Singapore's DBS has launched the first cashless purchasing card for the logistics sector, eliminating the need to handle paper payments at container depots.
The DBS P-Card provides logistics SMEs with a digital, near contact-free method to settle payments and collections at container depots, removing the hassle of the current manual, cash-based process.
Today, drivers typically carry about S$200-500 in petty cash on them to pay for a range of services at container depots, such as processing, handling, washing and repair charges. Drivers with insufficient cash on them need to contact their office and either wait for additional cash or a cheque to be delivered, or for their office to transfer the shortfall to the container depot through bank transfer.
On the container depot’s end, the manual and fragmented collection process can lead to problems reconciling cash collected at the register. All physical cash and cheques received have to be brought to and deposited at a bank branch.
Joyce Tee, group head of SME Banking, DBS, notes that operational inefficiencies from paper-based, manual payment and collection processes could hamper the growth ambitions of logistics SMEs once the Covid-19 situation stabilises.
“These manual and paper-based processes are longstanding pain points in Singapore’s logistics and supply chain sector, and DBS has been working closely with industry partners to find workable solutions," she says. "The current economic lull due to the Covid-19 situation presents an opportunity for us to test and implement some of these solutions so that our logistics SMEs, which form the bedrock of Singapore as a global logistics hub, are in a better position to capture the uptick in business activity when the crisis passes.”