Unified Logistics Interface Platform: revolutionising Indian logistics with transparency, accessibility, and lower costs

Logistics has been given special attention in India in the recent past. Due to issues such as fragmented markets, lack of standardised assets, old and obsolete technologies, and lack of visibility, India’s logistics costs account for 14% of the GDP, which is 6-7% more than the developed economies. Transportation and inventory account for more than 90% of these costs. This gap is primarily due to the extensive use of road networks, the most expensive method of transporting goods. The Indian logistics sector has thus caught the government’s attention, and they feel a spur of digitisation is called for, to remodel the logistics infrastructure. Facilitating and encouraging technology adoption will bring us at par with the global supply chain network and reduce logistics costs.

Amongst many measures that are being taken to improve the state of logistics in India, integrating the entire logistics value chain is one of them. It means creating a singular interoperable interface that integrates existing platforms of the various ministries, government bodies, and the private sector to enable the visibility of multimodal transport in the country. Thus, the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) was launched as part of the PM Gati Shakti scheme. Designed by the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited (NICDC) and under the guidance of NITI Aayog, it aims to enhance efficiency and reduce logistics costs by breaking inter-ministerial silos. It comprises 24 systems, 78 APIs, and 1454 fields spanning ports, shipping, waterways, railways, civil aviation, road transport, highways, and DGFT & customs.

Key components of the ULIP platform

The integration ecosystem

ULIP aims to promote collaboration among government ministries such as ports and shipping, railways, civil aviation, road transport and highways, and other departments. This will integrate information from various ministries and government agencies, serving as an end-to-end visibility platform for the efficient movement of goods.

• Ministry of Ports Shipping – The Port Community System handles the communication between the private operators, the importers & exporters, and the port authorities. They also give cargo and custom-related data to increase efficiency in document management. Integration with PCS can provide container visibility, demurrages, and detention alerts to avoid penalties and port congestion analytics.

• Ministry of Civil Aviation – Integration with the systems in civil aviation like ACMES (Air Cargo Message Exchange System), ACCS (Air Cargo Community System), and AAICLAS (AAI Cargo Logistics Allied Services) can give visibility to goods movement inside the airport and caters to 20+ major airports in the country. ACMES, one of the digital, single window platforms, facilitates a seamless movement of goods and information catering to the Air Cargo Community of Delhi airport.

• Ministry of the Road – FASTag, a prepaid rechargeable RFID tag, is affixed on the windshield of vehicles for toll collection on national highways. FASTag-based tracking can enable 100% truck visibility by fetching milestone-based data from more than 800 tolls across the country. ‘Vahan’ and ‘Sarathi’ are online documentation portals for easy access to critical information. Vahan is a portal that allows access to all details related to a vehicle, like its registration number, manufacturer, model, etc. Similarly, Sarathi stores driving licenses and related data. Integration to these portals gives transporter easy access to the documentation, which helps them comply and run their operations smoothly.

• Ministry of Railways – FOIS (Freight Operations Information System) is a management system used by Indian Railways to manage, track and monitor the movement of locomotives and unit trains. Rail visibility is a problem; no one has the rail data except the government. Companies across India spend crores on detention and demurrage charges. FOIS integrated platform can help mitigate current challenges by reducing demurrages and wharfages and increasing rake movement planning and execution efficiency.

ULIP-Intugine partnership

Intugine is one of the early few companies to integrate with the ULIP initiative to access the various government bodies’ ecosystems. With FASTag, FOIS, PCS and ACMES integration, Intugine has an improved real-time multimodal visibility platform for its customers. From providing real-time ETA to businesses, reducing detention & demurrage costs for road, rake & container, to improving on-time deliveries & lead times, our platform is now an embodiment of ULIP’s true potential.

With FASTag and its extensive coverage of more than 800 tolls across the country, Intugine provides its customers with 100% visibility of in-transit trucks. Access to Vahan and Sarathi data has made vehicle and driver-related verifications faster for its customers, which used to be a time and money-consuming process. Integration with FOIS has enabled us to get real-time arrival and dispatch information of Rail movements and capture milestone-based visibility of 9000+ commercial trains. PCS integration has brought a smooth exchange of information between 13 major ports and 200+ smaller ports in India. And last, we have extended our capabilities to include customs data for air cargo through integrations with ACMES, ACCS, and AAICLAS systems at 20 major airports in the country. We are also in the process of integrating with other APIs like Challan and E-Way Bill to simplify their access and usage through our platform itself.

Intugine enables 40+ customers through ULIP integrations on its multimodal visibility platform ‘Intutrack’. Some of them are Signify, Ultratech, Centuary Mattress, Bridgestone, Ford Smart Mobility, GHCL, Hinduja Group, and Nilkamal. We have successfully leveraged the ULIP integration by providing a one-stop solution to supply chain woes across modalities by simplifying visibility and making it cost-effective and operationally less intensive for the customers. We are thrilled to be a part of the government’s aspiration, and the progress so far has been rewarding. Besides ensuring data authenticity, standardising procedures and harmonising processes, this initiative will also facilitate seamless trade, promoting ease of business across the country.

Check us out to learn more about the initiative and get in touch to understand how it can help your business.