Devil's in the Detail

Actually, this spot has been quite dormant for what! almost an year. But this time I wanted to definitely break the fetters of laziness and pen down my experience of what has been some kind of an experience - a unique one in importing my goods from India.

It all starts like this.. A high level requirement of 'get the goods shipped da". Ship pannidu!! konjam late aagum but its okay you can afford to wait." This was back in September. So a foot soldier like me gets the requirement without asking any questions ... well ! drawing a parallel to a typical consulting assignment, questions have to be asked keeping in mind the degree of granularity associated with the audience. i.e You cannot afford to ask "what is the data transfer mechanism your IT department uses to access the end of day balances from the treasury system?" to a C-level executive.

So, me set out to find the things meself. Goods were supposed to be shipped from CHN by early October.. but u know how it works.. it was dallied. Cometh October, cometh festival season. Me went to chennai to meet my other half for diwali, well she was awating her visa at that time. The cargo company (referred as CC henceforth) was delighted to know that I was in town and their plan changed and I was 'apprised' like "thank god you have come to chennai! now we can treat this as a personal shipment and all we need is a 'departure certificate' from the airline". I go "what is a departure certificate?"
CC : it is just a signed undertaking given by the airline to certify that so n so has travelled by our airline
Me: do they do that normally?
CC: ya ! ya! go to DXB and ask for it

Ohok! There I packed all the items in 3 cartons and made three copies of the inventory and left for DXB. Reached DXB only to find the reaction from the EK guyz " What is a departure certificate? we dont give anything like that " Your ticket should suffice" Ticket is the Dep.cert.
So I call up CC to say that only my Boarding pass is with me and that would act as the proof of travel. CC accepts. Cool...Hurdle 1 complete.

I faxed my details and boarding pass to my father's office..Of course. the previous copy did not reach and i waited for 20 mins in a cafe to get that across with three "on-hold" fone calls to my pop to acknowledge receipt. I waited for 15 days -- Nov 5 to Nov 24 ! Nov 24 i get a call from the CC in DXB that my stuff has arrived.
CC: Vengut! your cargo has arrived ! Please let me know your fax no. shall fax the Delivery Order (DO) for you to collect the goods
Gave my office fax number ( sharjah ) to collect the fax after three days ( courtesy Aljo). I am transfixed at the client site in Dxb.
me : WHere are the goods !
CC : Musalla Towers
me : [ Excited ] cool!! I shall come there and collect this weekend. when are u open
CC : OK! 8 - 5pm
me : [ My office time is exactly the same] . I shall come on sat. [Nov 30]

Collected the DO and passport copy and went to Musalla towers early - 8 30pm. paid AED 540 towards import duty and there comes hurdle 2 - the goods are in Jebel Ali Warehouse T 823429
you have to pass a bill of entry from the Port and collect the goods from the Warehouse. (hurdle 3)

Oops! What Jebel Ali, thats miles off!!
CC: You can go to Port Rashid Customs center and pass the bill of entry if u want it quickly. After that go to Jebel ALi - get a pickup and get the goods

Me: Where is Port Rashid Customs Center (PRCC)?
CC : Take the last right before Shindaga Tunnel ...

Noooooooo ! Found out the hard way that the PRCC is way before Shindaga - 20 AED wasted.
Went there to be WELL received by a 'road-side' Customs agent , early 30s, took meself and meotherself ( well !she is the only female in the whole area ( 1 : 1000 )) kinda uncomfortable when huge henchmen stare at something never seen before..) so we straddled with that guy into the PRCC on sat morn 10 30 am to pass the Bill of Entry and at the entry we were asked "where is your ID" . I m like I dont work here ... I came to collect my goods. Security directs me to a native (referred as EM henceforth) and
EM : Whath u needh
Me : Need to collect my goods shipped from Chennai
EM : You need valuation for these goods - Today valuation is holiday. Come tomorrow

the agent looks at me and says sorry sir tomorrow .. You need to do valuation... kalaas

I call up CC again and told him the situation.
CC: Why did you tell him that there is import of goods.. Tell him they are used kitchen articles and no need for valuation. OMG. now it would take more time for you,, i can't help. U can go to Jebel ali directly and pass the bill and collect... But now its too late.. next time.

I was quite disappointed. But the S.o.N has changed... "Need to Collect my used kitchen personal articles from the warehouse" <<>> .. "Ok..S.O.N is Statement of Need"

Sunday - Dec 1 - Called up 181 to ask for Telephone for Jebel Ali port . They gave me.. asked them if they were working on Dec 3.

