An Indian port let trucks book a gate slot to flatten the peak

A busy container port gets a rush of trucks in the morning and at closing time, so congestion builds and trucks idle even though the yard has capacity mid-day.

Gateway Terminals India, run by APM Terminals Mumbai, adopted an automated Truck Appointment System at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, the first terminal there to do so. Truckers select a time slot to enter; the gate then sees a steady flow.

The system went live in late September 2025, aiming to cut truck turnaround, give container freight stations and transporters predictable use of their assets, and let the terminal respond to swings between peak and lean periods.

Book the arrival, don't queue it

Appointments convert a burst of arrivals into a programmed flow.

A predictable gate lets equipment and labor be matched to load.

Shorter truck queues raise throughput without more yard space.

A queue that is unavoidable can be smoothed by letting the customer book a time, which converts unpredictable spikes into a level schedule.

The TAS was framed as a digitalisation step for India's busiest container port, part of APM Terminals' broader rollout of appointment systems across terminals. Its full benefit depends on uptake by truckers and the sharing of slot data with the wider ecosystem.