PORTS & CARGO HANDLING SERVICES LIMITED

Standard Operating Procedures

ARRANGEMENTS FOR VESSEL BERTHING

 On a daily basis, PCHS will communicate with the shipping lines/vessel operators and the
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to agree on a berthing schedule, the agreed schedule will be
forwarded to all interested stakeholders.
 Berthing will be on a first come first serve basis with the following possible exceptions: If
vessels are not geared and PCHS has no mobile cranes available to start vessel operations,
other limiting factors could be LOA, Vessel draft or terminal congestion.
 A Ship Entry Notice (SEN) will be required from the NPA; this is an approval form notifying
terminal operators on approval to berth a vessel at the terminal. It contains some important
detailed information about the vessel, most especially the tonnage and length over all
(L.O.A)
 A cargo manifest will be required which contains cargo description and names of owners.
 The manifest is keyed into the company computer system to guide the Billing department on
what to bill consignees.
 A cargo arrival list (CAL) which contains cargo details, names and residential address of
owners for reconciliation.
 On receipt of a SEN & MANIFEST, a file is opened on a vessel.

VESSEL OPERATIONS

Vessel Discharge:

To handle a vessel at PCHS the following will be required:

 Vessel manifest
 A copy of the vessels discharge list
 Vessel stowage plan
 Port rotation numbers, vessel codes, service codes, LOA and call sign of vessel.
 The sailing schedule is to be received at least 14 days ahead of the ETA and updated on a
daily basis.
 Information on the type of vessel, geared or gearless to be received at least 7 days in
advance of a vessels call.
 The amount of containers to be discharged
 All information on DG and OOG
 The shipping line will be advised immediately of any short or over-landed containers
 After the vessel has completed discharge, PCHS will provide confirmation of all containers
which have been discharged within 24 hours.
 As a general rule containers that are for an off dock will be block stacked in the terminal for
transfer

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VESSEL LOADING
 Before being able to plan the loading of a vessel, PCHS will need a stowage loading list at
least 36 hours in advance of the ETA.
 Exact stowage locations for containers such as out-of-gauge containers, reefers and
dangerous goods.
 PCHS requires a full load list with container numbers excluding the empty containers to be
loaded. This load list will be accepted as the shipping line release
 All container weights that are mentioned are gross so the cargo and weight are combined
 PCHS will need a list of container numbers and the planned position for DG, OOG and reefer
containers.
 Any re-stow instructions detailing from position to position.
 On completion of all vessel loading operations, a report will be provided detailing the
number of containers discharged, numbers of laden & empty containers which have been
loaded to the vessel to include DG, OOG and any damaged containers

GATE OPERATIONS PROCEDURES

 PCHS will provide a daily report of all gated in/out containers to each shipping line.
 This report will be forwarded in soft copy from PCHS Planning Department
 Only trucks with four working twist-locks will be allowed into the terminal
 Trucks must have working lights - front & rear
 Trucks must have working brakes
 Trucks & trailers must be in a reasonable working condition
 Trucks must be able to safely carry the weight of the containers
 Trucks must not leak oil
 If trucks breaks down in the terminal, they will be moved at the owners expense
 Only the driver of the truck will be allowed to enter the terminal and he must remain with
the vehicle
 Trucks must have a valid delivery/collection order
 Only the driver is allowed to enter the terminal and he should be in possession of a high
visibility vest in case he needs to exit his vehicle.
 Billing Section Opening hours
 Monday to Saturday - 0800 to 1700 hours
 Gate Opening Hours – 24hrs seven days a week, except for public holidays

PROCEDURES FOR CONTAINER DOCUMENTATION & DISPATCH

 Containers are discharged from vessels at quay side and transferred to the stacking areas
 We currently have Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Echo & Delta stacks demarcated for containers
identification.