Note
Dec2 - Dec 3 are national holidays. NOTHING moves on Dec 2. Some activity will be apparent on Dec 3rd.

Cometh Dec 3rd .. Expectations back home begins to rise. When are the goods coming. Innum vela varle.. Hmmm.. sat butnu mudi. So I get up early in the morning on a holiday and catch a "TAXI" at 8 AM to Jebel Ali... the driver was sooooooooo elated. Wow... which side of whose bed did i wake up today......... so there i go... but fortunately... he was a TAM guy.. helped me later.
After 66 AED worth of a travel, I reach JEBEL ALI Free Zone. Note you need a pass to enter . Get out of the taxi and show you original passport and visa and purpose of visit and you ll be given a day pass 5 AED. Taxi pass 3AED .. Now Meter is still ticking and we begin TOUR De JAFZA..

Me : "actually !! where to pass the Bill of entry"
Sec. gate: Go to round about 7 or 8 - take right , u turn ,, blah blah...

On the way we 'start' seeing couple of "dravidians" and we wanted to confirm the route.


Note:
(look for Mallus - they are quite adept in that region and they sure know their way around)
lets call them ML

ML: go to Gate 7 after MFS and turn right and left ...

Reached the documentation section in Gate 7
I make the taxi wait for 5 mins ( meter read 79) .I cut the meter. I go in to the office. 10 ppl standing in Q and there was a token to be taken. The board read DP World. I asked the security -- narrated the SON and he advised me to take the token and wait for my turn. But I could nt resist for more than 5 mins and i asked some1 waiting before me. ML again

ML - "No sir this is DP World..You need to go to Dubai Customs and pass the Bill of Entry (BoE)"

He pointed me to a cluster of unmanned comps where a signboard read
"EID al Adha.......... Dubai customs clearance only at Gate 3 - National day Only"

Here we go back ( by the same taxi) to Gate 3 towards passing BoE. We got greedy on our way back and we took a U Turn looking at another board just before Gate 3 which pointed to the same office at Gate 7. There was another way to get there perhaps. So the meter was now at 23AED. Had to go back the same way we came.

Reached Gate 3 after a small running exercise from 1 building to another and reached Dubai custioms office at Gate 3... DP world was in there too .. jam packed on the left side of a partition.
Dubai customs side had a small notice board which floated the following circular.

" Dubai customs would be closed from Dec 2 to Dec 10 for Eid-Al-Adha but will work on Sunday and Wednesday "

I was furious. I had called but JAFZA was working and not Dubai Customs .. Am I to be blamed. OK......head back. same taxi? no way.. lets save some bucks ( I saw a 91 pass by ).. but my stomach wanted some export order to be executed and the goods were ready to be undocked anytime .so I did not hesitate to say to him "Bur dubai kke ponge" .. he was so happy! Day's quota done in 3 hrs. 90 dhs gaya mere se.

Came back home angry and flustered. Convinced my folks back home that it would be done by Sunday
Cometh Sunday.. Was geared to go there early. This time I took 91 a straight bus to JAFZA from my place.. wow .. 4.50 AED in 30 mins was an offer I couldnt refuse .. well cannot afford to...So I reached there by 9 .. I had actually taken a picture of the circular and timings and number from my mobile fone on Wednesday to be doubly sure.

I entered the zone in gate 2 .. got my pass in a whistle ...walked to gate number 3 -10 mins. And this time they told me no need to get a pass as the office is outside gate 3. OK,, I went in the Dubai customs to find 4 EMs out of 7 counters and a pack of 35 ppl sitting and awaiting their turn
Geez.. Now what.. token was not working and we had to stand and sit.

Lot of MLs were present and they looked at the documents and said that i may need to do valuation but try your luck with the EM supervisor he may evaluate on the fly and pass the bill.
So i waited .. waited for 2 hrs. in the q.. lot of interesting observations . Way the ppl get frustrated when some1 breaks the q by picking up a quarrel; a guy bought me tea when he went to get one for himself, he was next to me; way the ppl get frustrated when the EMs take a redundant break after each entry, or when he goes off his seat to clear a doubt with his supervisor or when a bulk processor is infront of you.. keeping a counter occupied for 30 mins. or when Mr Doubtfire comes to the counter and gets his job done out of turn,,,blah blah,

