BWI Logistic Private Limited

1. Introduction

This document contains the report of my internship at BWI Logistic Private Limited, 2nd floor, DDA Shed, Okhla Industrial Area Phase-1, New Delhi for the period: Saturday 01 July – Wednesday 30 August 2017. In this internship report, I will describe my experiences during the internship period. The internship report contains an overview of the internship company, the activities and tasks that I have worked on during the internship.

Writing this report, I also will describe and reflect my learning objects and personal goals that I have set during my internship period. I wanted a new challenge and to learn, improve and develop new sets of skills. During an internship at BWI Logistic Private Limited I have learned practically how to import and export goods, customs clearance of goods and use of accounting skills in logistics.

This topic is closely related to the content covered in 1st and 2nd-year theory papers of Supply Chain Management, Finance and Accounts. I would like to thank Sh. Balraj Kumar, the Managing Director of BWI logistics Private Limited, for giving me the opportunity to do an internship within the company. I am thankful to the internship Co-ordinator of SBE for approving this internship as a curricular BSc internship.

2. Description of the Internship

2.1 The company BWI logistics Private Limited

BWI Logistic Private Limited established in 2006 is mainly a Customs Clearance and Freight Forwarding company based in New Delhi and having its offices at Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ludhiana, Moradabad and Kandla. It also offers Warehousing, Liasoning and Door to Door delivery services to its customers. The company have permanent business associates in all major overseas destinations such as China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, USA, Europe, and other countries.

The company have an excellent relationship with all major carriers such as HPL, Maersk, Cosco, APL, CSCL, MSC, NYK, CMA CGM, ZIM/GOLD STAR, HYUNDAI(HMM), thereby enabling to negotiate competitive rates. As per the requirement of the customer the company offer FCL/ LCL load service with ease, visibility and global reach. It also transfers the shipment data to the concerned destination before the vessels arrival to provide timely release of the goods after customs clearance.

The company also provides the quotation on the cost of freight, port charges, consular fees, cost of special documentation, insurance and a fee of the freight forwarder to the clients on request. The company also advises on Import/Export Documentation, HSN/CTH Classification, Customs Duty Structure, Import / Export Policies & Govt. Regulations, Fast track Clearance, AD Code Registration and Insurance related issues.

BWI now has emerged as a successful Product Sourcing Agent from China and other parts of the world. It has developed a professional and trustful relationship with Chinese manufacturers & suppliers and Indian importers. The company helps its customers to overcome various barriers such as language, cultural and EXIM formalities while dealing with suppliers and manufacturers from China and Europe.

The electronic proof of delivery (POD) followed by DOD direct ( Draft online) real-time shipment notification was introduced in the BWI logistics to speed up processing and reducing lead time. The company heads by Managing Director Sh. Balraj Kumar, General Manager Sh. V.B. Luthra, and Managers of different departments including my supervisor Sh. Updesh Singh, accountants and delivery boys. BWI logistics has at present 130 (approx.) employees serving in a different location.

2.2 Internship activities

I prepare this report for my two-month practical experience at BWI Logistic Private Limited, New Delhi.The main purpose of the internship is to gain exposure to an Export & Import and Customs Clearance of goods. My supervisor explains every aspect of Balance Sheet and Statement of Profit and Loss of BWI for three consecutive financial years from 2013-14 to 2015-16.The following section would give a detail description of the internship objectives and the working I conducted.

a) Objectives of the internship

b)Task description

I started my internship on Saturday 1st July at the BWI Logistic Private Limited, located on the 2nd floor, DDA Shed, Okhla Industrial Area Phase-1, New Delhi. The working hours in the company started at 9.00 AM and finished at 17.00 PM with a biometric attendance system for its employees. There is a no work in the company on national holidays and Sundays. On the first day in the company I was received in the company office by my supervisor Mr Updesh Singh, and he introduced me to the entire staff of the company.

During the internship, I have learned the functioning of different departments of BWI logistics. I have started my internship from freight forwarding department and learned under the guidance of the supervisor how one could move the shipment from the country of origin to the home country. The supervisor explains the logistic terms such as FOB, CIF, Ex- Works and C& F before going into detail functioning of the freight forwarding department.

I was shifted from freight forwarding department to Documentation department as a Documentation Executive after two weeks. My supervisor tells me how to handle the complete process of import of goods which starts with Managing Director email about the consignment and ends with delivery at consignee warehouse. I start working independently in this position under the guidance of the supervisor Sh. Updesh Singh.

I process the order received in the mail and contacted the agent sitting in the country of origin and discuss with him about the consignment on behalf of the purchaser. I settled everything including the cost of the articles to be purchased, customs clearance fee and company charges and forwarded all the information to the Managing Director for his final approval.

Documentation department usually handles the documents required for the customs clearance purpose. Supervisor explains the terms bill of lading and waybill in detail. He told that a bill of lading is a binding contract that serves three main purposes:

A \”Waybill\” is a non-negotiable document prepared by or on behalf of the carrier at the origin. The document shows origin point, destination, route, consignor, consignee, shipment description and the amount charged for the transportation service.

