Services

Our Services

St. John Freight Systems has a well-diversified presence in the logistics industry. We’ve been in the business for over 30 years now. We have a multi-disciplined diversely-talented workforce of 1400+ dedicated staff, spread across 4 continents, 15 countries and 50 offices. These factors combine effectively to provide the most comprehensive logistics solutions carefully designed to efficiently manage your supply chain.

Our network is closely integrated with our global partners’ networks and together we ensure the most optimal supply chain solutions for our customers across the globe.

Whether you are wondering how to launch your product in a new market, or an established logistics services user wanting better efficiencies from your existing supply chain, we can service your needs cost-effectively.

Supply Chain Management / Third-party Logistics (3PL)

St.John is one of the leading providers of integrated logistics solutions. We manage and improve the orchestration of our customers' supply chains, from the time of planning and procurement through to the arrival and delivery of the products at their final destination.

At St.John we have the skills and experience necessary to manage your supply chain throughout its entire life cycle - from initial design to daily management. And when smooth day-to-day operations are achieved, we remain focused on constant supply chain development, necessary to maintain and further evolve the optimal setup and infrastructure to remain ahead of the curve. Based on a commitment to create sustainable value to our clients, our dedicated Supply Chain Development teams add innovation to everything we do.

Freight Forwarding

- Ocean Freight Division

Ocean logistics has been our core area of operations. Our philosophy of cultivating long term relationships with the carriers has earned us respect amongst them. We work closely with the carrier to ensure we deliver value to our customers - required equipment, competitive rates, scheduled shipping departures. We are well equipped to handle any volume of cargo. Irrespective of the volume, our service commitment remains the same. We have direct carrier contract rates globally across all our offices especially to Europe and USA.

Transparency has been our hallmark and customers are updated at every stage regarding their precious cargo. We realize what miscommunication or delayed communication could do to your business. Regular transit updates and status are provided pro-actively by our customer service desk. Alternatively you can also track your cargo through our website wherein information can be designed to suit customer specific requirement.

Our service philosophy is very simple. We assume the cargo shipped is ours and provide the same service we would expect if we were a customer!

- Air Freight Division

St. John is an IATA-approved, FIATA approved  Air Freight services provider offering services from all major Indian metro cities/hubs as well as minor airports. Along with our vast agent partner network across the globe, we connect India and the rest of the world, providing you with efficient consolidation services.

A committed and efficient team of professionals at St John has developed a worldwide network of associates and an effective system to cater to challenging customer requirements. Special attention is given to urgent shipments.

Excellent relations are entertained with the most reliable carriers.

Other features

• Door to Door services
• Nationwide same day or overnight pick up services
• Express services
• Insurance
• Tracking and tracing
• End to end supply chain solutions
• Warehousing & distribution
• Air chartering
• Sea/air services

We combine network expertise to give you cost-effective time-bound services.

Consolidation / LCL service

LCL is today the main line of focus in the freight forwarding business, as mass markets move to niche markets of customised fragmentation. So you’ve got a small load of cargo, but you still want the economies of scale obtained through large cargo movement. LCL gives you that - this service is the best solution for delivering economically sizable loads of cargoes. We have extensive experience handling both general and specialized shipments including both inbound and outbound shipments.

We close own consol boxes to various destinations from major ports like Nhava Sheva, Tuticorin and Chennai. Overseas too, we offer such services in Europe, UK, Africa, China and Hong Kong – consolidating cargoes to all parts of the world.

 Furthermore, if you have a large number of suppliers with small consignments destined for different locations, we can consolidate them in FCL shipping containers, and coordinate the consignments, thus, saving you time and money.
You can rely on our comprehensive door to door service. In addition, we will arrange the best shipping options such as multimodal combinations of land/sea/air to meet your specific needs for safety, schedule and location.

NVOCC (Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier)

Our NVOCC division is one of the fastest growing in the business. Launched in 2008, the division acts in true NVOCC tradition - like a carrier but without operating the vessels ourselves. In other words, we have service contracts with vessel-operating carriers that enable us to offer our customers competitive freight rates.  We own and lease around 3000TEUs, operating in India, Sri Lanka, Port Klang, Bangladesh and Singapore. There are plans to further increase the inventory and launch operations in several countries.

 Global shipping is a tricky activity and the St. John NVOCC division helps its customers by de-complicating matters for them in an efficient and service-oriented manner, and has in the process earned itself a strong reputation.

Feeder Operator

St. John has chartered Feeder vessels operating bi-weekly sailings between Tuticorin and Colombo from January 2007. And weekly sailing between Chennai and Colombo from 2009. In the short period of operations so far, St. John is already a major market-share player in both these sectors, reflecting its long-standing customer and liner relationships which have rubbed off positively on its performance. We receive a lot of support from all the major Liners due to our confirmed Mother-Vessel connecting ability at Colombo. The Company is planning to expand feeder services from other Indian Ports to neighbouring countries.

Chartering & Agency Division

The Chartering & Agency Division is professionally managed by skilled, efficient and experienced personnel controlling day-to-day activities from Corporate Office, Tuticorin and Logistics Office, Chennai. This Division works with our long time associates, Shippers, Charterers, Owners, Brokers based in Europe, U.S., Romania, Turkey, Russia, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Thailand and India.

The Division operates at various Ports viz. Cochin, Kandla, Kakinada, Mumbai, Kolkata, Vishakapatnam, Paradip, Haldia and ICD's viz. Pune, Coimbatore, Delhi, Madurai, Bangalore and Guntur.

We handle over 150 vessels per year operating on vessel agencies in all Indian ports.