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  The tracking of containers is carried out by the planning department who monitors the
locations and positioning of containers using Terminal Operating System (OSCAR), which
captures data.
 The agents representing the consignee who after completing releasing documentation at the
shipping companies and at our customs house opposite the terminal, comes with the
following documents:
 Copy of bill of laden. Consignee’s name on bill of laden must correspond to name on the
Container Arrival List (CAL)
 Copy of shipping company debit note and receipt of payment (original for sighting)
 Copy of duty-pay-in slip and receipt
 Copy of Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR)
 Copy of form M.
 Copy of payments schedule.
 Copy of release order and customs assessment notice.
 Copy of exchange control (customs release)
 I.D Card/port pass of the customs agent
 Agency stamp
 Customs authority card/P&CHS authority
 Copy of bonded transire (original for sighting) for bonded consignment
 Original of P&CHS debit note and receipt of payment.
 P&CHS customs examination form
 Original delivery order (D/O) from shipping company.
 With all these documents presented and assessed to be satisfactory, the terminal order will
be prepared. The original delivery order (D/O) is collected and the receipt is crossed to
prevent false presentation, before the TDO is issued
 The TDO is then printed and a loading order is issued.

EXAMINATION PROCEDURES

All containers must either be examined by customs or scanned.

For containers needing examination, the following needs to be done:

 The agent presents all the above mentioned documents to PCHS documentation staff, who
are located at the customs house who will then fill in an examination form
 PCHS then await the readiness of the clearing agent before the examination is scheduled
with the customs personnel
 On the day arranged for the examination, the container is positioned by PCHS at the
examination bay
 PCHS provides a tally clerk and sufficient labour to off load and reload the container
 After a satisfactory examination the agent brings the particulars of the truck he intends to
deploy to carry the container
 A loading order is then issued which must be presented to the gate-out for exit procedures

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SCANNING PROCEDURES

 The agent brings in the shipping company D/O, after completion of all other procedures.
 The T.D.O is issued, alongside a loading order, which enables the agent to take the container
to the scanning area for electric scanning.
 After a satisfactory report is obtained from COTECNA, the agent is free to commence exit
procedures at the exit gate

REEFER UNITS

 The Planning department notifies the Operations department and electrical staff of
incoming reefers from vessels or road
 The operations department checks the reefer units on board and confirms if they are in a
good condition and also collects reefer units readings from chief officer/mate
 Operations department ensures reefer units are stacked at the correct location
 Operations department undertakes daily monitoring of reefer units, recording readings and
alerting the Terminal Manager of any problems
 Operations department positions reefer units for examination
The delivery of reefer units to owners through agents only with the following documents
 Terminal Delivery order
 Gate pass
 Shipping company delivery order (DO)
 Customs release note after payment of duty
 Operations staffs are to provide reading reports for the Terminal Manager and Planning
department.

PROCEDURES FOR GENERAL CARGO DOCUMENTATION & DESPATCH

Receiving into shed & stacking area:

 Upon discharge of general cargo from the vessels, the tally clerks tally same either to the
waiting trucks as direct delivery or to the shed and stacking area
 For cargo going to the shed stacking areas, receiving tally clerks would receive and tally the
consignment into shed & stacking area
 At the end of each day’s work, reconciliation must be done by the officers in the general
cargo section with the lines manifest to ascertain correctness of the quantity of the cargo
delivered by the vessel
 If any difference is observed, it must be brought to the attention of both parties- the vessel
agents and P&CHS as quickly as possible to trace anomalies
 For cargo taken on direct delivery, a receiving clerk from General Cargo section would tally
and record the relevant particulars of items so directly taken, using PCHS tally sheets.
 During direct delivery operations, tally clerks will liaise closely with the Documentation
Manager regularly for proper coordination and a good flow of information.

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  Delivery tally sheets will be prepared to capture all directly delivered cargo on each
particular vessel. This will be taken to the out gate to confirm items so directly delivered.
For deliveries done from the stacking Areas, the following procedures will be followed:
 The agent comes with the bill of laden to confirm ownership of the cargo as well as other
relevant documents obtained from the shipping company and the customs
 Normal billing processes are followed leading to the agent obtaining PCHS invoice and
paying for same.
 Releasing is done at the billing (customs house) and the agent can then come to the terminal
to continue the delivery process.
 At the terminal, the agent presents all documents (as listed in above section on containers).
 Tally clerks checks all documents and prepares the delivery tally sheets which will be sent to
the out gate pending when the agent will be ready to take delivery of cargo.
 Documentation units prepare T.D.O, after sighting the D/O issued by shipping company.
 The agent presents particulars of his truck and the documentation unit raises the loading
order.
 After the cargo has been loaded, the gate pass is issued for exit procedures to commence.

