Corruption has become endemic in India and is now a cancer in the body politic. Seen in this per-spective, Anna Hazare’s movement for a power-ful Jan Lokpal bill acquires totemic significance. The logistics industry suffers equally from cor-ruption and with Anna Hazare’s campaign hav-ing been transformed into a people’s movement, LW from this issue has embarked upon a cam-paign to highlight issues of corruption that logis-tics operators face while serving our companies and consumers across the length and breadth of the country.

According to a joint study report by TCI and IIM-C, the Indian trucking sector contrib-utes to about 4.5 percent of the GDP. But the performance of this sector has been severely constrained by the filling in of various gov-ernment forms, checking of vehicles and col-

Dear Readers,

We in the Indian industry are told that the license and the inspector raj is over, but as

paranoid as it sounds, I think it is far from over for people on the ground. The only transition we have seen is that the raj has moved from official into unofficial hands. Our transporters in Mumbai and elsewhere are justifiably incensed over the harassment meted out to them by the RTO officials, the toll naka staff and traffic cops for bribes. And it’s affecting even the end consumers. Prices of vegetables are going through the roof, and the bribes paid to these officials contribute a good measure to the inflated prices. By industry estimates, out of every `100 paid to the vegetable vendor, `2 to `3 go into the pockets of transport authorities as unofficial ‘tax’ money.

Spurred by the Anna Hazare movement and disgusted by the age-old malaise of corruption that plagues our transportation industry, LogisticsWeek has started a campaign from this issue, named, naturally, LW Against Corruption. Unfortunately, while trying to get viewpoints from the industry on this issue, not a single person in the logistics industry, outside the transporters’ community was willing to talk. If the industry is not able to speak up against its harassment, who will? Are we expecting someone like Anna to put his or her life on the line for us?

Your’s truly,Aanand PandeyEditor, LogisticsWeek

No other industry suffers like logistics that loses extortionate amounts of time and money in ‘unofficial’ payments to authorities.

Pamela CheemaMumbai

A Handicapped Goliath

InterfaceComplexity Is The Supply-ChainTAKE Solutions’ MD S Sridharan explains how its global solutions for Life-Sciences and SCM help its customers.

PAGE 3

Although Indian Railways has the largest transport network under single manage-ment, it is gross mis-management that is swallowing its potential.

`25logisticsweek.com

September 01–15, 2011

Logistics Worst Hit By Corruption

PAGE 2

lection of highway toll and taxes by RTO and the traffic police. Says Vineet Agar-wal, Joint MD, Group TCI: “Very often trucks run on tight schedules and de-spite the fact that they have all the documents, end up paying bribes to of-ficials to minimize

procedural formalities. Sample data from the Delhi-Chennai route show that delays constituted 10.43 percent of tran-sit time and unofficial payments were 19.4 percent of the total expenses on the road.”

Problems are further exacerbated by poor roads and innumerable check posts on highways which lead to an avoidable waste of time and spiraling costs. Sunil Kale, Honarary General Secretary, Bom-bay Goods Transport Association, is vocif-erous in his condemnation of corruption in the industry. “Truckers face the brunt

in every place. We have observed that there is no transparency when contracts are given to build highways. Con-tractors are allowed to recover their money by levying tolls in perpe-

tuity. What we want is transpar-ency in contracts, investigate the BOT contracts and give us amenities on the highways like parking places, food courts and police patrolling.”

Anshuman Basu, Regional Executive Director, Council of Supply Chain Management Pro-fessionals (CSCMP), feels strong-ly “that we should not be con-cerned with anything other than providing services in the most ethical way.”

For every section of soci-ety and industry to prosper, corruption must be rooted out and the Jan Lokpal bill could be the starting point for a long battle to safeguard our future.

Editor’s Note

Anna For Logistics

LW Against Corruption

(L-R) Aanand, Snehal, Pritha, Jayashree, Shiva, and Dinesh of LOG.India at the campaign against corruption at Azad Maidan, Mumbai.

“Data from the Delhi-Chennai route show that unofficial payments were 19.4 percent of the total expenses on the road.”

2 September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

A Handicapped Goliath

It is the largest transport net-work in the world under single management. It carries the maximum number of passen-gers in the world which is about four billion each year. It is one of the largest employers in the world with approximately 15.8 lakh employees.

It is the Indian Railways. Irrespective of the fact that

Indian Railways transports a large quantity of goods, the freight rates in India is higher when compared to other coun-tries like USA or UK. It ranks alongside rail systems in the US and Canada as a cash gen-erator though.

According to Amit Dhawan, General Manager, Sales and Marketing, Container Railroad Services Pvt. Ltd., “The primary reason for railway freight rates being so high in India is that the passenger fares are highly subsidized and in order to pull up the overall costs, the freight rates are increased.”

“The overall freight modal practices has taken a turn for the worse; from a point where rail was moving more than 60 per-

Pritha DeyMumbai

Although Indian Railways has the largest transport network under single management, it is mis-management that is swallowing the potential that Railways in India has.

cent of the overall freight in In-dia at the time of independence to the current freight share of 30 percent,” says Sajal Mittra, CEO, Arshiya Rail Infrastructure.

A high-ranking official at one of the first private companies to offer container rail services in India, on condition of anonym-ity, opines, “High manpower costs and a monopolistic regime where there is no competition are other reasons for the high freight rates.”

High And HigherMittra says, “Indian Railways is one of the biggest ministries in India and it has huge responsibil-ities towards various stakehold-ers of the country. Hence the ra-tionale behind the commercial policies such as freight rates for transportation as well as passen-gers is primarily based on the general national interest.”

The cross-subsidization re-sults in India having one of the lowest ratios of average passen-ger fare to average freight tariff in the world.

Road Vs Rail Freight RatesAccording to Indian Infrastruc-ture Logistics Directory and

Year Book 2010, the cost of coastal transporting is `0.35 per km per tonne; Rail is `1.25 per km per tonne; and Road is `3.50 per km per tonne.

Over time, road has become the dominant mode of trans-portation in India. “This domi-nance arises from decades of poor supporting infrastructure development on the rail, coast-al, pipeline and air transporta-tion side.” opines Mittra.

He adds, “Despite having one of the world’s largest rail networks, India’s share of car-go transported by rail has de-clined steadily.”

The reasons he cites are poor quality of service (including last mile access solutions) driven largely by the historic monop-oly of the government and the resultant overbearing focus on passenger services as well as massive investments in road highway projects over the past six decades that have helped po-sition roads as the most signifi-cant, even if suboptimal, means of transportation.

