Booking and Bill of Lading Standards

1. Introduction Adoption Guide

DCSA aims to drive standardisation and digitalisation in the container shipping industry by supporting your organisation to adopt the DCSA Booking and Bill of Lading standards. Adopting DCSA Booking and Bill of Lading Standards can help your organisation improve efficiency and communication in the booking and electronic bill of lading (eBL) processes. The purpose of this Adoption Guide is to provide a step by step guidance to implement the Booking and Bill of Lading standards within your organisation, a stepping stone towards enabling end-to-end digitalisation of the container shipping documentation process. The industry is ready for fast eBL adoption. It's time for your organisation to adopt the DCSA Booking and Bill of Lading Standards. In a recent McKinsey survey for shippers, the majority of the respondents are convinced that their organisation is equipped to encounter 100% eBL adoption in the next 5 years.Research question 2023: If trade facilitators (e.g. ocean carriers, banks, forwarders) announced a requirement for 100% adoption of electronic bill of lading in the next 5 years, do you feel comfortable that your company is able to make this transition on time?

2. Benefits

In a recent study, McKinsey estimates that if the electronic bill of lading gains 100% adoption across the industry, it could unlock around $18bn in gains for the trade ecosystem through faster document handling and reduced human error (among other improvements) plus $30-40 billion in global trade growth, as digitalisation reduces trade friction.

According to McKinsey, a universal eBL for the container trade could:

Watch this video to understand how eBL Platform Interoperability works.

3. The current state of eBL adoption

The shipping industry is incredibly complex, involving numerous industries and governed by a raft of country- and region-specific legislation. Because of this, the adoption of electronic bill of lading requires collaboration and alignment among a large and diverse set of stakeholders including shippers, consignees, freight forwarders, regulators, banks and insurers. Aligning the industry around eBL standards is the first step towards fully digitalising shipping processes and ensuring seamless data integration across all systems involved in shipping. To help achieve these aims, the FIT Alliance commissioned an independent study that revealed three key factors hindering eBL adoption by industry stakeholders: 1. Concerns about technology, platform and lack of interoperability 2. Insufficient adoption by other stakeholders 3. Legal acceptance of eBL Today’s eBLs are mainly PDFs passed electronically. To reap the benefits of digitalisation, DCSA has created opensource eBL standards and is working to achieve legal and technical interoperability in collaboration with the other FIT Alliance members and all IGP&I-approved eBL platforms of which some are used by carriers to issue eBLs. DCSA collaborates with its carrier members to drive necessary changes that enable end-to-end digitalisation of the container trade documentation process.

100% eBL commitment

In February of 2023, DCSA carrier members committed to 100% adoption of a DCSA standards-based eBL by 2030. Member CEOs have publicly expressed their support for the commitment. This is a meaningful step towards removing trade friction, improving the customer experience and increasing the sustainability of container shipping.

4. Standards overview

Digital trade end-to-end documentation process

DCSA develops standards for the end-to-end documentation process for global containerised trade, which concerns all necessary steps required to transport goods from origin to destination. The time-consuming and manual nature of this process makes it a high priority for standardisation and digitalisation. Follow the Digital Trade end-to-end documentation process below and embark our journey with Booking and Bill of Lading standards. It is important to take note that the Booking and Bill of Lading standards apply to both original B/Ls and Seaway Bills (SWB). The original electronic bill of ladings are not issued directly by the carriers, but via eBL solution providers vs. electronic seaway bills are issued directly by the carriers. DCSA develops open source API specifications, conformance tools and sandboxes for user testing.

Booking standard: improved process efficiencies and data accuracy. The use of structured data based on DCSA Booking standard reduces the time required to place a booking request, confirm a booking and submit a booking amendment and ensure overall data quality start from the beginning of the document process.
Bill of Lading standard: a key milestone to digitalise the end-to-end documentation process. Bill of Lading standard adoption unlocks gains for the trade ecosystem through faster document handling and reducing human error and facilitates trade growth through trade friction reduction.

View all DCSA standards

5. Implementation Steps

Prepare your organisation before adopting the Booking and Bill of Lading standards

By following this section, your organisation can systematically adopt DCSA Booking and BL Standards, promoting efficiency and communication in your documentation processes. These implementation steps apply to all versions of Booking and Bill of Lading Standards that you are planning to implement. It is recommended to implement the latest versions of the Standards as they contain the latest development to support your Booking and BL documentation processes. It is also worth to note that they are recommended implementation steps. Your organisation should adjust the steps based on your own set up, business process and requirements.

Various stakeholders can enjoy the benefits of using DCSA standards

Depending on your role, you will use the different APIs to perform Booking and Bill of lading documentation processes.

As an ocean carrier, you receive cargo owner's or freight forwarder's booking, confirm the booking and issue the BL to the Shipper/Freight Forwarder. By using the DCSA Booking and BL Standards APIs, you can enhance the overall data accuracy and consistency that will reduce the time for the documentation process, minimising errors associated with manual data entry, and enabling more efficient cargo handling.
As a shipper or cargo owner, you place a booking to the carrier, submit the shipping instructions and receive the draft and final B/L issued by the carrier. By using the DCSA Booking and B/L standards APIs, there is no manual intervention in the process, eliminating the risk of data discrepancy and B/L amendments linked to clerical errors.
As a freight forwarder, you are appointed by the shipper to act on their behalf. You will enjoy the same benefits as a shipper in implementing the DCSA Booking and B/L standards.
As a eBL solution provider, you are appointed by the carrier to issue and surrender electronic original B/Ls. Implementing DCSA Issuance and Surrender APIs will equip you in supporting the carrier to issue and surrender B/L and open new business opportunities.
As a bank, you will be able to transfer eBL with your trade partners across different platforms, enjoy faster access to the BL, no loss of the BL and more certainty that the BL is not manipulated; and enhance the sustainability of international trade.
As a consignee, you will be able to surrender eBL to your carrier without delay and speed up the cargo release process. This efficiency is crucial for maintaining the momentum of international logistics operations and meeting delivery deadlines.

Whether you are a carrier, cargo owner, freight forwarder, or solution provider, adopting DCSA Booking and Bill of lading standards within your organisation is a stepping stone towards enabling end-to-end digitalisation of the container shipping documentation process.

Overview of interactions between the different stakeholders

Implementation steps for carriers

Implementation steps for shippers and freight forwarders

As the freight forwarder is appointed by the cargo owner and carry the same role and function as the shipper, the implementation steps for the two audiences are the same.

Implementation steps for solution providers

eBL solution providers facilitate the transfer of the electronic original bill of lading for all stakeholders (carriers, shippers, freight forwarders, banks and consignees) in the end-to-end transfer process.

Implementation steps for banks

As one of the main stakeholders in electronic bill of lading transfer, banks will enjoy huge benefits in interoperability - being interoperable with shippers/carriers on different platforms.

Implementation steps for consignees

A consignee has to surrender the Bill of Lading to the carrier for cargo release. The eBL transfer process facilitates the speed to receive the shipment by the consignee. The consignee places a Surrender request to the carrier via this solution provider platform.