End-to-end supply chain efficiency means getting goods from the supplier to the customer with as little delay, cost and error as the service level allows. Elapsed time in an import chain is not all movement: goods also wait for production slots, for vessels, for assessment, for duty to be paid, for trucks and for dock doors. A direct way to improve efficiency is to find the waiting, measure it and remove the largest delays first. This guide shows how to map and measure the chain, what India's official time release study says about the customs stage, the levers that can help across the whole chain, the metrics to track and a 90-day plan. Examples use made-up numbers unless a source is named.
For the services that make up the chain, see end-to-end logistics solutions explained. For the policy background, see the National Logistics Policy explained.
Map the Journey and Measure the Waiting
Write down every stage between the supplier's order book and your customer's receipt, and record two numbers for each: the days that pass and the days in which nothing happens to the goods. The made-up map below shows the idea.
| Stage | Days elapsed | Days of waiting |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier production | 20 | 4 |
| Origin handling and export | 5 | 3 |
| Ocean voyage | 22 | 2 |
| Port and customs | 6 | 5 |
| Inland move | 4 | 1 |
| Warehouse receiving | 3 | 2 |
| Total | 60 | 17 |
In this example 17 of 60 days are waiting, and the port and customs stage waits for five of its six days. That is where to look first. Your own map may show a different answer, which is the point of drawing it.
What Official Data Show About the Customs Stage
India's National Time Release Study 2025, published by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, measures the time from arrival of goods to the out-of-charge order from Customs automated data. A PIB release of 20 June 2025 describes it as a performance measurement tool and says it has run at 15 major locations since 2019. The 2025 edition analysed 62,981 bills of entry filed in the first week of January 2025.
| Finding at seaports | Figure |
|---|---|
| Average import release time | 79 hours 4 minutes (87 hours 32 minutes in 2024) |
| Share of bills released within the 48-hour target in the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan 3.0 | 51.76% |
| Bills filed before arrival | 91% |
| Release time for bills filed in advance, and for bills filed late | 71 hours 23 minutes, and 158 hours 59 minutes |
| Average time from assessment to duty payment | Over 113 hours in the report's stage-by-stage analysis, with facilitated bills at 117 hours 45 minutes (its duty-payment table, which excludes deferred payment, gives 102 hours 22 minutes) |
| Bills of entry that involved an amendment | 51%, with an average release time of 91 hours 21 minutes |
| Release time with a single query, and with multiple queries | Nearly 170 hours, and over 256 hours |
| Direct port delivery against container freight station | 65 hours 33 minutes against 84 hours 3 minutes, at four seaports (the study notes that free storage at container freight stations may influence dwell time) |
The report says that the long gap between assessment and payment indicates substantial delays by traders or customs house agents in starting payment, and that delays in duty payment, amendments, queries and interventions by other government agencies continue to inflate clearance time. It credits the "Path to Promptness" framework, which combines advance filing, risk-based facilitation, Authorized Economic Operator accreditation and direct port delivery, with reducing release times in most port categories since 2023, and says that at seaports, inland container depots and air cargo complexes, bills benefiting from all three of advance filing, facilitation and accreditation showed the shortest times. For the target itself, the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan 3.0 sets under 48 hours for seaports, inland container depots and integrated check posts and under 24 hours for air cargo complexes.
Turn the Findings Into Actions
- Be ready to pay. Keep funds and payment authority ready so that duty is paid when the bill is assessed. The Customs Act requires duty on the date of the bill for self-assessed cases or within one working day after assessment, as the study notes, except for deferred payment.
- File before arrival and file clean. Use the estimated arrival date to file in advance, and check each document line by line to avoid amendments and queries. See how to avoid documentation errors during import customs clearance.
- Use faster routes where eligible. Ask your customs broker about direct port delivery and about accreditation as an Authorized Economic Operator, which the study links to shorter release times and, for higher tiers, to deferred duty payment.
- Book the next leg early. The study found that it took 27 hours 26 minutes on average from out-of-charge to gate-out at seaports and 84 hours 50 minutes at inland container depots. Book the truck or train slot against the expected clearance date.
Levers Across the Rest of the Chain
- Choose the inland route with total cost in mind. See sea-road vs sea-rail freight.
- Use storage deliberately. Bonded warehouses can defer duty, and consolidation points can combine small shipments. See how warehousing supports international distribution and cross-docking.
- Set stock from lead-time data. See the role of logistics in modern inventory management.
- Share status information. See how shipment tracking improves supply chain visibility. A PIB backgrounder says the Logistics Data Bank had tracked more than 75 million export-import containers as of October 2024 and that the Unified Logistics Interface Platform enables shipment arrival estimates.