Freight FrightsHigh rail freight rates can be a deterrent. As Dhawan points out, “Only those businesses

Ministry of Railways is no dif-ferent. However the reason for such large scale issues cannot be bureaucracy alone. “We be-lieve the whole issue of increas-ing freight rates is fuelled by the multiple and conflicting roles and interests of the Rail-ways. These are bound to have negative repercussions on the trade, as the operators and the customers’ interests inevitably take a back seat. The only solu-tion to this would be to have an independent regulatory author-ity similar to the IRDA, SEBI etc. in place for the rail indus-try,” says Mittra.

Pros And ConsDhawan says, “I would say there are many advantages. Rail trans-portation is safer, delivery is assured and the number of ac-cidents is almost nil.”

Rail transport is environ-ment friendly also. But it has limitations. Rail is a infra heavy industry and requires immense investments to improve infra-structure. The urgent need to increase the network size, up-grade the existing infrastruc-ture by doubling tracks, track renewals, and, tracks electrifica-tion cannot be overlooked.

The issues of pilferage, spoil-age and spillage are also not unheard of. “In fact `35,000 crore worth of food produce is wasted each year in India on ac-count of poor logistics alone,” points out Mittra.

A single rake needs to have at least 2,500 tons of cargo be-fore it can move from a point of origin, which often serves as a hindrance. Moreover, presently the freight rates for light weight commodities are very high ren-dering it uneconomical to move lightweight cargo like automo-biles, white goods and FMCG products.

Roadways Or Railways?Although roadways has be-come the predominant mode of transport in India, a shift to a more economical and en-vironment friendly mode of transportation is the need of the hour.

To meet the growing de-mands of the increasing freight

who can incur the high costs would use railways to transport goods.”

Notwithstanding the fact, many customers choose rail-ways to transport their goods. For example, iron and steel manufacturers, metals and al-loys manufacturers, and freight forwarders generally tend to choose railways as their pri-orities are timely delivery, safe handling of cargo, complete end to end logistics activities, large scale evacuations; and not costs.

Currently Indian Railways itself is the biggest impedi-ment for customers who want to move their cargo by rail. Mit-tra explains, “Ideally the cost of moving cargo by IR owned wag-ons should be less expensive compared to road but then the movement is subject to various other inefficiencies.”

About 15 private container train operators (PCTOs) and CONCOR entered the rail space in 2006 to provide proficient services at pocket-friendly rates which was either at par or lower than the road rates. There was a resultant shift in cargo from road to rail.

But things are not the same. As Mittra elucidates, “Issues have cropped up and domestic PCTOs have taken a hit because of the highly restrictive and pro-tectionist policies of IR.”

He mentions that policies such as Rate Circulars RC 30 and RC 05 have notified 9 clas-sifications of commodities and increased the existing rates by over 100 percent.

The spokesperson says, “High freight rate is only one of the factors. Other factors are lesser frequency, non-avail-ability of wagons, unreliable service, poor condition of wag-ons, damages in transit, delay in settlement of claim, and poor customer service.”

Role Of BureaucracyBureaucracy has become an inseparable part of most gov-ernments and ministries. The

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

SeCtor Spotlight

Fluctuations in Railway FReight Rates

In May 2010, the then Railway Ministry said that freight rates for foodgrains would be reduced by `100 per wagon while leaving other freight rates largely unchanged, primarily to keep the spiraling food costs under control.

In December 2010, the then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee decid-ed to increase freight rates of a large number of commodities includ-ing sugar, salt, iron ore, steel and other products while keeping the rates for foodgrains and fertilizers unchanged.

India, the third biggest exporter of iron ore, had raised railway freight rates by `100 ($2.24) to `1,600 ($35.80) per ton from March 3, 2011.

Indian Railways had levied a “busy season charge” of seven percent on iron ore freight rates from April 1 to June 30, 2011; and will levy it again from October 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012.

Very recently, the proposal to align the freight and passenger fare with market prices was made by the Railway Minister to help in generation of resources needed for improving safety and quality of services.

cRoss-subsidization RatiosCountry USA CANADA FRANCE CHINA RUSSIA THAILAND GREECE INDIA

Ratio 9.28 6.63 1.5 1.2 1 0.7 0.4 0.3Source: Arshiya Rail Infrastructure

3September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

Legal Teams Assess Risks As Anti-Bribery Legislation Hits Global Supply ChainsCatherine Truel

When I recently asked a logistics professional for what he sees as the biggest barrier to trade, he re-plied ‘corruption’. It’s true that he is operating in a challenging trading environment; but while he said he could deal with imperfect infrastructure, low transport integration, complex regulations; cor-ruption was his biggest headache. It affects one of the most important elements in international trade: predictability.

In his opinion, foreign corporations are as guilty as government officials. In his country, to get an authorisation faster, businesses turn too quickly to cash incentives. Could global traders be suffering from a problem they help to create? Perhaps, but not for long: a wave of anti-bribery legislation is rising on the horizon.

In practice, there seems to be little awareness of anti-bribery legislation among global traders. That should quickly change as more countries implement and, more importantly, enforce anti-bribery laws.

In the meantime, legal teams in large corpora-tions are looking at their exposure to this risk. Glo-

bal supply chains are of particular interest with their large number of intermediaries: vendors, suppliers, carriers and agents, all potential risks.

It is likely that within the next few months, busi-nesses will initiate reviews of supply chain policies and procedures. As a result, some requirements relat-ing to anti-bribery might be appearing as a clause in contracts or a line on purchase orders.

Furthermore, these conventions are translated in domestic laws with substantial variations. This will create a challenge for companies with legal entities in different countries, as they will have to manage various requirements. Fortunately, adapting to mul-tiple norms, documents and standards is nothing ex-ceptional for global supply chains specialists.http://shrvl.com/g54pL

A New Form Of Supply Chain CollaborationSteve Banker

Cross functional collaboration has always been a central idea in supply chain management. Today, I will highlight a form of supply chain collaboration that is new to me: supply chain facility design and construction.

When it comes to product development, globaliza-

tion has led companies to engage in co-development projects with key suppliers.

Boeing uses a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution from Dassault Systemes as its worldwide col-laborative platform for product engineering across its core supply base. This allows for faster product devel-opment cycles because companies can work on their portion of the product at the same time instead of hav-ing to do sequential design and testing.

