Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the JPP (Joint Parcel Product) of India Post and Indian Railways. Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
/RAILWAY BOARD
No. 2020/TC(FM)/11/19 New Delhi, Date: 27.01.2023
The General Managers, All Zonal Railways.
Sub: ‘Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)’ for the ‘JPP’ of India Post and Indian Railways.
Download JPP (Joint Parcel Product) SOP in PDF
Please find enclosed herewith a copy of the ‘Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)’ for the ‘Joint Parcel Product (JPP)’ of India Post and Indian Railways.
This has the approval of Board (Member/O&BD).
DA: As above.
Copy forwarded for kind information and necessary action please:
1. The Principal Chief Commercial Managers, All Zonal Railways.
2.Sh. Dushyant Mudgal, Dy. Director General (Mail Operations), Ministry of
Communications, Department of Posts, Dak Bhawan, New Delhi-01.
Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
1. Background:
1.1 Consequent on the Budget Announcement of FY 2022-23 — in tune with the Gati Shakti Master Plan, seeking collaboration between various Ministries — to provide seamless solutions for movement of parcels, Indian Railways and Department of Posts have collaborated and evolved a Joint Parcel Product (JPP). This document details the Standard Operating Procedures that need to be followed in implementing the product.
1.2 The product essentially focuses on providing an integrated service, with the first-mile and last-mile service for parcels being executed by Department of Posts and the middle mile transportation being handled by the Railways, with the interfaces being suitably jointly managed.
1.3 The USPs of the JPP are palletization, time-tabled runs, end-to-end logistics service, single documentation, insurance cover, reliability, safety, availability and cost effectiveness.
1.4 All parcel above 35 kgs are covered under the ambit of the JPP.
2. Definitions:
2.1 Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service: The Joint Parcel Product (JPP) of India Post and Indian Railways will be termed as Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service.
2.2 Aggregation Centre: A designated place with the requisite infrastructure for processing the consignment under Express Cargo Service will be termed as Aggregation Centre, and may be developed preferably at mutually identified railway station.
2.3 Consignment: A consignment may consist of one or more parcels originating from one consignor and destined to the same consignee.
2.4 Any customer who intends to send parcels weighing above 35 kgs avail Joint Parcel Product service through any designated Aggregation Centre on pre-payment through allowed modes of payment.
2.5 Any customer can ascertain the details of the Joint Parcel Product via a query form/proposal form available on the websites of India Post (www.indiapost.gov.in) and Indian Railways (https://parcel.indianrail.gov.in) so that any potential customer may request for services on both of the websites. Indian Railways will share the details of such queries received on the Indian Railways website with DoP through an API. Such request will be catered by the concerned Divisional Head of the aggregation Centre and will contact the customer accordingly.
3. Processing of Joint Parcel Product:
3.1 The customer can request for the pick-up of their consignments or bring it to the designated aggregation centre for booking/ processing. The pick-up of such consignments shall be done by authorized representative of the designated aggregation centre. A decision for providing pickup service shall be taken by the supervisor of the Aggregation Centre keeping in view of volume of the consignment(s).
3.2 A receipt as per the format (Annexure-A) will be issued at the time of pickup of the consignments by the authorized representative of aggregation centre of Department of Posts to the client as a token of receipt of the consignments till the time of deployment of mobile app by Indian Railways. A copy of the receipt would be handed over to the Supervisor of Aggregation Centre at the time of offloading of consignments at the Aggregation Centre for further processing.
3.3 The pickup from the customer premises shall be the responsibility of Supervisor of the Department of Posts at the Aggregation Centre and maybe done either on outsourced model or may utilize existing infrastructure, however, the efforts should be made that the total cost of pickup & delivery services should not exceed 70% of the first & last mile charges respectively being collected at the time of booking. This 70% capping shall be calculated on monthly basis.