GATE OPERATIONS

 The Gate Control department liaises between Documentation & Billing departments and
yard operations in line with their functions. They are to scrutinize, detect and correct any
document found not to be in order and alert the C.S.O and MD, PCHS
 We must note that processing of documents for delivery is centralized in the Documentation
Unit of the PCHS billing department
 The gate control department is made up the following sections:
Entry Gate
Scanning Gate
Final Exit Gate

ENTRY GATE

To ensure effective and proper control over entry point to PCHS terminal in respect to trucks and
equipments, the following controls are in place:

 Gating into terminal the empty containers

 Gating into the terminal the full exports
 Gating into the terminal trucks for loading cargo for delivery
 Issuing gate pass

GATE PASS

When issuing gate pass, the agent is expected to present the following:

 Terminal Delivery Order (TDO)

 Bill of Lading (BL)

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  Debit Note (DN)
 Payment Receipt (PR)

EMPTY & IMPORT CONTAINERS

 Before trucks and equipment are allowed to gain entrance into the terminal, the driver must
present an Authority to Load (A.T.L)
 All relevant payments must have been made and all other processes for clearing of the
consignment must have been done before an attempt is made to enter the terminal.
 Entry Gate clerk vets all documents with respect to which truck or equipment is entering the
terminal. All necessary clearance must be obtained.

EXPORT CONSIGNMENTS

 For export consignments, all payments needed to allow the consignment to be exported
must have been made before the entry gate clerk will allow the consignment into the
terminal
 All documents must be vetted and confirmed correct before entry is permitted.
 Copies of export documents must be deposited at the entry gate.

DELIVERY

 Vetting of all relevant documents and payments before trucks is allowed into terminal
 Authority to load (A.T.L) must be presented. All agencies must have cleared their
consignment for delivery
 The same procedures apply to general cargo, bulk cargo and groupage etc. For trucks coming
to PCHS facility to pick cargo on a direct delivery basis need to be recorded and
documented, to help monitor possible incidence at the quay side

CONDITION REPORTS

 The equipment interchange reports (EIR) for all empty containers returned to the terminal
are issued at the entry gate
 The number of empty containers allowed into PCHS depends on space availability in the
yard.
 To avoid congestion of trucks in the yard, the entry gate control the number of trucks
allowed into the terminal
 The gate entry & exit operates a 24-hour shift system

SCAN GATE

Before cargoes are delivered into COTECNA yard for scanning, the following are required from the
agent:

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  Terminal Delivery Order (T.D.O)
 Bill of Lading
 Gate Pass
 Debit Note
 Payment Receipt
 Customs authorisation to scan

FINAL EXIT GATE

The final exit comprises of three gates:

 Exit for containers & transfers

 Exit for general cargoes, groupage, trucks, caterpillars and empty trucks
 The third gate is used for RoRo cargo to include buses, cars, trucks and pay loaders
 Before cargo is exited from the terminal, it must be dispatched from the system at
the final exit gate.
For it to be dispatched the following documents must be produced
by agents:
 Bill of Lading
 Debit Note
 Payment Receipt
 Gate Pass
 Shipping company delivery order (the documents must be valid)

At the final exit gate, cargo details are recorded electronically and manually as a backup.

Customs requirements before gate release:

 C.I.U
 Valuation
 Enforcement

All must be present at the final exit gate to release cargoes.

Copies of all delivered cargoes are kept at the final exit gate for future references.