When most people think of R&D, they think of product design. There are other industries, however, where designing the manufacturing facility is tanta-mount to designing the product. You don’t design oil, for example, you design the oil refinery to process the oil. Oil & Gas, Chemicals, and Utilities are all examples of industries where facility design trumps product de-sign. The collaborative platform tools used in those in-dustries are Process Engineering Tools.

Cross-functional and cross-enterprise collaboration will remain at the core of supply chain management, and these concepts increasingly encompass a broader value network than what we have traditionally called “the supply chain.” And with the Internet, mobility, and advanced enterprise cloud applications continuing to march forward, we will continue to see new forms of collaboration. http://shrvl.com/8AS60

Anti-Bribery, Collaboration To Buoy Supply-Chain blogs, JouRnals, book Releases

“The Challenge Is The Complexity In The Supply-Chain”

What are the different kinds of solutions that you provide?TAKE Solutions specializes in de-livering high-impact products, solutions and services for effec-tive supply chain execution, col-laboration, and planning.

Our Enterprise Mobility and Auto-ID solutions speed up the entire supply-chain by remov-ing latency of information, and integrating product tracking and traceability into all manu-facturing processes and distri-bution touch-points. Gemini enables end-to-end solutions for automated data capture and paperless execution of busi-ness transactions on the shop floor and in the warehouses, compliance labelling, and RFID. RoutePro provides mobile sales and route delivery solutions

Pritha DeyMumbai

TAKE Solutions focuses on two principal areas – Life Sciences and SCM. Riding on its global capabilities, TAKE offers solutions for customers that leverage existing data and enable faster decision-making. S Sridharan, MD, TAKE Solutions explains the company’s core functions.

S SridharanManaging Director, TAKE Solutions

interfaCe

that not only help integrate selling, marketing and delivery efforts across the organization, but also improve our customer’s ability to merchandise and sell products profitability.

Our Trading Partner Collabo-ration solutions drive collab-orative commerce and supply chain execution. They address demand collaboration, purchas-ing collaboration, contract-manufacturing execution, ven-dor managed inventory, quality collaboration, e-invoicing & AP automation, and returns man-agement. OneSCM is a multi-enterprise B2B integration cloud providing a faster, simpler and cost effective way to connect to business partners and to au-tomate business processes. It enables companies to connect to a public ecosystem of trading-partners, and collaborate ‘in the cloud’ – using one platform

to connect to all of them – irre-spective of their IT expertise and technology environment. X.PC, on the other hand helps custom-ers leverage the power of their ERP by providing an integrated platform for communication, collaboration and enforcement for all trading partners.

Give us an idea of TAKE’s global presence.TAKE serves customers through 14 offices spread across eight countries – USA, India, UK, Sin-gapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Mus-cat, Kuwait.

What are the most recent technology solutions that you have come up with and how have they helped your clients?The most recent addition to business technology solu-tions is our cloud based value chain collaboration platform OneSCM.

OneSCM caters to the busi-ness needs of companies in a variety of verticals, including: oil & gas, industrial products, engineering and construction, aerospace and defence, and telecommunications. For buy-ing organizations, it provides

eProcurement, Vendor Label Compliance, as well as ship-ment controls and package tracking solutions. Organiza-tions supplying goods and ser-vices use its Order Acquisition and Acknowledgement, Deliv-ery Confirmation, Invoice Sub-mission, Payment Visibility, and Vendor Managed Inven-tory solutions to ensure com-pliance to mandates from all their customers.

What competitive advantage does TAKE have over others?TAKE provides last mile func-tionality by optimizing sup-ply chain activities, leveraging customer’s enterprise systems, instead of duplicating it. Real-world proven success, extensive experience and knowledge of industry-specific processes and issues allow TAKE to provide

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

4 September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

Auto XPOFabulous Management Services Private Limited is organizing for the fourth time one of the biggest automobile fair in South Bengal comprising both domestic and commercial vehicles

along with two wheeler companies, accessories, and decor segment.

It will be held at Gandhi Maidan, Durgapur, from September 9 to 12,

International Food Processing SummitInternational Food Processing Summit is dedicated to the Indian processed food, agro and dairy market. Lat-est innovations in technologies and products will be displayed over the course of the event.

ASSOCHAM is organizing this event on Septem-ber 14 at Le Meridien, New Delhi. Delegate Profile includes ingredients & additives supply, packaging design & consultancy, food & beverage manufactur-ing, trade associations, trading/ retailing, food service institutional & commercial, raw materials supply & packaging, supply chain, and supermarkets.

Pharmac IndiaThe products displayed will range from herbal medicines to vet-erinary drug. Orbitz Exhibitions Private Limited has taken up space at Gujarat University Exhibition Hall, Ahmedabad, from September 17 to 19.

Advanced machinery used in hospitals and nursing homes will also be showcased at the exhibition.

Automation 2011The focus of Automation 2011 lies on the exhibition of the new and upcoming solutions based on the automation technology. The organizer, I. E. D. Communications Limited, is dedicating this event to the promotion of automation techniques that can be used for the long term improvement in the efficiency and productivity of different industries.

Exhibitor Profile includes: Automation in renewable energy, bus and wireless technology, building automation, pumps and valves, factory automation, process automation, instrumenta-tion and controls, robotics, and hydraulic and pneumatics. It will be held at Bombay Exhibition Center from September 20 to 23.

Batteries Inverters Generators Expo - AssamAsk Trade & Exhibitions Private Limited is coordinating an exhi-bition which will see participation from manufacturers and sup-pliers of batteries, inverters, generators and other applications.

The focal point of exhibitors will be to promote their brand name and increase their sell. The manufacturers and supplier of products and services related to batteries, inverters, and genera-tors will be participating in this expo showcasing their innova-tive products and services.

The event will be held at Maniram Dewan Trade Centre, Gu-wahati, from September 23 to 25.

Auto, Food And Pharma Catch On

September 2011

cOMING SOON!

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India and China have agreed to work towards signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the areas of Road Transport and High-ways, said an Indian government press release is-sued on September 16. Under the proposed MoU, both sides would seek to enhance cooperation in highway construction, exchange of technology and investments in the sector. According to the release, this was agreed to during the meeting between Kamal Nath, Minister for Road Trans-port and Highways and Li Shenglin, Minister of Transport, China at Beijing on September 15.

Nath was quoted in the note as saying that India has embarked on a massive national high-way development program under which it is proposed to construct 7,000 km of national high-ways every year over the next few years. The ambitious targets set in the program provided huge opportunities to the Chinese construction companies as also the Chinese financial institu-tions to enhance their engagement with India, said the note. Nath also said that the preferred mode of highway development in India is Public Private Partnership. 60 perceent of the national highways would be developed under the BOT (Built-Operate-Transfer) Toll mode, while anoth-er 25 percent would be taken up on BOT (Annu-ity) basis. Already, several Chinese companies are participating in the National Highway Develop-ment Project of India.