3.4 The consignments shall be booked at the Aggregation Centre (AC) in Parcel Management System (PMS) of Indian Railways. Going forward, booking facility shall be made available at any Post office or even through a postman using a mobile device. CRIS shall develop the mobile app for PMS for this purpose.
3.5 Booking of consignments shall be done consignment-wise in Parcel Management System (PMS) by the staff of Department of Posts. For operating the PMS terminals for booking and delivery of consignments, Department of Posts shall arrange hardware and internet connectivity at the Aggregation Centres. Thereafter, CRIS shall enable functioning of PMS at these terminals. Indian Railways will authorize the representatives of the Department of Posts for operating PMS on each booking office (Aggregation Centre).
3.6 Before acceptance and booking of parcels, Department of Posts shall ensure strict compliance of the extant provisions and guidelines/ instructions prescribed by Railway administration (as per Indian Railway Commercial Manual (Vol.I), IRCA Coaching Tariff No. 25/ Part-I (Vol.Ill), and IRCA Red Tariff No. 20 — and their amendments issued from time-to-time). Articles not accepted for booking in luggage and parcel as per extant Railway rules, shall not be booked by the Department of Posts.
3.7 Department of Posts shall be responsible for execution of Forwarding Note, weighment of consignments, and realization of correct Railway freight charges from the customers, and shall preserve the relevant records for a period of one year from the date of acceptance of consignment.
3.8 Special marking, Barcode labeling of the consignments shall be done by staff of Department of Posts. While carrying out such activities the staff shall scrupulously follow the conditions of Packing, Labeling and Marking (PLM) as prescribed by Railway administration (as per Indian Railway Commercial Manual (Vol.l), IRCA Coaching Tariff No. 25/ Part-I (Vol.III), and IRCA Red Tariff No. 20 — and their amendments issued from time-to-time).
3.9 A mobile application (APP) of Parcel Management System will be developed by the Indian Railways to capture the details of the consignments by the customer or authorized representative of aggregation centre. The e-receipt shall be generated through the mobile app, both for booking as well as delivery.
3.10 The consignments, shall be weighed (volumetric and actual) and booked in the Parcel Management System of Indian Railways at the Aggregation Centre. A railway receipt (Parcel way-Bill) in quadruplicate would be generated through system as per the norms of the Indian Railways. The details of the sender as well addressee i.e. Name, address, PIN Code, Email Id, Mobile number, weight of the consignment shall be available on the booking receipt of the Parcel. A copy of the Parcel way-Bill shall be kept preserved with the Department of Posts for a period of one year, and shall be made available to the Railway officials, during inspections.
3.11. The booking amount so collected shall be bifurcated in the following manner at the booking station by Indian Railways & DoP on the day of departure of train:-
* In case of cash payment, the booking amount equal to railway’s share will be deposited at the railways account on daily basis at the booking station, and DoP’s share including insurance charges will be deposited & accounted by the designated account office of the booking facility, i.e. HO/SO of Department of Posts.
* In case of digital payment, the DoP’s share including insurance charges will be credited to DoP’s account centrally by State Bank of India (the digital payment facilitator).
3.12 The consignments shall be loaded by the Dept of Posts, preferably, into standard BOXes provided by the Railways, and secured through proper lashings by Department of Posts; and the BOXes shall be sealed in the presence of Railway representative. In due course, the BOX as a unit of transportation shall be attempted to be institutionalized, with billing based on Unit Boxes, rather than on individual consignments.
3.12.1 Care must be taken to ensure that consignments booked for one destination station only are loaded in one box.
3.12.2 In case Aggregation Centre is away from railway station premises, the BOXes shall be sealed at ‘Railway's parcel office’ in the presence of Railway representative.
3.13 The consignments so booked and loaded in BOXes, shall be handed over to the Railways at least four hours prior to the scheduled departure of the train at the designated/ identified Aggregation Centre (or Railway parcel office, if Aggregation Centre is away from railway station premises) for transmission from origin railway station to destination railway station. While handing over the consignment, one copy of the Parcel way-Bill (RR) shall be handed over to Train Manager (Guard) of the concerned train by Indian Railways and one copy shall be kept along with the consignments by Department of Posts.