Custom Broking / Custom Handling Agents

St. John's core business started with Custom Broking and over years of fine-tuning, we have honed our skills and are highly efficient in this area. A dedicated and strong team, richly experienced, is available for handling all commodities. All the Branches in India hold License issued by the Customs Authorities for handling both exports and imports as Customs Broker. Wherever you are clearing the cargo from, export or import, you will be hard-pressed to find someone who can do it better than the St. John Custom Broking team.

General Warehousing

St.John owns General Warehouse space of its own plus ties up with a network of partners to offer space and services in any part of the world. Whether you need just storage or other services like packing/unpacking, inventory management, data, records, documentation, and so on – we can put it all together for you in one consolidated service package. If you have your own warehouse, you can outsource its management to us while you concentrate on your main business and we will bring you the productivity and efficiency that you desire. And if you outsource warehousing space and services, we can help you build a custom-made solution that provides you with optimisation and productivity benefits for your business, anywhere in the world.

Container Freight Station / Inland Container Depot

St. John owns a state-of-the-art CFS Park, built to International Standards at Tuticorin, situated on the Harbour Express Way, within 8 km from Tuticorin Port. It comprises over 250,000 sq. ft of Warehouse space including “bonding” facility, sprawling over 70 acres including “Open-Bonding” facility. And over 200,000 sq. ft area of container stacking yard. It is currently handling over 80,000 TEUs per annum. Fully “automated” Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) facility, supported by adequate infrastructure facilities make it one of the most efficient in the country. International Standard security arrangements ensure security of cargo. This was the first CFS in the country to get portside ICD status to provide all Export Import pre and post shipment services under one roof. And it was the first portside ICD / CFS facility in India to receive ISO 9002 standards from BVQI, ISO-9001-2000 standards from DNV & IKEA I-WAY certification for systems & socio-environmental standards.

Other Features

• The container stacking yard is floored with interlocking blocks and hence, ample space for safe stacking and storage of Import containers.
• 24x7x365 round-the-clock Operations.
• On site processing of documents using the Indian Customs EDI Scheme.
• A custom-built CFS Information System enables online tracking of cargo details.
• High quality International standard security arrangements ensure security of cargo.
• Administrative block of about 12000 Sq.ft which is exclusively marked for Customs, cafeteria, Business center, Bank, Insurance Counter, CFS Customers and administrative office.
• Experienced and reputed surveyors.
• Adequate Insurance coverage.
• Faster delivery and hence, better vehicle turnaround time.

St. John Container Yard

St. John owns a Container Yard located on the Harbour Express Road near St. John CFS Park, within 7 Km distance from the Tuticorin Port, covering 7.3 acres of stacking space, with a capacity to stack over 6000 TEUs. It includes an administrative office and is supported by adequate infrastructure facilities such as Cranes, Top Lifters, a fleet of Trailers, with a Genset to provide alternate source of power/ energy and operates 24x7 in a comprehensive secured compound with 24-hour security.

Liners such as EVERGREEN, CONTSHIP, APL, HYUNDAI, OOCL, and IPCL store their empty containers in our container yard.

Stevedoring

St. John, as Stevedores, handle Break Bulk and Bulk ships on an average of 250 ships per year in Tuticorin mostly, and other locations in India like Chennai, Kandla, Kochi, Mangalore, and Visakhapatnam. Specific commodities like sugar, rice, raw cashew, coal, coke, timber, garnet / ilmenite sand, alumina powder and so on, both exports and imports, are handled. A dedicated team with rich experience in stevedoring activities handles above commodities and also Project Cargo with high productivity. Our team has earned a reputation of setting discharge records and breaking their own record, especially with respect to Timber discharge at Tuticorin where we currently hold the all-India record for highest discharge of Timber logs in a day.

Fumigation Division

The Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, Fumigation & Storage, Ministry of Agriculture & Co-operation, Government of India has approved St. John Freight Systems Ltd., as a Pest Control Operator to carry out fumigation of import and export cargo. St.John has been accorded with accreditation under ISPM standards by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.

Fumigation is a process of exposing insects or material infested by insects to the fumes of a chemical at a lethal strength in an enclosed space for a given period of time. The fumes kill the insects prevalent and thus preserve the precious cargo of the customer.

Treatment Services:

• Fumigation of Godowns/Warehouses/Silos/Flour Mills/Empty ship holds
• Fumigation of Stuffed & Empty containers of Export/Import at Port/ICD/CFS and at House stuffing Points.
• In-transit Fumigation of Commodities onboard Barges etc.,
• Termite Control Treatment during Pre & Post Construction Stage as per ISI standards with Guarantee.
• Rodent control & De-ratting of Ships.
• Dis-Infestation of Warehouses, Food plants and residential premises.
• General Pest control services.

Fumigation is a specialised service and ignorance of this activity can lead to serious consequences for cargo. Most leading cargo destinations around the world are particularly fastidious about the quality of fumigation. Improper fumigation can lead to stringent penalties and costs on account of delayed or rejected cargo. Hence it is best to entrust this to a trusted organised operator like St. John instead of going to a small-time fly-by-night operator.

Truck / Equipment Operators

The Truck Operating / Equipment Division has at its command an impressive range of terminal and cargo handling equipment that perform vital functions and give St. John the competitive edge in terms of both performance and cost. The Company owns and operates a fleet in excess of 100 comprising chassis with prime-movers, cranes ranging in lifting capacity of 8 to 75 tons, fork-lift trucks, reach stackers and log loaders. We know the business and therefore leverage the flexibility of having our own vehicles plus market-available ones to offer our customers the most optimal trucking and cargo movement services.