APM Terminals Inland Service’s Inland Container Depot in Dadri pioneers service & infrastructure for trade in North India
APM Terminals Inland Service’s Inland Container Depot in Dadri, which is a joint venture with CONCOR, is not just strategically located, but also boasts of modern technology that adds convenience to trade.
It’s a known fact that India is a country flanked by water in the south, but has no coastline up north. North India has huge trade potential with multiple trade centers spread across key cities like Panipat, Sonepat, Ghaziabad, Sahibabad, Greater Noida, Meerut, Moradabad, Aligarh, Agra, Faridabad, Palwal and Delhi amongst others; and these need to be serviced well to ensure growth. Earlier, in the absence of a strategically located dry port in the northern hinterland, combined with lack of proper infrastructure and quality services, there was huge dependency on ports in Mumbai and Gujarat - adding to congestion, inefficiencies, and unease of doing business.
The first private sector Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Dadri In a scenario like this, APM Terminals Inland Services, South Asia, in the year 2004, was the first private sector company to set up an ICD in Dadri. This ICD was set up as a joint venture between APM Terminals India Pvt. Ltd. and Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), and is known as Star Track Terminals Pvt Ltd. Dadri with its potential to serve the growing trade in the northern India region is strategic – both in terms of location, as well as the ability to help decongest ports elsewhere in the country.
Strategic geographic advantage of the facility Located as close as 250 mts from the CONCOR rail siding, APM Terminals Inland Services, South Asia’s ICD in Dadri ensures an unsurpassed strategic advantage for its customers. It is well connected through the national highways and state highways to Mundra, Pipavav and Nhava Sheva; and has the most balanced flow of containers on these routes. This helps them meet the demands of effective business solutions and services for industries spread across cargo origin and consumption centers in the north. This facility is poised to assume greater relevance and significance with Dadri slated to be the termination point of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) and being in close proximity to the intersection of Western and Eastern DFCs. The WDFC, once functional in 2018 -19, is expected to make the double stack cargo train advantage available to customers in and around Dadri.
State-of-the-art facility managed by best technologies Driven by its reputation for quality and expertise, APM Terminals Inland Services’ ICD in Dadri has pioneered innovations and new levels of operational excellence while ensuring adherence to global safety standards. Spread over approximately 68,000 sqmts of paved area and warehouse spanning 8,800 sqmts, equipped with modern infrastructure, processes and equipment, this is one of the most advanced facilities in North India. The facility has introduced various technologies like online tracking of containers, mobile tracking, token management kiosks (addressing some customs documentation and other formalities) and EDI connectivity. It was one of the first to introduce RFID technology for locating containers in the yard.
It is also one of the very few ICDs to have mezzanine flooring in the warehouse - supported by multiple lifts for cargo, staircases for people and articulated fork lifts for storage of palletized cargo in the bonded area.
Warehouse with the Mezzanine floor An integrated solution provider Solutions and services provided by APM Terminals Inland Services in Dadri include container and cargo handling/storage, empty and bonded depots, container life cycle management, warehousing, hazardous cargo handling, pre-trip inspection, customised garment on hanger (GOH) facilities, customs inspection facilitation, de-stuffing / stuffing, reefer monitoring and transportation.
In the last 12 years, they have, also served the industry through customer focused non-traditional solutions like open yard bonding, specialised storage rooms for GOH, GOH Mobile Rails, Warehouse bonding, LCL imports, Bonded long haul transportation (first mile and last mile) and export-on-wheel examination.
“We have persevered to partner with our customers to take their business and the trade in north India to new heights. Our best tools in this journey have been the team’s ability to understand customer’s needs, be proactive in finding better ways of doing things and ensuring global standards of operations and services at all times,” says Deepak Patidar, General Manager, Star Track Terminals Pvt. Ltd.
An enviable customer base and industry portfolio APM Terminals Inland Services boasts of a diverse mix of leaders in shipping (almost all shipping lines), freight forwarding, NVOCCs and end customers. This is made possible through their expertise in dealing in a wide range of cargo including metal scrap, waste, electronics, auto parts, news print, chemicals, garments, made ups, handicrafts, carpets, sports goods, glass and iron articles, poly films, polyester. The list seems endless. They help enable trade between the hinterland in north India and countries across the globe like US, Europe, Canada, Russia and Far East.
Innovation: Open Yard Bonding Apart from being the first private sector operator, it has quite some other firsts to its credit. The team at APM Terminals Inland Services, in pursuit of providing cost effective ways of doing business, pioneered and introduced the concept of Open Yard Bonding four years back; and till date is the only ICD in Dadri to provide this facility.
Under this arrangement, the customers are provided with storage in containers which relieves them of various costs including liner container detention and duty deferment, while providing the convenience of timing deliveries as per their requirements. Brainstorming sessions, customer feedback, design and development are what preceded the launch of this innovative concept. Today, APM Terminals Inland Services boasts of an Open Yard Bonding clientele including leaders in categories like chemicals, electronics and auto parts.