3.14 Indian Railways shall ensure the safety and security of the parcels during transmission to avoid any pilferage. The requisite documents, i.e. invoices, eWay bills in case of content value more than Rs. 50,000/-, etc. shall be made available to Indian Railways, by Department of Posts.
3.15 An abstract of the consignments shall be prepared by DoP for the identified Railway Parcel Centre having the details of each parcel i.e. Barcode Number, Name. address, email ID, mobile number (addressee and sender), volumetric weight, actual weight, Tariff. The parcels shall be checked by the Indian Railways Parcel Centre and received through Parcel Management System of Indian Railways. A token of receipt shall be issued to DoP through the Parcel Management System. Going forward, all these documents shall be generated online through the PMS.
3.16 Indian Railways shall connect the consignment(s) to the identified trains for destination railway stations on priority. The loading and unloading of the parcels in the trains shall be the responsibility of the Indian Railways. While loading, the Railway staff will ensure proper segregation of the consignments booked under ‘JPP’ and general parcels booked by the Railways.
3.17 The consignment (s) shall be scanned on PMS by Indian Railways while loading and unloading in the trains to ensure the connectivity to the identified trains.
3.18 At the destination railway station, the consignment(s) shall be unloaded & reweighed by the Indian Railways.
3.19 DoP shall collect the consignment(s) from the identified Aggregation Centre (or Railway parcel office, if Aggregation Centre Is away from railway station premises) at destination railway station as per the agreed timelines, on the basis of copy of Parcel way-Bill kept with the consignments. However, in absence of Parcel way-Bill, delivery of the consignments may be granted to the representative of DoP, on the basis of ‘General Indemnity Note’ duly executed in prescribed format. While granting delivery on the basis of General Indemnity Note, it must be ensured that the procedure detailed in paras 959 and 1823 of the Indian Railway Commercial Manual (IRCM) (Vol.I) & (Vol.ll) respectively as well as all other commercial formalities are followed scrupulously. In this regard, all the concerned stations may open a separate Delivery Book for these packages, and shall maintain the record of delivery of the consignments in accordance with the aforesaid provisions of the IRCM.
3.19.1. In case Aggregation Centre is away from railway station premises, the responsibility of transporting empty BOXes back to Railway parcel office (if required) shall lie with DoP.
3.20 The frequency of pickup shall be depending on the volume of the consignment(s).
3.21 The authorized representative of the Department of Posts shall receive the consignment (s) from the designated Indian Railways Parcel Centre/Aggregation Centre within 24 hours of the arrival of train. A token of receipt of the consignment (s) will be given to the Indian Railways Parcel Centre.
3.22 Any dispute related to acceptance/ loading or unloading’ delivery of the consignment(s) shall be resolved by the concerned Chief Parcel Supervisor (CPS) in consultation with his local counterpart official of India Post i.e. Divisional Head. If the dispute is not resolved to mutual satisfaction within 03 days of its arising, it shall be escalated to the Sr.DCM of concerned Railway Division - who shall strive to resolve the same in consultation with his counterpart official of India Post Divisional Head/ DPS. If the dispute still remains unresolved after 07 days of first escalation, it shall be escalated to the concerned Zonal Headquarters, and the CCM(FM)/ CCM(FS) shall resolve it in consultation with his counterpart official of India Post i.e. PMG/ DPS.
3.23 The delivery of consignment (s) shall be done by the representative of Department of Posts directly from the Aggregation Centre/ Indian Railways Parcel Centre as the case may be. The data of the consignment(s) will be made available to the delivery agent of DoP consisting name, address, mobile number etc. electronically through the PMS Mobile APP. The delivery agent shall contact the addressee to ensure the deliveries in one go.
