Vlaardingen goes paperless

Covid-19 has forced us all to rethink procedures to reduce unnecessary physical contact. In Vlaardingen, they have introduced digital document handling. They now receive packing lists and notices of dangerous goods by e-mail and use tablets for administrative processes at the terminal.

“I used to spend a lot of time waiting at the printer,” says Vlaardingen Shipping Logistics Coordinator Egle Budryte. “Drivers would arrive with papers to be signed by terminal workers. The papers would then be scanned, printed for the archive and then emailed to our colleagues in Immingham. Now that the terminal workers walk around with a tablet, they can email me directly and I just click forward.”

“We’re constantly trying to find ways of improving the workflow between our terminal colleagues and the shipping and logistics handlers,” Egle continues. By using a tablet, we can ensure quicker document transactions and not have to deal with missed or wrong documents. We now spend less time on manual paper handling. This frees up time to do other important work.”

One step at a a time

“Our aim is to go paperless as much as possible as we strongly believe that this will bring benefits to all involved parties, as well as the environment. We are urging customers to adapt to and accept the new routines, but we also recognise that old habits die hard. Drivers still have hardcopies of Cargo Movement Requirement documents (CMRs), and until this too is digitised, it will feel like double the work to also use digital processes. But we strongly believe that full digitisation is where we are headed and are taking one step at a time to make sure that our customers also see the benefits of a paperless collaboration with us,” says DFDS Netherlands Route Director Jacob Andersen.

Learn more about what we are doing to bring down emissions not related to ships here