“Open Yard Bonding at APM Terminals Inland Service’s ICD in Dadri is a unique concept, a major breakthrough and a much needed solution for the trade in today’s highly complex logistics world. This facility offered by APM Terminals Inland Services doesn’t just help our business avoid exorbitant detention costs, but also offers flexibility in order processing and production scheduling along with deferment of duty payments. Appreciations to APM Terminals Inland Services’ Management Team for this pioneering initiative,” says Mehernosh Patel, Head Supply Chain Center – Indian Subcontinent, Covestro (India) Private Limited. Covestro is a world-leading manufacturer of high-tech polymer materials.
A boon for the apparel retail industry: innovation and exclusivity Multiple garment centers in the north, make Dadri the retail garment export-import hub. These garments, as a result of dust accumulation and wrinkling, specifically during cross docking at the warehouse, consolidation, and packaging, were generally spoilt and led to re-work for dust and ironing by the retailers; adding to the cost of handling coupled with lacklustre store sales.
Special and Customized Rooms for GOH-on-wheels in Warehouses APM Terminals Inland Services aimed to address this issue of care and safekeeping of garment consignments faced by the garment manufacturers, exporters and retailers. Their effort culminated into the introduction of specialized Garment on Hanger (GOH) services in Dadri along with some innovations. These services made a huge difference to various stakeholders in the region, catering to international apparel brands.
With an expert in-house GOH Fabrication function, the company designed a complete cross –docking solution for handling garments. It now offers all inclusive services for garments in the supply chain including customized fabrication of containers, dedicated and customized warehouse infrastructure, and mobile GOH rails, to ensure dust and wrinkle free ‘Just-in-Shop’ delivery.
While today, many other vendors provide GOH services, what makes APM Terminals Inland Services stand out, is the excellence in execution, high standards of quality and attention to detail delivered by their team. Also, specialized GOH Room is a feature no competitor in the market has been able to replicate, making them the sole provider of this service.
Jeena & Company, the largest Indian freight forwarder in the global market, extensively uses their GOH services. As Cyrus Katgara, Partner Jeena and Co puts it, “Experts in the Garment on Hanger segment, APM Terminals Inland Services, South Asia has infused innovation and operational efficiencies and radically changed the way the garment/ apparel industry works when it comes to logistics and supply chain. They are our most reliable and preferred partner who meet the standards of service delivery laid by the global leaders in apparel industry like George, Sainsbury's, Monsoon and so on.”
Where operational excellence and safety go hand-in-hand What makes APM Terminals Inland Services’ innovations and customer centric solutions viable, sustainable, and successful, is its unwavering focus on operational excellence whilst ensuring safety.
Concepts like Lean, Six sigma and Kaizen are woven into their operations tapestry and define business processes and procedures. Safety, enhanced operational efficiencies, and lower turn-around-time (TAT) are the key buzzwords that guide all actions. Safety is an integral part of everything they do and has led them to pioneering innovations. Guided by the motto of man-machine separation in the yard and thereby avoid any accidents or incidents, a designated, barricaded space for examination and de-stuffing of containers has been created. This innovative concept ensures safety and enhanced efficiencies in the yard during the customs examination and de-stuffing activities. APM Terminals Inland Services is the only company to have introduced this practice in the Dadri market.
Their safety initiatives including, but not limited to emergency management systems, specialised hazardous cargo handling expertise, 24X7 CCTV surveillance, guidelines around personal protective equipment, and robust systems, ensure safety of people, cargo and containers.
On the operations front, introduction of RFID and its combined usage with customer kiosks has led to huge saving in time, effort and costs for its stakeholders. With great TATs for truck trailers and a smooth flow of business, they are one of the most efficient ICDs around.
That explains the steady, diverse and a wide portfolio of customers who patronise APM Terminals Inland Services.
Customer centricity at its core The organisation believes in constantly connecting with its customers and taking feedback through Annual Customer Satisfaction Surveys to identify opportunities to better serve its customers and further improve its offerings. The team is constantly looking for ways to enhance customer experience and ease of doing business. That explains various pioneering initiatives and innovations introduced.
Their customers value and appreciate the team’s strict, time-based approach in responding to queries. In addition, transparency, ethical standards and compliance are all pervasive ensuring a fair dealing and experience for the customers. Also, drawing from the global lineage of the APM Terminals group, they follow global best practices, ensuring local customers receive a global experience.
"Dadri has always been a critical link for trade, especially in north India. We understand the significance of this market, and that has driven our strategy in Dadri – the first private sector ICD in Dadri. We continue to be committed to delivering the benefits of safety, enhanced operational efficiencies, ethics, and transparency to our ever expanding customer base in Dadri,” says Ajit Venkataraman, Managing Director, APM Terminals India Pvt. Ltd.
Opening Image: Containers arriving at CONCOR Rail siding in Dadri for being taken to the APM Terminals Inland Services’ Dadri ICD
