International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) has rolled out a new e-commerce service, the Web Booking, which allows the paperless booking of full export containers at its flagship, Manila International Container Terminal (MICT). 
Web Booking is an online-based application intended to make business transactions at the terminal more efficient. The service is a complementary feature of MICT’s new gate system, a state-of-the-art automated entry system that features computer imaging and tracking systems, boom barriers, weighbridges, truck portals with imaging cameras, automated driver transaction kiosks, and radiation portal monitors. 
Web booking is available at the terminal’s e-commerce facility, MICT iBox, which can be accessed via MICT’s website, www.mictweb.com.
Through Web Booking, shipping lines access MICT’s iBox facilty, create and finalize a booking, and the container is automatically booked. Trucks no longer need to proceed to the administration check (A-Check) for export containers as this procedure has been taken out. Trucks go directly to the entrance gates.
For shipping lines capable of transacting computer to computer information exchanges, electronic data interchange is also possible as the system fully supports Container Announcement Message, a standard UN/EDIFACT message exchange implemented worldwide. This means that shipping lines no longer need to re-input existing data about the export containers on Web Booking as MICT’s system is able to automatically verify the data.
An added feature of Web Booking is its capability to report and monitor cargo status. Thus, shipping lines can have real time updates on a cargo’s status upon its entry until exit from the MICT.
Before Web Booking, shipping line clients of MICT used the Export Container Order (ECO) for the booking of containers. A pre-gate entry procedure, the ECO is presented to the A-Check, where data is manually inputted into the booking system. After the container is booked, only then will the container be allowed entry through the gates. At the entry, checkers conduct a manual physical inspection (P-Check) of the containers before allowing the containers to proceed to the stacking yard.
The manual A-Check had capably run the booking of containers for years. However, the gradual increase in export container volume at the terminal resulted in a slow down in the handling of boxes. Queuing started as more truck drivers lined up to present the ECO in A-Check for manual encoding of the container booking. The procedure started to be susceptible to some errors and delays as ECO data were at times, because of the manual handling, incomplete, incorrect, or even tampered with. These translated to a slower movement at the truck holding area, slowing overall container movement. With the scenario, the MICT found it apt to initiate an enhanced booking system, not only to accommodate increasing trade volume, but also to streamline the booking process.
With the paperless procedure, the long lines at the A-Check was addressed; inconsistencies were resolved as the shipping lines themselves encode the data; while ECO tampering is easier to track as Web Booking users are required to log in prior to booking. Moreover, being automated, the system easily responds to the increased container volume entering the MICT.
“The advent of the new gate system, and in particular the introduction of the Web Booking service, has been well received by the shipping lines. The new system has helped raise efficiency in the handling of containers and eradicated queues,” says Tommy Ysip, ICTSI Systems/ Process Development Manager and project head for Web Booking. “Overall, it has helped improve productivity and efficiency in the terminal,” he adds.
The MICT is currently studying the possible inclusion of empty export containers and import containers in Web Booking. “The most ideal situation is to have all containers that pass through the MICT booked prior to entry at the terminal. With innovation being among the thrusts of the company, we’ll surely look into that,” adds Ysip.
Since its takeover of the MICT in 1988, ICTSI has introduced infrastructure, equipment, system, and human resource upgrading at the terminal. ICTSI has transformed the MICT from an underdeveloped, poorly run terminal to the container port it is today— the most modern and largest container terminal in the Philippines at par with the world’s best.
Aside from MICT, ICTSI also operates four other terminals in the Philippines and seven overseas. Philippine operations include the NSD Terminal in the Subic Bay Freeport, Bauan Terminal in Batangas, Makar Wharf in Gen. Santos City, and the Sasa Wharf in Davao City. Foreign operations include the Suape Container Terminal in Brazil, Baltic Container Terminal in Poland, Madagascar International Container Terminal in Madagascar, Naha International Container Terminal in Japan, Makassar Container Terminal in Indonesia, Tartous International Container Terminal in Syria, and Yantai Gangtong Terminal in China. ICTSI recently won the bid to operate the Port of Guayaquil in Ecuador.