China has over the past decade made rapid progress in the infrastructure sector, particularly highway development. Li Shenglin said that pres-ently, around 35,000 km of national highways is under construction in China of which 10,000 km is likely to be completed this year.

Earlier in the course of the interactions with China’s government representatives, Nath met Lou Jiwei, Chairman, China Investment Corpora-tion (CIC) and Dai Xianglong, Chairman of Nation-al Social Security Fund (NSSF) and apprised them

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Jacob Joseph Puthenparambiljacob@logisticsweek.com

The two emerging super-economies have agreed to explore ar-eas of cooporation in the road transport and highways sector

News DeskMumbai

UPS Connects Air and Ocean New Ocean Freight

InterviewEnvisaging India as Asia Auto Hub R Dinesh, JMD, TVS & Sons says India stands at the threshold of an aftermarket revolution

PAGE 4

In APAC, ME, USA and Europe

August 16–31, 2011

`25logisticsweek.com

India And China Looking to Be On The Same Road

PAGE 2

of the opportunities of investing in the highways sector of India and of the high re-turns that the sector promises to offer.

Xianglong mooted the idea of the set-ting up of an India-China Highways Invest-

ment Forum for investors, developers and construction companies which will provide a platform for the policy makers, financial experts and the business leaders to work closely towards enhancing project.

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Power To The People

Tell us about the processes you adopted at the time when Tata took a majority stake in NDPL?

Earlier we had manual pro-cesses. Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) had its own designated stores and they were taken over by us. They had multiple stores. Their main concept was maintaining central stores and sub-stores, but they were scattered across the state. DVB also adopted an-other concept of maintaining centralized stores for a particu-lar quantity of material, while it had other stores for some other equipment.

Earlier, Delhi was divided into three distribution companies and in the areas that were under our control we had two central stories, one at Bhargarh and the second at Keshavpuram.

There were all kinds of equip-ment when we took over – some central stores storing only cables while other stored street lighting materials and a third type con-tained only transformers.

NewsDeskMumbai

Harish Sharma, HOD (Material Management), North Delhi Power Ltd., has served with NDPL since the company set up its operations. He tells LOG.India about the rough roads he has trod-den to streamline the then existing incompetent processes that existed.

faCe-to-faCe

It was a challenging assign-ment at that stage because tak-ing over the entire inventory and such costly material scattered across various stores meant tak-ing stock and accounting for. I was put into the entire ware-houses and stores.

What were the challenges?The first challenge was to get the entire material located into other distribution companies (discoms) areas to our stores. That was our share of the material and it need-ed to safely reach our custody and our stores.

The material was of all types. There were transformers, cables, consumer materials, hardware materials, street lighting among other things.

The entire Delhi network was divided among three discoms. So we took one third of our share and the material which came un-der our custody was to be distrib-uted to the other two discoms. The first challenge was finding a way to collect the material. The second challenge was bringing together all the materials and ways to sort them out as the

entire accounting was through manual ledgers.

Most of the materials in our stores were ready-to-use into the systems. Equipment like transformers and cables can be directly used for installing or re-placement.

That is when we took a deci-sion of having only one central store and so we, over a period of time, shut down all the sub-stores.

How many sub-stores did you

have?There were seven sub-stores and two central stores. After shut-ting down the sub-stores, we be-gan operating from the central store till the time equipment lay there. Then arose issues of man-aging inventory at one store, as there are thousands of large and small equipment. So we began modernizing the stores, and in-stalled racks, material handling equipment, and other allied in-frastructure.

The central store was situated in a centralized location with re-spect to our area, Keshavpuram. As it was easily accessible from all working areas, we settled on this location.

After ensuring centralization of our entire material, we needed to rid ourselves of keeping man-ual ledgers. So we moved to com-puterization in 2003. This took a year as we encountered plenty of challenges in between. Insuf-ficient manpower was the main challenge.

When we started out, we had the support of an entire staff from DVB. In those days, we of-ten saw a huge hue and cry in the field as breakdowns were common. It was a transition pe-riod for us as maintenance was negligible. Ensuring material availability was a critical activity. One can only maintain network if there is material available in the stores.

How did you handle all the stress and the people?My focus area was materials management activities, looking after stores material and ware-house management. The focus was to ensure there is no stock-out. I took the help of my earlier employees because they had the know-how, and we received plen-ty of support.

People from the earlier DVB structure had a sense of handling the stores. But the store is not only to receive and issue mate-rials. They have a much bigger profile.

I began digging into the con-sumption pattern for the previ-ous years and took the data from DVB. On that basis we immedi-

ately began fixing up the reorder level.

A problem here was that the consumption pattern was not ac-curate. But that was the only data we had to go on. So we thought let’s move ahead with this data and we began replenishing and reviewing our orders.

The objective was to ensure that before the material goes out of stock, we should be made aware of it. That is where we fixed up the re-order level. Since we had no computerization, we put up the re-order levels on the ledgers and left instructions with the stores keeper. So the stores keeper knew that each time material reached a particu-lar level he had to inform me or the person in charge of procure-ment. The procurement manager would also raise tenders and be-gin the process of procurement. Another method was our fore-cast basis that was based on past consumption pattern.

Most of the vendors we source from are local companies. We have a separate procurement project engineering and con-tracts group who list out the technical aspects. Initially we ob-served a competitive process. We send the enquiry to the shortlist-ed vendors and they bid if they were interested.

How do you maintain rela-tionships with your business associates and vendors? Any good organization or supply chain cannot succeed unless it has a sound and reliable vendor base. We call them business as-sociates. Some of our business as-sociates worked hand-in-hand in all the joint replacements, which is a critical area for maintenance of the network. Some of them even offer free replacement if any product turns out defective.

We have regular interactions with our business associates. So they get a chance to meet the CEO or at the joint interaction form (JIF) which we organize on a quarterly basis.

We have some 90-odd busi-ness associates who regularly

traffic, greater stress on railway freight transport is essential.

Mittra sums it up, “Ideally, rail and waterways should be prioritized for long distances, rail for medium distances and roads including expressways, for shorter stretches. Such a balanced modal approach would lower transportation costs, achieve greater efficien-cy and be more environment-friendly.”

Round UpThe originating freight loading on Indian Railways was 921.51 million tonnes in 2010-11 as compared to 887.99 million tonnes in 2009-10 registering a growth of 3.77 percent.