- Plan peaks early. See how to plan international shipments during peak seasons.
The National Picture
The same backgrounder records that India ranked 38th of 139 countries in the World Bank's 2023 Logistics Performance Index and aims to be among the top 25 by 2030, with logistics costs below 10% of GDP. A PIB release of 20 September 2025 says an assessment by NCAER for the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade estimates India's logistics costs at about 7.97% of GDP, and that the 13 to 14% figures commonly cited earlier came from external studies or partial datasets. These numbers are national, so use them as context and not as your own target.
Metrics That Show Real Efficiency
| Metric | How to measure it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Order-to-delivery days | From purchase order to receipt, by lane | The whole chain |
| Port-to-gate days | Arrival to gate-out | Customs and pick-up delay |
| Bills filed before arrival | Share of shipments | Preparation |
| Amendments and queries per hundred bills | Count from the customs record | Document quality |
| Delivery on the promised date | Share of shipments | Reliability |
| Landed cost per unit | Total cost divided by units received | Cost |
| Days of stock | Stock divided by daily sales | Cash tied up |
Assign an Owner to Each Stage
A stage without an owner has no one to remove its waiting. Name one person for each stage, from supplier readiness to warehouse receiving, and give each a metric from the table above and a regular slot to report it. Where a stage belongs to a partner, such as the forwarder or the customs broker, write the metric and the reporting rhythm into the agreement.
A Made-Up Improvement Example
Suppose a container of goods is worth 146,000 and holding cost is 10% a year, so each day costs 146,000 times 0.10 divided by 365, which is 40. Filing in advance and paying duty at assessment saves two days at the port, and booking the truck against the expected clearance date saves two more. Four days at 40 is 160 per container. For 24 containers a year the saving is 3,840 in holding cost alone, before any saving in waiting charges.
Common Mistakes
- Measuring only transit time and ignoring the waiting.
- Filing the bill of entry after the cargo arrives.
- Waiting for the assessment before arranging the funds for duty.
- Sending documents with errors that lead to amendments and queries.
- Booking the truck after the container is cleared.
- Changing many things at once, so that no one knows what worked.
- Treating national averages as your own targets.
A 90-Day Plan
- Weeks 1 to 2: map the chain for your largest lane, with elapsed and waiting days.
- Weeks 3 to 4: collect the data for three months of shipments and find the three largest waits.
- Weeks 5 to 8: fix the top three, starting with filing, payment and the next-leg booking.
- Weeks 9 to 12: write the changes into procedures, agree reports with partners and re-measure.
Improve Your Chain With RR Brothers and Logistics
RR Brothers and Logistics supports importers with sea freight, air freight, warehousing and customs clearance. Share your lane and your recent shipment dates and we will discuss where the waiting is in your chain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Moving goods from supplier to customer with as little delay, cost and error as the service level allows, which in practice means finding and removing waiting time across every stage.
The National Time Release Study 2025 found an average of 79 hours 4 minutes from arrival to out-of-charge for bills filed in the first week of January 2025 at the seaports it covered, a sample that may not reflect other seasons, against a target of under 48 hours.
The study names delays in duty payment, bill of entry amendments, queries and interventions by other government agencies. At seaports a bill with a single query averaged nearly 170 hours against about 79 hours overall, though the study found single queries on fewer than 5% of bills.
Yes. At seaports the study recorded 71 hours 23 minutes for bills filed before arrival against 158 hours 59 minutes for bills filed late.
A scheme introduced by CBIC in 2008 that lets facilitated consignments be given out-of-charge directly from the terminal. At four seaports, containers under it averaged 65 hours 33 minutes against 84 hours 3 minutes through container freight stations.
A PIB release of 20 September 2025 says an NCAER assessment for DPIIT puts it at about 7.97% of GDP, and that earlier figures of 13 to 14% came from external studies or partial datasets.
Sources
- CBIC: National Time Release Study 2025 (released 20 June 2025)
- PIB: Finance Minister releases fifth edition of National Time Release Study (20 June 2025)
- PIB: Logistics, India's growth engine (backgrounder, 16 August 2025)
- PIB: Union Minister launches report on Assessment of Logistics Cost in India (20 September 2025)
This article is general information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Rules, rates and procedures change; confirm current requirements with the relevant authority or a licensed customs professional before you ship. Regulatory references were checked against the official sources listed above on 26 October 2026.
Image credits: header photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash; photo by William Warby on Unsplash. Used under the Unsplash License.
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