aims to develop ports along India’s 7,500km coastline.

 The share of goods transported via India’s inland waterways is less than 1%, compared with 42% in the Netherlands, 8.7% in China and more than 8% in the US.

“Inland water navigation is an underutilized infrastructure in India," said D. Dhanuraj, chairman, Centre for Public Policy Research, Kochi. While the government is trying to change this situation, the development of inland waterways and port projects has been slow, because “challenges are very high".

India's JNPT amongst world’s top 30 container ports

Proud to share the positive news that the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has been listed amongst the top 30 container ports globally, as per the latest Lloyds Report. JNPT notched up five spots, to be 28th on the list, compared to its previous ranking.

“Various new processes activated under the ‘ease of doing business’ initiative have not only helped in overall growth of the port business, but also allowed the EXIM trade to save time and cost which in turn have accentuated the growth story. Gaining operational efficiency is an on-going process and looking for solutions to better services so that the EXIM trade community benefits from it,” said the Ministry of Shipping in a press release.

The JNPT also launched their App service to facilitate better tracking of consignment and ease the trade process for their EXIM partners. The App will allow traders to access all the relevant information about their consignment and port related updates regarding traffic and weather. It  will be available on Android and iOS.

JNPT is already on a major expansion drive, with some key projects like, project work on the mega 4th Terminal, developing a centralised Parking Plaza, improving the port connecting roads and widening of highways and development of coastal berth. The Port is also implementing, specific processes at the operational level to make it standardised and more efficient across terminals, among many other initiatives in the pipeline.

The state-run JNPT recorded a 7.24 per cent growth in both container and bulk cargo volumes during 2018 to 5.05 million TEU,  

JNPT volumes soar: Country's leading container port Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) said it handled over five million TEU of container traffic in 2018. 

In December 2018, JNPT handled 4.45 lakh TEUs, which is the highest container volume handled in a month, ever recorded, it said.

During AprilDecember 2018, the traffic handled so far is 3.81 million TEUs and with the last quarter of the financial year underway, JNPT is well on course to exceed the performance numbers of 2017-18

Elastic Logistics Explained

Businesses used “lean” practices to streamline processes while increasing value to customers. The goal was minimized waste, increased customer satisfaction, contained costs and continual improvement. These goals are still important but more unpredictable supply and demand, combined with the ever-increasing speed of business, require a different approach. That’s why Elastic Logistics is increasingly popular today. 

What is Elastic Logistics?

Elastic logistics is the flexibility to expand and reduce capabilities to accommodate changing demands within the supply chain. It’s the agility to handle sharply increased and decreased needs in production, warehousing and shipping while controlling costs, efficiency, visibility and customer experience. The ability to scale operations as needed without long-term investments is key to accomplishing this type of adaptability.

Elastic Logistics and Festive season

Elastic logistics is the ability of sourcing and logistics providers to expand and shrink their capabilities across geographies in response to market and demand fluctuations, changing consumer preferences, and socio-political changes.

During festivals or other special occasions, the normal supply-demand cycle of products goes for a toss. For example, during the Diwali season, e-commerce players and retailers face a sudden surge in demand. To cope up with this sudden burst of demand, companies often hire additional staff or add extra hours of work to the existing personnel. However, the number of personnel to be hired and the additional amount of deliveries in the extra hours are factors that are only estimated by supply chain managers based on their experience and intuition.

Even though the estimate can be correct for a typical day, the festive spike in demand means that there is a good chance of the predictions going haywire. In such a situation, a shortage of personnel can affect the delivery, and an overabundance of staff can lead to extra costs for the company.

Benefits

With the use of elastic logistics practices comes efficiency, control, visibility, customer satisfaction and the ability to scale quickly. Managing all incoming and outgoing deliveries through one dashboard increases efficiency. No need to toggle between multiple platforms. This also simplifies control of delivery operations and unexpected costs, regardless of the shipping method being used. Enhanced visibility makes it easy to keep track of all shipments. This simplifies warehouse planning for incoming freight and allows quick responses to customer order status requests. Elastic logistics automates the carrier selection and dispatch process based on preferences and goals. As a result it’s possible to quickly and efficiently scale shipping processes as needed. All this creates the ability to rapidly address issues as they arise, regardless of how the freight shipment is being transported.  It produces a superior customer experience and increases overall customer satisfaction. And that leads to customer retention, which is key to maintaining consistent business growth. 

How to make your logistics operations more "Elastic" ?

A great way to start making your logistics operations more “elastic” is to use a transportation management system (TMS) in your business. Additional automation in your warehouse may be appropriate to streamline the packing of orders, without increasing staffing, as demands fluctuate through the year. If additional warehousing is needed locally or in different regions during certain period, a third party is an excellent option. To avoid increasing a company-owned fleet to then experience a decreased demand, partnering with a third party is a great solution here as well. In the not-too-distant future, technological advancements will further enhance logistical elasticity. Things like advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT connectivity will come into play. Some of these trends are already becoming more common.

With today’s increasingly unpredictable demand fluctuations combined with the need to maintain excellent customer experiences, remaining elastic in logistics operations is more important than ever. An easy way to begin implementing these practices is by partnering with a third party logistics provider. This simplifies the transition by leveraging their resources and expertise to make your logistics operations more elastic.