For cargoes to be dispatched effectively at the exit gate, the Traffic Control units of PCHS H.S.E

will always be seen controlling the traffic

CONTAINER TRANSFER

 It is normal to expect all APAPA containers discharged from vessels to be transferred to

SIFAX OFFDOCK BONDED TERMINAL where they will be delivered to customers/owners
through their agents.

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  For this to happen, documents for processing at the three Nigeria Customs Service
commands must be received 72 hours prior to vessel arrival.

The three commands in order of processing are:

 Apapa (SIFAX Bonded Terminal is under Apapa Command). Duration of processing is usually
2 days
 Tin Can (Vessel arrives here ) Duration of processing is usually for 2 days
 Federal Operating Unit (provides escort for containers) Duration of processing is usually 1
day

PROCEDURE

NCS Apapa command:

 Submission at Customs Area Controller (C.A.C) office

 C.A.C minutes to ASYCUDA Project Manager/customs processing centre.(APM/DC-CPC)
 APM/CDC-CPC minute to O/C Bond
 O/C Bond will apply bond number and return document to C.A.C
 C.A.C will attach a forwarding letters to Tin Can island command

NCS Tin Can Island command:

 Letter and transire form completed upon receipt of documents from Planning department
 Submission of application to Customs Area Comptroller’s office
 Applications moves from C.A.C to APM/DC-CPC for endorsement to bond office
 Bond office receives application and applies bond number
 Application is sent to APM/DC-CPC who in turn sends it to the technical supervisors (TS) for
manifest checking
 Application is returned to APM/DC-CPC for recommendation to C.A.C
 Approval is granted
 Document is returned to Bond office for final directives to enforcement unit
 Enforcement endorses application to O/C Terminal “C” and O/C RoRo Gate for provision of
exit
 Several copies are made for distribution to O/C Gate for provision of exit disk
 Dispatch of copies to O/C Gate by enforcement unit (Escort officer)
 Endorsement to disk officer for placement of disk.
 Disk is placed and signed by operations officer and returned to O/C gate for approval.
 Approval granted and taken to gate officers for registration before eventual transfers of
containers
 Finally copies of approved document are distributed to N.P.A Gate and other agencies
 Please note that registration and dispatch processes by relevant officers, is often the reason
for delay experienced in obtaining quick approvals. Especially, as Transires/Bonds are usually
lumped with numerous other documents requiring attention.

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NCS Federal Operating Unit (IKEJA)

 Once the documents have been processed and given the go ahead by CAC at the Tincan
Island command, a designated staff will go to the above unit and process the documents
again and obtain the necessary customs personnel escort for the containers without which
the containers cannot be moved out of Tincan Island port.
 The NPA documentation and the CAL are also processed before the completion of the
transfer of containers from the vessel. This is done by the designated staff in conjunction
with the departments resident custom escort officer.

MODE OF OPERATIONS

 The HOD and the Assistant Manager ensures transfer documents are received on time from
the Planning department and if not an alarm is raised.
 Apapa command – designated staff
 Tincan command- designated staff
 FOU-designated staff.

For logistics reasons, the Transfer department has an office at shed 5 where the clerks along with
the haulage and yard operations ensure that the containers are loaded, documentation completed
and containers transferred without delay

P&CHS BILLING AND DOCUMENTATION PROCESS

This process is in two (2) stages which are enumerated below:

STAGE 1: VESSEL SET UP AND VESSEL BILLING

FORECAST REPORT.

 When a vessel is due to arrive, a report is generated by the Planning department and
communicated to all sections that are involved in the operations on the ship. This forecast
report sensitizes all and preparations are made in advance for smooth operations. Most
especially if the ship is coming for the first time.

FINAL BILL FOR VESSEL

 After the arrival and sailing of a vessel, the out turn report of the discharge and loading is
requested from the Operations department by the Billing department and when received,
the final bill is generated to the shipping company.
 The final bill/invoice is manually typed according to what is on the out turn report and
documents received from the operations department with additional reports on security and
export storage document for vessels. When this is completed, the final bill is processed both
in foreign (Dollar) and local currency (Naira. In respect to the above, a bill is raised.
 After the invoice is raised, it is registered in a book and then sent to Internal Audit at the
head office for proper checking and dispatch to shipping company to effect payment.