The Dedicated Freight Cor-ridor (DFC) Project compris-ing Dankuni-Ludhiana and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Ter-minal to Tughlakabad/Dadri has been sanctioned by the Government.

FREIGHT DATA – TARGET SET AND ACHIEVEDYear Targets Set

(in million tonnes)

Target Achieved (in million tonnes)

2007-08 785 7942008-09 850 8332009-10 882 8882010-11 944 9222011-12 993 313 (up to July’11)

DFC Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), a Special Pur-pose Vehicle, has been formed as a Public Sector Undertaking of the Ministry of Railways to implement this project.

Civil construction contracts for 105 kilometers in Eastern DFC and for 54 major and im-portant bridges on Western DFC have been awarded. Funding for Phase-I (Rewari-Vadodara) of Western DFC has been tied up with Japan International Coop-eration Agency (JICA).

On Eastern DFC a loan of US $ 975 million has been sanctioned by World Bank for construction of Eastern DFC between Bhau-pur near Kanpur to Khurja. The project is targeted to be com-pleted in 2016-17.

It remains to be seen if these new projects and initiatives ease the pressure on freight rates and reduce the burden of subsidiz-ing passenger fares.

Source: PIB

Harish SharmaHOD (Material Management), North Delhi Power Ltd

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

6 September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

In this section, LW provides a recap of policy decisions of the last fortnight thatimpact various areas of the supply-chain industry.

Shipping, Labor Reforms In The Air

ManuFactuRingA High-Level Committee on Manufacturing, consisting of top government

ministers and headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has given its support to the Minis-try of Commerce and Industry’s new draft of National Manu-facturing Policy (NMP).

The NMP recommendations are designed to simplify the regulatory environment for foreign and domestic manufac-turing companies and create new market incentives to at-tract foreign investment.

Draconian environmental clearance and land acquisition regulations, overly restrictive labor laws, and the expensive administrative burdens of compliance and reporting ob-ligations would all be targeted under the current draft. The policy also recommends es-tablishing new National Man-ufacturing Industrial Zones (NMIZs) where manufacturing companies would have scaled-

is expected to do.The amendment of the In-

dian Ports Act, was basically about ensuring level playing fi eld for the non-major and major ports, and a holistic ap-proach towards development of ports. There is also a need to create awareness among steel and fertilizer industries that coastal shipping is the viable alternative to road and rail.

It is also environment friendly.

ReFoRMs in laboR lawsThe Automo-tive Compo-nent Manu-f a c t u r e r s

Association of India (ACMA) has called for reforms in la-bor laws to allow layoffs of permanent employees during a slowdown or other related situ-ations.

“We would like to have all employees as permanent as we invest a lot on them. We are not allowed to layoff if there

down regulatory requirements, preferential market access, pri-ority land allotments, and bet-ter industrial infrastructure.

coastal shiPPingA new coastal shipping poli-cy for India and

the document for amending the Indian Ports Act are cur-rently in their fi nal stages.

The new policy for coastal shipping is almost ready and there is talk of amending the Indian Ports Act too. Both the documents of coastal ship-ping policy and amending the Indian Ports Act are in the fi -nal stages, National Shipping Board chairman P.V.K. Mohan said on the sidelines of a semi-nar on ‘East Coast Ports - Vi-sion 2020’.

No funds have been de-veloped for coastal shipping, but initiatives have been ear-marked - like what are the ini-tiatives that the ports have to do, what the shipping industry

are any ups and downs in the market. There should be some fl exibility in labor laws as per market requirements and so these should be reformed,” ACMA Vice-President Arvind Kapur said.

Last month, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufac-turers (SIAM) had also asked for labor reforms to allow com-panies to terminate services of permanent employees during a slowdown, but with ade-quate unemployment benefi ts. Major vehicle manufacturers have already sought labor law reforms, while trade unions said existing rules must be implemented strictly to avoid confrontations.

Food ParksThe central government of India is plan-

ning to set up 30 food parks in various states to help foster small and medium-sized busi-nesses in the food processing

sector.The parks will be set up un-

der the aegis of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and they will help approximately 20,000 small and medium in-dustries engaged in the manu-facture and processing of food products.

The proposed parks would help overcome the problems of inadequate storage facili-ties and transportation issues, because the smaller manufac-turers will now be able to con-solidate their distribution networks.

The consolidation and shar-ing of distribution networks would mean that there would be a more cost effective way for food products made by smaller manufacturers to reach their markets.

This will, in turn result in reduction in food wastage because of storage and trans-portation issues, increase the shelf life of products, and consequently also help gener-ate better revenues for their manufacturers.

poliCy upDateS

participate in the bidding pro-cess. They are our regular suppli-ers. As we usually go in for open bidding, it gives an opportunity to other vendors to send in their quotations.

The most important point here is our stress on ethical con-duct. At no time do we tolerate any mismanagement of procure-ment and that is key to us.

We have put out certain stipu-lations for vendors so that they do not enter into malpractices once they begin supplying to us. As far as we are concerned, the standards are set. There’s a mindset change involved. Busi-nessmen change with the envi-ronment that is given to them.

What technology or software did you implement?Once we had formed our group company, we got TCS to imple-ment a package for us. It was an ERP package and linked procure-ment, fi nance and the payment process. We worked on that

package for a couple of years. Once we were comfortable in a computerized environment, we moved to SAP. Till date, we oper-ate completely on SAP. Recently we also moved commercial ap-plications to SAP, and ISU. Our extensive use of SAP has been appreciated by the provider and they even gave us an award.

If you talk about the materi-als management activity, we use a lot of the SAP features that are not commonly used by most oth-er users. I think we are the fi rst utility company to use material requirement planning (MRP) to plan the entire material man-agement. It gives us the entire material that is available with us, the actual requirement and then schedules inventory so that there is no stock out.

The advantages we have found are: no stock outs, inventories have come down, and third is the quick traceability of equipment.

Today we can track material across the organization, even those lying in damaged condi-tion. That helps us with the deci-

sion making process. We don’t unnecessarily pur-

chase material when we know it is lying at the vendors end and it is expected to be returned be-cause it has not been used. Dis-tribution companies like us have a huge capex requirement.

Can you visualize the end-to-end supply chain from pro-curement to installation to distribution?We purchase materials under two categories –the capex ma-terial for project work and the opex for operational activities for maintenance activities. Ca-pex is procured on the basis of an annual capex plan generated through different departments to take care of the load. Capex activities are generated through material requirement planning.

