TOTAL Trading & Shipping (T&S) has now transitioned most of its ARA barge cargo-related documentation to electronic documents (eDocs). The move to paperless was enabled by adopting CargoDocs for cargoes loaded from the Sea-Tank 300 Terminal in Antwerp.

Trade documents concerning T&S’ refined petroleum product loadings at the Terminal will now be handled as eDocs – covering barge receipts, transport documentation, inspection reports and customs documents – digitizing the paper process to enable seamless data flow between all stakeholders, reduce information transfer time and increase information security.

Specifically, barge masters can now review draft documents either via web-browser or as emailed PDFs and sign these documents online, without disembarking. Similarly, inspectors can now upload their reports and sign them online via CargoDocs, rather than manually.

T&S plans to reach 100% paperless for all its SEA-Tank 300 Terminal loadings by 30 March 2020, and has commenced notifying relevant trade participants of the transition from hard copies to eDocs.

SEA-Tank 300 is the second ARA terminal using CargoDocs for barge movements, with two additional key ARA terminals to follow later this year.