E-POD is Electronically Scanned copy of Proof of Delivery (POD). In India, POD is a physical paper where customer stamps his acknowledgement of receipts of goods. In case of any problem- same is mentioned on the paper as well.
Billing department of customer requires a copy or original of POD to be attached to each invoice. They use the same to audit the transaction and approve invoice.
Many transporter are trying to introduce a concept of e-POD where a scanned copy of POD is made available to a shipper online. This requires that POD can be scanned at delivery location. With advent of mobile devices, it is also now possible to take a photo of POD and send over network.
Many people see e-POD as a tool to help customers. But as we will see below- it has much more benefits to transporter than customers.
Here is how-
In absence of e-POD, a trucker is dependent on driver/ broker/ delivery branch to get the POD physical copy. What does he use POD for? He checks the details of delivery and ensures there are no adverse comments.
He then clears such a booking as CLEAN and bills the customer. But he can not bill customer every day so he waits till billing cycle arrives and then generates a bill.
Now the paper system has a problem that PODs do not arrive in time or get missed or need to be manually searched and checked and mapped to correct customer etc.
Once you have e-POD, it can be audited easily online without paper to arrive. Also, approved transactions can be parked separately awaiting billing. Problem transactions can be identified and interaction with delivery branch/ broker/ customer can start to get full facts.
This way, we are ready for billing much before bill cycle date. We then just press a button and bill is ready!! Chances of rejection go down as proper audit was done for all transactions.
This seemingly simple concept can cut down 15 to 30 days from working capital cycle.
For a company with 100 Cr turnover that is savings of almost 10 L per month or Rs. 1 cr a year on working capital interest cost alone !!
Billing department of customer requires a copy or original of POD to be attached to each invoice. They use the same to audit the transaction and approve invoice.
Many transporter are trying to introduce a concept of e-POD where a scanned copy of POD is made available to a shipper online. This requires that POD can be scanned at delivery location. With advent of mobile devices, it is also now possible to take a photo of POD and send over network.
Many people see e-POD as a tool to help customers. But as we will see below- it has much more benefits to transporter than customers.
Here is how-
In absence of e-POD, a trucker is dependent on driver/ broker/ delivery branch to get the POD physical copy. What does he use POD for? He checks the details of delivery and ensures there are no adverse comments.
He then clears such a booking as CLEAN and bills the customer. But he can not bill customer every day so he waits till billing cycle arrives and then generates a bill.
Now the paper system has a problem that PODs do not arrive in time or get missed or need to be manually searched and checked and mapped to correct customer etc.
Once you have e-POD, it can be audited easily online without paper to arrive. Also, approved transactions can be parked separately awaiting billing. Problem transactions can be identified and interaction with delivery branch/ broker/ customer can start to get full facts.
This way, we are ready for billing much before bill cycle date. We then just press a button and bill is ready!! Chances of rejection go down as proper audit was done for all transactions.
This seemingly simple concept can cut down 15 to 30 days from working capital cycle.
For a company with 100 Cr turnover that is savings of almost 10 L per month or Rs. 1 cr a year on working capital interest cost alone !!
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