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STAGE 2: FOR CONSIGNEE BILLING.

 First information about the berthing date of a vessel must be established, discharge/loading
(empties and export containers) and sailing date of the vessel.
 The operations here are mainly billing and documentation (P&CHS) of individual containers
(20 and 40 ft- dry, reefers, open top and out-of-gauge) cars/bus/trucks/trailers/plants
excavators and other general cargo items. They are spread out into different sections within
to ensure that laid down rules and process are followed based on the company Navision
programme.

TRACKING UNIT

 Each consignee is entitled to a Bill of Lading issued by the shipping company. This document
contains information about the nature of the imported goods.
 With the Bill of Lading number, the tracking of units and general cargo in the terminal can
easily be confirmed if it has been discharged or a vessel has arrived in the terminal.
 For vehicles, the chassis number is used for identification.

BILLING UNIT

 This unit’s main responsibility is to issue an invoice through the company’s debit note to the
consignee or agents based on the Bill of Lading and P&CH approved agency letter of
authority and with an I.D Card.
 Bills rating date is done to the request of the consignee or agent and with respect to the
company’s charges already entered into the company’s Navision system.

Items required here are:

 Bill of Lading
 PCHS approved agency letter of authority
 PCHS agency representatives identity card
 Shipping company delivery order- for additional debit note on MSC vessels only or if vessel
short landed.

NOTE:

 The consignee is to clear their goods within 90 days of arrival, otherwise it will enter
overtime which needs customs authority before it is cleared.
 Agents will come for additional debit note once their invoices are about to expire and the
consignment is still in the terminal.
 Dispatch should not be allowed by the system if there is still demurrage showing on the
system.

RECEIPT UNIT

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  Cash or bank draft can be used for payment at the company’s designated Ecobank branch
situated in the terminal.
 A bank teller filled with respect to the amount on the invoices is endorsed and a
confirmation sent to PCHS.
 The next action is to print out receipt based on the presentation of the bank teller, a copy of
the invoice already stamped by the bank and further items required are:
(a) A copy of the bank payment receipt
(b) Bank-endorsed copy of PCHS invoice

EXAMINATION UNIT.

 This is one of the units in the documentation section where agents apply for an examination
of their goods through an examination form.
 The examination staff must ensure the agent has made payment based on a recognized
delivery date before the agent can book for examination.
 The physical examination is performed at the company’s terminal examination bay by the
government agents e.g. CUSTOMS, NAFDAC etc. Items required for the process are:
(a) Printed company’s invoice
(b) Bill of Lading
(c) Face of entry
(d) Authority letter from agent and
(e) Agent representative identity card.

EXIT UNIT

 At the exit unit office, an exit or clearance note is issued after there is evidence that the
customs duty and shipping company charges have been paid.
 Documents required are:
(a) Bill of Lading
(b) Customs SDG form
(c) Customs duty receipt
(d) Shipping company receipt

RELEASING UNIT (TERMINAL DELIVERY ORDER)

 This is a part of the documentation section where the final checking of all documents
necessary for the clearing of goods is done.
 Here staff must ensure that all documents are scrutinized and also confirmed that all bills
are paid up to date before a terminal delivery order is issued.
 In this process we must have received a scanned copy of the shipping company confirmation
of their delivery order (awaiting the hard copy from the agent) before we finally issue the
PCHS Terminal Delivery Order (TDO).
 Documents necessary for this action are:
(a) A valid original shipping company delivery order

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 (b) A copy of each of the shipping company debit and receipt note
(c) Agent’s authority letter and identity card.
(d) Form C 30
(e) Copy of the customs-endorsed examination form
(f) A copy of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR)
(g) A Copy of the Bill of Lading
(h) Up to date payment of Ports & Cargo debit and receipt note.
(i) A Copy of the exit note

The next action is delivery and a gate pass must be issued for this exercise to allow the
agent or consignee to exit with their consignment.

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