The challenge
A shipping-line agency at JNPT and Mundra was handling 6,200 monthly container moves across two terminals. Vessel arrivals were notified to importers by manual email, often 2 days after berthing. Container release documents — DO, EIR, gate-pass, line invoice — were assembled by hand, taking 4 hours per container. Importers regularly slipped past their free days because nobody coordinated the document chain. Demurrage and detention bled Rs 38 lakh in client write-offs every quarter.
How we deployed
- Pulled vessel ETAs from carrier APIs and PSA terminal feeds — pushed berthing-confirmed alerts to importer WhatsApp the moment vessel docked.
- Built a release-document orchestrator that pulled DO, EIR and gate pass in parallel from carrier portals and stitched into one packet.
- Triggered a free-day countdown clock per container — sent T-3, T-1 and T-0 escalation alerts to client and internal CSM.
- Auto-flagged at-risk containers daily on a dashboard with SLA breach, expected demurrage exposure and recommended action.
- Auto-generated demurrage statements and client-share invoices via Zoho Books with full container-level audit trail.
What changed
- Saved Rs 3.4 crore in client demurrage and detention charges across 9 months.
- Release-document assembly compressed from 4 hours to 12 minutes per container.
- Free-day usage rate climbed 38 percentage points across the 6,200-container monthly base.
- Vessel-arrival notification lag dropped from 2 days to 90 seconds post-berthing.
- Two enterprise importers signed exclusive agency contracts on the back of the demurrage savings.
"Demurrage was eating our client relationships. Now the importer knows the moment the vessel docks and the documents are ready before they ask. We charge the same fee and they pay it happily."
— GM · Shipping Line Agency