DCSA Sets Track and Trace Standards

The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), a non-profit group of nine major ocean freight carriers, published track and trace standards in an effort to unify information sharing and further digitalization goals.

"This is the first of many initiatives to be put forth by DCSA to transform inefficient practices and accelerate digitization through a unified industry effort," said the Container line group.

Carriers, shippers and third parties can use track and trace standards to "enable cross-carrier shipment tracking" and can download the standards from the DCSA website, DCSA said.

The data model ensures track and trace data definitions are consistent for all users, leveraging any system.

For shippers, this new standard will simplify shipment visibility across multiple carriers, enabling them to better plan and optimize shipment handling activities.

For carriers, it will unify T&T information sharing with other parties, ensuring accurate and efficient communication regardless of the underlying technology or platform.

For the industry as a whole, the DCSA T&T standard will set a new bar for collaboration that focuses on delivering a great customer experience while improving efficiencies for all stakeholders in the supply chain.

“We are thrilled to introduce T&T standards for the industry that enable its customers to reduce complexity, cut costs and, over time, better manage their end-to-end supply chains,” remarked Thomas Bagge, CEO of DCSA. “As DCSA standards are technology- and vendor-neutral, every organisation providing shipment tracking information to its customers today will benefit by adopting our T&T standard, because it will simplify data integration with carriers and improve information quality.”

André Simha, Chairman of the DCSA Supervisory Board and Global Chief Digital & Information Officer of MSC said, “The ocean carrier community is enthusiastic and committed to advancing industry standards for the good of all parties. T&T standardization is a huge advancement for container visibility and trade overall. Current DCSA ocean carrier membership represents 70% of the global container shipping market, and all carriers are invited to join us in collaborating to develop more efficient, automated digital container shipping. This will ensure global shipping in 2020 and beyond will benefit from digitization and the significant value interoperability offers.”