After 2 hrs of wait. Here i come to the supervisor and he is like "personal ?... valuation.. kalaas"
I explain to him earnestly that they are used goods and kitchen articles. He gracefully looks at me and asks me some codes and import good form. I had no clue and the ML ( a really knowledgeable one - he knew the codes by heart - even the EM did not know ) helped me fill up the form and there it stood signed by customs and paid 90AED towards customs fees .EM joked that USD 2000 is the value he assigned and anything below 1Mil AED is the same and I heaved a sigh of relief having accomplished the gargantuan Customs clearance.. I glanced thru the paper and it said "Release only after Inspection"


Next task -oops Hurdle is to get to the warehouse. T 823429 ..went to the security at Gate 3 to enquire abt it he had no clue about the GLWSS T 823429 .. Idea struck me that T is Telefone and the digits were fone numbers so i tried ..kept on ringing... GLWSS headoffice.. kept ringing..
u know holiday season.

Walked out and saw a pickup truck. Solicitation for help. Luckily he knew the area and he took me into the JAFZA ( i had bought the pass remember accidentally) and I reach the warehouse only to find that GLWSS ( forget what it means) is CLOSED for 3 days. Sun-Mon-Tue... super.

Watchman laughs at me. Come Wednesday with a pickup I shall help u get the delivery. Waited for a 91 inside the 42km stretch and then got a mallu taxi to Bur dubai in 5 AED...

They say third time's the charm. Cometh wednesday and now atleast we now have an idea as to what the next move is. So again boarded 91 and now to gate 2 as usual for the pass. New rule.. if you wanna go to Warehouse then go to Gate 6 which is 10 KMs away from this gate. Solicitation in progress .. got a pickup to drop me at Gate 6 and away it went for its work as usual. Got the gate pass in there and again waited for a pickup to find one luckily and got into the warehouse after waiting for 15 mins in his company.

Away we went to the warehouse and now operation find-the-crates - 15 minutes in the race against time.. I had a meeting at 2 PM in Emirates towers and it was now 10 AM already. Now the worst part is in obtaining the gate pass for the Vehicle. The operation was so slowly that even my grandma would have finished reading this post before the guy inputs the order into the system.

10 15 PM - out of Warehouse into the inspection counter in Gate 7 .. Notice board at Gate 7 read that inspection department is closed and we need to go to Gate 3 . Went to Gate 3 and there was a beeline with 40 ppl in queue ... but that was DP world. So there was a small queue in Dubai Customs side and I went in and sat in the queue. Turn came up. EM in the counter said "X-ray"
period.

I got out of the building and to the X ray center. Long Q of cartons already. Experts waiting outside suggested me to speak to the EM inside the X ray machine and explain that it contains only the kitchen items lest it needs to lifted and scanned. So i went in explained the SON.There came my turn and he agreed to come out of the cabin and adjudge it himself and certified it passed. Thanks to the driver who helped me pry open the wooden case for him to check.

SO I go in the customs q and got it stamped from the same EM who wanted it Xray ed. it was now 11 45 AM and now the last hurdle was get the gate pass from the dreaded DPworld q of 40 ppl. I waited for 40 mins and then came my turn to realize that my entry was not input in the computer and only manually cleared. Got the entry again at the counter ...Paid 40 AED and left at 12 30. Mission Accomplished!!!


In sum,
when there is a requirement which is at a high level, it is imperative that we need to think in detail as they say "the devil's in the detail". Accepting the fact that not all details can be obtained at one shot, undertaking an assignment will indeed put you onto some resources (can be people, situations, realization, sudden brainwaves n the like) which may aid u in successfully completing a task. They ll help you grasp the "organizational process assets" ( ok, from PMBOK) which are critical in understanding the environment and aids in successful estimation.

Simple rqmt : Get the goods shipped to your place
Guideline estimate: Involves two working days if you have a car and not a pick-up truck. Can finish in a working day if you have a pick-up truck and start early in the morning and better to have more person with you.
Major deliverable : Get DO -> Pass BoE -> Collect good from WH -> Get inspected->Gate pass
WBS :
Receive Fax from CC
Go to CC office
Collect DO
Pay Import duty
Go to Dubai Customs office in JAFZA
Get pass from Gate 2
Pass the bill of entry from Gate 3
Pay the required sum
Collect BOE documents
Go to Warehouse - (by pickup truck/car whichever)
Produce BoE and DO and collect the goods
Put in truck
Go to Inspection Center at Gate 3
Get the good xrayed
Unpack and scan( if required)
Get the document signed and stamped from Dubai custom inspector
Get the gate pass from the adjacent DP world counter
Get out of Jafza.....

Thats it .. simple ain't it...

Idhukku poi..........