For opex, we have annual operational MRP, AO MRP. We collect requirements from zones and the kind of operational and maintenance activities they are proposing for the entire fi nan-cial year.

CONTINUED frOm PAGE 5 CONTINUED frOm PAGE 3

solutions that have an immediate impact on the customer’s top and bottom lines.

In the supply chain domain, we have 400 resource-persons and 60 industry experts serv-ing our customers worldwide – through strong product-lines, superior technology skills and proven global delivery processes.

Who are your major clients? We serve customers world-over across several industries – our customer base includes Baker Hughes, TransOcean and Ente-prise Products from the oil & gas industry, applied materials from hi-tech industry; Alcoa and Arvin Meritor from the indus-trial products vertical, petmate from Consumer Products verti-cal, Darigold, Almarai & Pepsi from the FMCG industry.

What are the main draw-backs prevalent in the in-dustry now?The biggest challenge the

industry is facing is the in-creased complexity in the sup-ply chain due to globalisation, outsourcing, low cost country sourcing, incresed regulation due to security and hightened competition.

What steps are you taking to overcome the drawbacks?The way to handle the in-creased complexity in the sup-ply chain is make the supply chain short, simple and robust. Standardization – like ready compliance with multiple doc-ument interface formats like PIDX, EDI, DO2, and OILDEX – further makes it simple for trading partners to orchestrate collaborative business process over such platforms.

Looking into the future, where do you place yourself in the industry?We will continue to help global customers succeed, by enabling business effi ciencies that strengthen their competi-tive edge.

7September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

Shipping, Labor Reforms In The Air Ballooning Growth

Traditionally, liquid cargo has been carried in tank contain-ers. The introduction of tank containers in the mid-1980s had helped the market move from transportation of liquids in bulk or in drums packed in dry containers. This helped in achieving unitization of liquid cargo and offered efficiency through an elimination of the need for drums as well as ease of multi-modal distribution.

More recently, Sun Logistics, a specialist liquid logistics serv-ice provider, pioneered, togeth-er with a handful of firms, the introduction of ‘flexitanks’ in the market which represented a significant innovation over existing methods. Flexitank is a cost effective, single use, bio-degradable packaging which is placed inside a normal contain-er converting it to a tank for carriage of liquid cargo such as non hazardous chemicals, wine or juices.

lSp CaSe StuDy: Sun logiStiCS

ComplicationThe complication was that in spite of the significant ben-efits offered by flexitanks, the industry was reluctant to ac-cept it since it represented a step change from traditional carriage methods potentially depriving this innovative prod-uct of the time it takes to gain a foothold in a new market and worst still, possibly depriving the market of the innovation. The concerns of customers could be summed up under the following three heads.

1 General reluctance towards change

2 Flexible packaging, hence the fear of ‘losing’ the cargo

3 Whether flexitanks can sur-vive the vagaries of a sea voy-age or transportation by road or rail, especially in the context of the state of infra-structure in India.

ResolutionSurprised by the reaction but con-vinced about the value and appli-cability of the innovation for its

customers in India, Sun Logis-tics took it upon itself to nudge the customers’ mindset into ac-ceptance for the flexitanks using the following measures.1 Sun Logistics initiated an

educational program to educate the potential customers in the usage of flexitanks. Samples of bags were specially developed and handed over to the custom-ers to check compatibility of their products with the con-struction materials. Meetings were held with customers ex-plaining to them the savings they can expect by transporta-tion in flexitanks. Trials were held in the plants of Indian ex-porters to demonstrate the ca-pacity and strength of the prod-uct. The customers were educated on the pumps to be used, the correct filling temper-atures and proper installation of the flexibags.2 Insurance was made avail-

able to all customers for loss of cargo including on third party claims against any leakages due to manufacturing defects.

3 The continuous R & D car-ried out helped us develop a product that was compatible to the Indian climatic and infra-structural conditions.

i) All leakages were investi-gated for cause and tests car-ried to double check

ii) Compatibility of products with construction materials.

iii) An understanding of the International requirements in manufacturing of flexitanks and adding the Indian require-ments to attain the most opti-mum product.

iv) Impact tests were con-ducted at TUV Germany twice to study the impact and force on flexitanks during their voy-age at sea

v) Impact test was performed at Transportation Technol-ogy Centre, Inc., Association of American Railroads (TTCI AAR) USA for testing withstanding force of 2G.

Outcome And ImpactThe impact of the measures undertaken by Sun Logistics re-

sulted in customer trials which, in turn, resulted in customer confidence.

This, in turn, meant signifi-cant cost and operational ad-vantages to these customers. For instance, in a standard 20 feet container, flexitanks in-creases the carriage capacity by over 50 percent as compared to the use of drums. Besides, the purchase price and disposal costs of a flexitank are 30-40 percent lower than those of drums for the same volume of freight. Also, flexitanks obviate the need for cleaning which is required in case of tank con-tainers. In addition, balanced return loads, often crucial to the commercial viability of tank container movements, is not a factor for flexitanks.

One of the softer outcomes of this case is the learning that it may often not be enough to introduce an innovation in the market place with the as-sumption that its advantages will automatically lead to its acceptance.

Haresh S. LalwaniJoint MD, Sun Logistics

8 September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

Lowdown On Major PortsportS upDateS

In this section LW will provide the latest in ports and shipping news and a status on how the major ports have fared this fortnight.

KoPT Expands On Orissa Shores Kolkata Port Trust of India (KoPT) has started operations on the disputed Kanika Sands in Orissa last month by han-dling a ship carrying 15,000 tons of peas. KoPT extended its limits to more than 200 kilometer south of Haldia into the Bay of Bengal covering an area of 28,646 square kilom-eter. Although their intention to expand was known since the beginning of the decade, their decision drew f lak from Orissa port as they felt KoPT’s move will have a bad impact on the minor ports including the upcoming Dhamra port project.

India’s Plans For Ports Ports in India are facing ter-rible congestion and yard delays, causing cargo handling at the major ports in India painfully slower than most ports in other parts of Asia. Hence there are plans for public and private in-vestments of $7.6 billion to build seven new ports and increase merchandise exports of India by three times. According to offi cial data, the 13 major ports of India handled 561 million tons of car-go in the fi scal year (March) 2010.