3.24 The delivery of the consignment (s) shall be updated accordingly in the Mobile App/ PMS by the delivery agent/ office of Department of Posts. In case of non-delivery, such consignment(s) shall be kept in the safe custody of the aggregation centre! RMS office/ identified safe space of the Department of Posts.
3.25 The customer shall be charged a notified tariff consisting of the cost of all the activities. The tariff will be levied on volumetric/ actual weight, whichever is higher. The configuration of tariff, available routes, insurance charges etc. will be taken care of in Parcel Management System of Indian Railways.
3.26 Indian Railways will provide the physical transmission data i.e. train number, expected date and time to reach destination station etc. for track and trace of the consignment(s). All the event details shall be captured & uploaded by Indian Railways to ensure the visibility of the consignment (s) at every stage. SMS trigger to the sender shall be sent for the identified stages such as booking, loading at origin station, unloading at destination railway station, pickup/ oul for delivery, delivered through PMS system. The customer shall be able to track the parcel on the website of Indian Railways i.e. https://parcel.indianrail.gov.in/.
3.27 The insurance of Joint Parcel Product shall be compulsory and would be inbuilt into the overall cost of the product, by the Department of Posts. In case of any loss of the consignment(s) during transmission, the claim will be settled as per the norms of the third party insurance service provider. Railways will not be liable to pay any claim or compensation towards loss/ damage/ deterioration of consignments during rail transit.
3.28 The instructions issued vide letter No. 25-01/2022-D dated 28.10.2022 should be adhered for the pickup, booking & delivery of parcels under Express Cargo Service by the Department of Posts.
4. Grievance Redressal
4.1 DoP shall handle all grievances/ complaints for this joint parcel product. Railways shall respond to all queries raised by DoP within 2 working days.
4.2 DoP shall confirm in writing to the insurance company about loss/ pilferage/ damage to any parcel within 7 days of receiving a complaint from the customer.
43 The insurance company shall settle all claims within 7 working days, once the loss/ pilferage/ damage to parcel is confirmed by DoP. The claim procedure is attached as Annexure-B.
Claim Process:-
1. Claim Notification
2. Surveyor Appointment
3. Survey Verification
4. General List of Requirements (Documents)
5. Documents Submission
6. Claim Finalization
7. Claim Settlement
Notification Process
When to Report
All claims exceeding the deductible have to be reported without delay, i.e. immediately when the Insured has got knowledge of the occurrence by phone and/or e-mail.
How to Report
The Insured shall issue intimation details in prescribed format for damages or losses in accordance with the attached specimen and, if possible, take photographs of the damaged parts and the place of occurrence.
To Whom to Report
All claims shall be reported without any delay by the Site management/ Insured to Bajaj Allianz.
Escalation matrix for claims:
Level 1- Customer Care: bagichelp@bajaiallianz.co.in
Level 2- Ekramul Haque: Ekramul. Haque@bajajallianz.co.in
Lever 3 — Preeti Wadhawan: Preeti. Wadhawan02@bajajallianz.co.in
Level 4- Chander Prakash: Chander.Prakash@bajajallianz.co.in
General List of Requirements (Documents)
- Detailed incident report providing date and time of accident/loss, cause of loss, circumstances of loss and steps taken following detection of loss/damage and also to mitigate the loss
- Quantitative estimation of the loss with values
- Documents (like invoices/bills, documents in support of labor charges etc.) in support of actual expenses incurred during restoration of damage
- Details of realizable salvage/scrap value of items replaced during restoration
- Monetary claim bill on letter head
- Transit documents like Invoice, packing list, GR
- FIR in case of theft/accident and police final report in case of theft
- Fire Brigade report in case of fire
- Monetary claim lodged against the defaulting carrier with RPAD
- Damage certificate issued by the defaulting carrier in original
- Claim form duly filled-in & Letter of Subrogation
