Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, as part of the ‘National Logistics Policy (NLP)’ on September 17, 2022 is the promising initiative in the logistics sector that aims to bring ease of doing business in the logistics sector by simplifying the logistics processes, improving its efficiency, bringing in transparency and visibility, and reducing logistics cost & time.
The Platform is receiving tremendous response from the industry. Till date, 13 organisations – MapMyIndia, CargoExchange, Freight Fox, Conmove, Intugine, Eikonatech, Yes Bank, Superprocure, CargoShakti, CloudStrats, Shyplite, APSEZL, and AITWA have signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to access data on ULIP. NDAs with 11 more organisations like Instavans & Trucks, Bosch India, Portlinks, Shiprocket, etc. are in the process.
The startups are gearing-up to showcase their innovative ideas for creating new solutions for the sector whereas large enterprises are mulling to integrate with ULIP for simplifying complex logistics processes, verifying the documents of vendors as well as to get visibility of cargo movement.
The ULIP platform will enable the industry players to get secure access to the information related to logistics and resources available with various Ministries. At present 30 systems from seven ministries are integrated through more than 100 APIs covering more than 1600 data fields for usage by the stakeholders.
ULIP has a dedicated portal that makes the process of data request simpler, faster, and transparent. The portal can be accessed through “https://goulip.in/”. A dedicated support team is working round the clock to provide support to the industry players for registration on the portal. After the registration, users need to submit their use-cases, which will then be reviewed based on the proposed usage of the requested data. After the successful review, users requesting for data will have to sign a ‘Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)’. With signing of the NDAs, industry players can develop APIs for integration with ULIP. After the system security check and thorough testing of the integration, the users can fetch authentic data through ULIP from various government sources.
ULIP will give direct and indirect benefits to all logistics stakeholders like verification of drivers and vehicles details in a single click, tracking & tracing of consignment, Route Optimization Planning, timely update on the destination of the consignment, reduce paper works, empty carrier & container visibility, inventory management etc. By reducing regulatory, documentary and other delays, ULIP will enable structured planning by helping in decision making on optimum use of modes of logistics thereby saving cost and time.
With democratisation of the information, ULIP aims to enable the industry players for creating a market for revenue generation as well as abolition of monopoly and un-levelled advantage. Achieving positive results at granular and individual level will have a tremendous constructive impact on the overall logistics sector of India along with Logistics Cost percentage of GDP and enhancement in the global logistics indices of India.