Sea Freight Rates Drop Due to excessive Shipping Tonnage supplies i.e. new de-liveries, the shipping market is in a depressed state. The Baltic

Dry Index (BDI) and Baltic Dirty Tanker Index (BDTI) track ship-ping rates for bulk dry and liq-uid commodities are the leading indicators of global economic activity. The BDTI has dwindled from 1,854 in August 2008 to 693 as on August 2011 and BDI has weakened from 8,280 in August 2008 to 1,602 at present. The drop in freight rate shows a declining trend of the bulk ship-ping freight market.

Harbor Depth Major ports are required to increase the drafts at their har-bor to at least 14 meter to maxi-mum 17 meter. Currently there is a major problem that ports are facing while accommodat-

ing bigger vessels at a particular spot. According to the mari-time agenda for the decade an-nounced by the shipping indus-try, India’s major ports intend to shell out as much as `10,000 crore till 2020 to deepen and maintain shipping channels to accommodate bigger vessels.

KoPT Risks Losing Funds The Centre currently pro-vides an `350-crore annual dredging subsidy to Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) to enable it to fi nish their three projects- transloading at western Sand-heads and two new ports at Haldia and Diamond Harbour. The Kolkata Port trust annually dredges 20 million cubic me-

ters to enable bigger vessels to dock. The Finance Ministry and Planning Commission raised serious objections to this sub-sidy considering them as drain-age of government funds.

ETV On West Coast The Shipping Ministry has deployed an Emergency Towing Vehicle (ETV), managed by Smit International, Singapore, on the West Coast of India during the southwest monsoon months for the fi rst time this year. ETV’s are used to safeguard the coastline and to assist ships that break down due to technical snags or which are caught in bad weath-er. The cost of hiring of ETV is `16.25 crores for 105 days.

Port Traffi c This FortnightPort of ChennaiThe port handled an average of 4,448 TEU of con-tainer per day last fortnight. There was a drop in quantity of container handled by 26 percent this fortnight.

Port of CochinThe port handled a total of 4,68,582 ton of cargo. Comparing to this fortnight there is a rise in the percentage of cargo handled by 9 percent.

Port of Ennore:The port handled an average of 1,22,457 ton of car-go per day in the last fortnight recording a steep rise in the percentage of cargo handled by 29 per-cent, compared to this fortnight.

Port of JNPTThe port handled an average of 10,732 TEU of con-tainer per day, last fortnight. The percentage of con-tainer handled dropped by nearly 3 percent in the last 15 days.

Port of Kolkata:The port handled a total of 8,36,106 ton of cargo in the last fortnight, this time showing a rise by 6 percent.

Port of MumbaiThe port handled an average of 24,028 ton per day past fortnight. There is a surge in quantity of cargo handled by 77 percent. (The data for this fortnight was extrapolated from fi ve days’ data because numbers were not available for rest of the days. The sharp skew shown in the table here could be because of the surge in port traffi c on the recorded days).

Port of ParadipThe port handled a total 21,84,271 ton of cargo this fortnight as compared to 14,69,105 ton last time, recording a steep rise by 32 percent.

Port of TuticorinThe port handled on an average 74,500 ton of cargo per day in the last fortnight. The quantity of cargo handled this fortnight plummeted by 19 percent.

PORT OF CHENNAI

Avg container handled per day (TEU) 3251

PORT OF COCHIN

Avg cago handled per day (T) 51454

PORT OF ENNORE

Avg cargo per handled per day (T) 157832

PORT OF JNPT

Avg container handled per day (TEU) 10447

PORT OF KOLKATA

Avg cargo handled per day (T) 225830

PORT OF PARADIP

Avg cargo handled per day (T) 156019

PORT OF TUTICORIN

Avg cargo handled per day (T) 60314

PORT OF MUMBAI

Avg cargo handled per day (T) 108455

(Data is relevant to days when information was updated on port website)

9September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

Tim Cook, a logistics expert, has taken over as CEO of Apple in the wake of Steve Jobs’ resignation. So what does he need to do into fit his predecessor’s very large shoes?

At Apple, What’s On Cook’s Menu?

Will Tim Cook’s taking over from Steve Jobs keep Apple in the forefront? Well, that depends on what Cook brings to the table. Will he honor the traditions that the incredible Jobs set, or will he present something new? In a reassuring message to the Ap-ple staff, Chief Executive Cook, a logistics expert, has admitted that Jobs, now a chairman has been his mentor and that he would be looking forward to his continued guidance to maintain Apple’s position.

To Cook’s credit, it must be stressed that he has been instru-mental in locking up contracts in advance for critical parts in

the company’s devices. It has had the effect of securing favorable prices, keeping Apple’s profit margins high, but it has also prevented rival companies from producing competent products at significantly lower prices.

While Jobs has a reputation for innovation, his successor is a number-cruncher. When he joined Apple in 1998 Cook ruth-lessly cut costs, closed factories, outsourced production and slashed stock levels.

But at this juncture, the com-pany has several products lined up for release, and the picture isn’t that rosy after Jobs’ step-ping down. The stock market isn’t smiling.

The reaction in electron-ics circles, including Apple, is a mixed bag. They say that the dy-namics of the industry provides no company or product a guar-antee that it will not be threat-ened or upstaged in a couple of months. Joy has proved to be short-lived. Michael Maccoby, a management consultant and au-thor of the book The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership, says,

“Jobs is a hard act to follow, but not an impossible one. Apple has created a technology, patents, processes, and so on. It has creat-ed the Apple stores. It has created attitudes among customers.”

Another line of thinking in Silicon Valley is that kids in a garage can build something that can topple the existing order. This has been Apple’s own story. But then, it is much harder to

take huge risks when you are running a $350-billion company.

Parts of the mixed reaction, in both the market and at Ap-ple, are that Cook and Jobs are different characters with differ-ent approaches, and Cook may try out his own agenda. Cook once told the 50,000-employee empire, “We take risks know-ing that risk will sometimes re-sult in failure, but without the

Tim Cook,CEO of Apple

tional behavior at Stanford, says, “The two will otherwise be compared, and Cook would inevitably be described as ‘Steve Light.’ It is better to be different than a second-rate version of what the last person was.”

Cook has obviously seen it coming. He knows he must serve something special if he wants customers to ask for a second helping.

possibility of failure there is no possibility of success.” When he quit Compaq and joined Ap-ple in 1996, Compaq was going great guns while the scene was dicey at Apple. Where is Compaq today and where is Apple?

It is not only Cook, but ex-perts, who feel that conventions may have to be reviewed as per the needs of the times. Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organiza-

global eye

10 September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

A low-down on developments in sur-face transport last fortnight.

