FMC Commissioner Bentzel and DCSA collaborate on maritime data standards
31 Mar 2023The meeting was part of Commissioner Bentzel’s Maritime Transportation Data Initiative (MTDI) of which the final recommendations will be published soon.
In light of our mission to move the container shipping industry forward, DCSA is often asked to make predictions about how soon we might see the fruits of our labours. When will there be meaningful progress in major initiatives like electronic documentation, secure exchange of IoT data, or just-in-time port calls?
This kind of forecasting would naturally be much easier if any one part of the industry could make progress on its own, but that’s not the case here. International trade is highly complex, and without the support of customers, container carriers and trade regulators, any cross-border initiative is going to struggle to get off the ground. It must be a team effort. Which is why DCSA is so focused on mindset, aligning as many parts of the industry as possible around non-competitive practices, and building the momentum that’s required to drive investment and deliver real change.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major catalyst for driving change, encouraging regulators, sometimes at a rapid pace, to accept digital documentation because it eliminates the dependence on paper documents arriving on time for cargo release. DCSA is delighted to see countries like the UK, Singapore, India and Japan leading the pack in recognising the legitimacy of digital documents. Through our eDocumentation initiative, we’re working on standardising and digitising end-to-end documentation, starting with the electronic bill of lading (eBL), to make it easier for more regulators to approve standardised digital shipping documents.
Even though it may seem slow to change an established industry like container shipping, we, along with our member carriers, are committed to driving digital transformation in collaboration with all industry stakeholders. And much progress has been made during the pandemic. Beyond the increasing acceptance of eBL globally, customers of container shipping lines can now use one standardised API to get track and trace information from at least five carriers, instead of multiple proprietary EDI connections. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, because we, and the industry as a whole, must aim much higher.
To answer those who regularly ask us what the shipping industry will look like in five years’ time, here are our top five predictions:
Despite the predictions of disruption, it’s important to remember that the shipping industry is no stranger to change. While we may lag behind airlines and banking when it comes to digitalisation, we need only look back 10 or 20 years to see how far shipping has come. Two decades ago, when the average vessel carried 6,000 containers, who would have dreamed we’d now be looking at ships that can handle over 20,000?
Our industry is, rightly, a long way from the famous Facebook attitude of “move fast and break things”, but we’ve got to be willing to risk making a few mistakes on our way to success. We need carriers, ports, terminals, technology vendors, shippers and freight forwarders to adopt DCSA standards, give them a try and provide feedback to make them better. Only then can we iterate and develop improved APIs for track and trace or revised standards for the electronic bill of lading.
The key is persistence, and a constant commitment to improvement. That’s how we will achieve meaningful progress in the next five years and beyond.
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SubscribeThe meeting was part of Commissioner Bentzel’s Maritime Transportation Data Initiative (MTDI) of which the final recommendations will be published soon.
The release supports enhanced visibility for multiple modes of transport and cargo types.
Nine ocean carriers commit to converting 50% of original bills of lading to digital within five years and 100% by 2030 to accelerate the digitalisation of container trade