Documentation Executive tracks the shipment and updates the information to the consignee weekly and daily basis through DSR about his / her coming shipments. He also coordinates with shipping line or airline in connection with shipment arrival and collects delivery orders after paying the charges. After customs clearance at the delivery port, the shipment is handed over to the operations department for further action.

In the documentation department, document executive has a great responsibility to decide whether import/ export the shipments at a given cost in the present market scenario. He has to watch the currency fluctuation and political stability of the country of origin before making the final decision on the shipment.

I was shifted to Customs clearance office after four weeks training at the company head office. Supervisor explains that the goods are cleared through two different systems from ICD Delhi. If the goods are cleared through the EDI system, no formal Bill of Entry is filed as it is generated in the computer system, but the importer is required to file a cargo declaration having prescribed particulars required for processing of the entry for customs clearance.

BWI logistic get an order from Delhi based firm for the shipment of shoes from Shanghai (China). The freight forwarding works starts from the Export clearance at the discharge port ( Shangai, China), and import clearance at the delivery port (ICD, New Delhi). I handle this consignment independently after six weeks training in freight forwarding department, Documentation department and Customs clearance office at ICD Delhi.

The ICD Delhi offers E-tracking services for a bill of entry, shipping bill and daily list. After checking the daily list on E-tracking system of ICD Delhi I submit the signed invoice, checklist, KYC documents on behalf of CHA for the calculation of customs duty for our consignment. Debit note/ Demand draft is prepared on the behalf of consignee for the delivery order of this consignment.

The customs officer issues an examination order before releasing the consignment. In this order, 10% of the declared items were checked as per examination order and the consignment is handed over to the consignee. The Managing Director and Supervisor both appreciated my negotiation skills at different stages of the shipment and timely delivery of this shipment to the consignee.

Furthermore, I attended the weekly office meetings, which gave a nice overview of the specific activities of BWI logistics. I also participated in a meeting organized by BWI logistics with agents from Shangai (China) chaired by Sh. Balraj Kumar. The aim of this meeting was to discuss the impact of GST (Goods and Service Tax) on the goods imported from China. Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax which was introduced in India on 1 July 2017 and was applicable throughout India which replaced multiple cascading taxes levied by the central and state governments. The GST is imposed at different rates 0%, 5%, 12%,18% and 28% on different items.

After six weeks training, I was familiar with the basic principles and concepts of freight forwarding transportation including the flow and stages of sea/air freight shipment. It can be illustrated by a flow- chart given be Each task performed in the logistic system incurs a cost. Supervisor explains different types of costs such as direct costs (transport, storage, inventory, handling, and communications) and indirect costs, fixed and variable costs, tangible and intangible costs.

He also explains the difference between controlled costs versus liability and its impact on operations. As we have studied in the Finance in 1st year that controlled costs are costs that the management tries to take the hold off to work efficiently without having to deviate from its actual cost. When there is a change from the actual costs or routine, a liability is created.

He further explains that suppose there is a shipment that comes to port and if we don’t open a file, for example, if overlook an LCL shipment and the shipment came on the 10th of August and supervisor finds out this shipment was not opened until the 20th of August, then BWI logistic has to pay storage fee for that shipment. If the file is opened on the shipment arrival date, then it is a controlled routine, but when the routine is broken, it becomes a liability for the company. This affects the operation in a negative way, so it is better to open the files by the estimated time of arrival and won’t mess the shipments up.

3. Reflection on the internship

The internship provided me with ample opportunity to learn new skills and develop existing ones mostly during the first four weeks. During the course of the internship, I learned valuable information and gained a professional experience that is relevant and directly related to my study at Maastricht University. An important part of this internship was learning about logistics as a career path and evaluating my interests in this field.

Throughout my time at the BWI logistics, I was exposed to different departments and a variety of people with whom I interacted during the internship. Another important skill I developed was the ability to think strategically about the progress of my work. Now I have a better picture of what is required for international imports to India by sea/air route.

The numerous documents, the container requirement, what terms are the importers using for trade, how the importing/ exporting is done, how the customs clearance is done, the cost factor in the process of logistics chain — these questions can be answered better now after the internship.

The colleagues that I have worked with were very nice and helpful. This internship is my first experience in the transportation industry. For almost two months I dealt actively with BWI logistics staff and I had a chance not only closely see their work but also learned directly from them by assisting them in the company routine work. However, what I found to be most important was the fact that I put in all theory into practice what I learned at Maastricht University during my two-year courses.

Conclusion

On the whole, this internship was a useful experience. I have gained new knowledge, skills and met many new people. This helped me to define what skills and knowledge are necessary to improve in the coming time. I learned the different facets of working within a company. Overall, this internship enabled me to see my strengths and weaknesses, evaluate my interests, and develop practical skills.

There is still a lot to discover and to improve. The experience and knowledge gained during the course of the internship were more than satisfactory. The internship in the logistics was very challenging at times, but mostly, it was educating, and it opened new horizons for my career. The staff at the BWI logistics deserve a special appreciation for the support and guidance shown to me during the internship. BWI logistics is a small company and it helps the interns to improve and develop their skills.

I would recommend an internship at the BWI logistics because of the magnificent opportunity of professional growth. In conclusion, this internship has given me new insights and motivation to pursue a career in a logistics company.