RAILWAYS LAUNCH PROJECT UNIGAUGE Approx. 1,516 kilometres and 837 kilometres of Metre Gauge//Narrow Gauge lines were con-verted into Board Gauge lines during 2009-10 and 2010-11 re-spectively across the country. A target of 1017 km of gauge conversion has been fi xed for 2011-12 against which 47 kilo-metres of gauge conversion has been completed till July, 2011. The Railways have launched ‘Project Unigauge’ to con-vert the existing Metre Gauge/Narrow Gauge lines into Broad Gauge except Heritage lines. As on 01.04.2011, 8555 kilometres of Metre Gauge/Narrow Gauge lines existing on Indian Rail-ways, are yet to be converted to Broad Gauge line. Presently, works have been taken up for conversion of 5857 kilometres of Metre Gauge/Narrow Gauge lines to Broad Gauge.

ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS IN NORTH EAST To step-up investment and im-plementation of railway projects in the North Eastern Region, a dedicated North East Region Rail Development Fund (NERRDF) has been created. NERRDF is a non-lapsable fund with 25 per cent contribution from Railway Gross Budgetary Support (GBS)

On The Road

and 75 percent contribution from Ministry of Finance as ad-dition and it will be utilized for funding of National Projects in the North East Region.

PLANTATION ON RAILWAY LAND In pursuance of the Railways commitment towards environ-mental improvement through afforestation and also with a view to safeguard railway land against unauthorized occupa-tion, Railways have under-taken tree plantation on a pro-grammed basis. Vacant Railway land is generally in the form of a thin strip along the track. Rail-ways undertake mass plantation on this vacant land, wherever feasible, in a manner so that it does not affect the visibility of track and ensuring safe opera-tions of trains. About 94 lakh saplings were planted each dur-ing 2009-10 and 2010-11. Target of plantation of saplings during 2011-12 is 100 lakh.

NATIONAL PERMIT SYSTEM FOR TRUCKERS In order to facilitate inter-state movement of goods carriages, a new national permit system had been implemented in all states/union territories with effect from 08.05.2010. As per the new

arrangement, national permits can be granted by the home State on payment of `1,000/- as home State authorization fee and `15,000/- per annum per truck towards consolidated fee ,authorizing the permit holder to operate throughout the coun-try. The government has also taken necessary steps to imple-ment the new national permit system electronically with ef-fect from 15.09.2010.

WRS’S ROAD ACCIDENT DATA As per the latest issue of the “World Road Statistics” (WRS) 2010, brought out by the Inter-national Road Federation (IRF), Geneva, United States of Amer-ica had reported the maximum number of injury accidents at 16,30,000 in the world followed by Japan at 7,66,147 and India at 4,84,704 for the year 2008.

EXPRESS HIGHWAYS FOR NE There are 47 approved na-tional highways having a to-tal length of 8,480 km in the States of North East. As on date, there is no approved express highway in the states of North East. Twenty one proposals are under consideration with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for proposed new Na-tional Highways for the States of North East.

THE LW CrOSSWOrD

across:1. Placing sensitive products in a fenced off area within a warehouse (5)3. A railcar without sides, used for hauling machinery (7)7. Name, term, symbol, or all of these, used to identify a product (8)10. Material used to protect a product from damage during transit (7)11. Group of products that are shipped together as an unassembled unit (6)13. Storage device designed to hold small parts (3)15. Distinctive characteristic of a goods or service (7)17. Temporary storage area on a computer for cut or copied items (9)18. Selling goods below costs (7)22. Inland transport service off ered under conditions of tariff and documents (7)24. Prohibition on exports or imports (7)25. Wedge placed under the wheel of a truck to stop it from rolling (5)28. Time required for documents, payments, etc. to get to another partner (5)30. Group of companies that agree to co-operate, than compete (6)31. Individual or custom-made product or service (7)32. Movement of products to another country (6)

Down:2. Return of an empty container to point of origin (8)4. Party to whom goods are shipped (9)5. Offi cial residing in a foreign country, representing the interest of his/her country (6)6. Physical plant, distribution centers, and related equipment (10)8. Igloo shaped containers used in air transportation (6)9. Agreement between companies to perform or not to perform specifi c acts (8)12. Practice of selling goods to a competitor by a customer (9)14. Term for goods in transit (7)16. Materials handling device that moves freight in a warehouse (8)19. Connection that permits messages to fl ow freely (7)20. Firm that transports goods or people via land, sea or air (7)21. Large retailer having many trading partners (3)23. Quantity of material awaiting further processing (6)25. Charge made against a carrier for loss, damage, delay, or overcharge (5)26. Numeric representation of text to exchange common information (4)27. Situation in which an equipment operator deposits a trailer or boxcar at a facility at which it is to be loaded or unloaded (4)29. an alternative term used for certain types of specifi c purpose (4)

AnswersAcross2. Accountability 4.Backhaul 7. Agglomeration 8. Inventory 9. Capex 11. Capital 14. Agility 15. Agent 16. Freight 17. Accuracy 21. Cage 22. Amtrak 23. Logistics 24. Algorithm 25. Acknowledgement 26. Accessory 27. Allocation 28. AbandonmentDown1. Authentication 2. Audit 3. Assembly 5. Accesibility 6. Backfl ush 10. Attributes 12. Accreditation 13. Cabotage 17. Attachment 18. Cargo 19. Backsourcing 20. Backorder

5

7 8

3 421

9

6

10

11 12

13

14

15

17

18 19 20

21

22

23

16

24

25 26

27 28 29

30

31

32

EclipseCrossword.com

TRUCK FREIGHT RATES*Following are the truck freight rates (in `per tonne) from metros to metros

oRigin destinations

New Delhi Kolkata Mumbai Chennai Bangalore

New Delhi -- 3,065 3,000 4,600 4,500

Kolkata 2,350 -- 2,200 3,600 3,600

Mumbai 3,050 3,000 -- 3,000 2,400

Chennai 3,850 3,300 2,400 -- 800

Bangalore 3,680 3,300 2,360 800 --

*Rates are indicative **Data collected during Aug 1-10, 2011. Source: Logisticsweek Research

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11September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com

From the stables of LOG.INDIA, the country’s most respected logistics and supply-chain magazine, comes the LogisticsWeek Director 2012, a much-awaited reckoner that will list India’s 3PLs, 4PLs, transporters, solutions and service providers in the material handling and warehousing space, freight forwarders, shippers, cold chain service providers and all the stakeholders of the industry. Do not miss the chance to reach out to the decision-makers of the industry.Avail of huge early-bird discounts, NOW

12 September 1—15, 2011 www.logisticsweek.com