Standards Development

Scope

This standard will provide definitions of critical events/milestones in the execution of operations in the maritime mode of transport that are related to the tracking of all types of cargo. Within the context of this effort the selection of which events will be covered in the deliverables of the Work Item, the following selection criteria will be applied: The Event/Milestone and information associated with those events

• are relevant to track and trace of cargo transported in the maritime sector.

• provide value to the Beneficial Cargo Owners (Sellers/Buyers of the Goods/Cargo).

• enable stakeholders to synchronise or optimize their processes and activities based on the information provided in the Event (e.g., Actual Time of Arrival at terminal berth).

This list is not necessarily complete and the Working Group may apply other criteria.

The standard will also define the information that is necessary to associate with each event. This includes, inter alia, the type of event and/or the reason for the event, the associated time stamp, the location where the event took place and the information necessary to identify the cargo item that is affected by the event.

This ISO effort is a further elaboration of the business requirements and approach described in the UNECE Business Requirements Specification (BRS) for “Integrated Track and Trace for Multi-Modal Transportation”, The UNECE BRS covers all modes of transport required to move the cargo from Seller to Buyer, whereas the scope of the proposed Work Item is limited to operations in the maritime mode and in ports. Therefore, alignment with this UNECE specification is important.

The standard is written so that the data objects can be incorporated into the ISO 28005 data model, but with full compliance to the relevant UNECE data definitions referenced in the UNECE BRS. The data model will be harmonized with the IMO Compendium and the IMO Reference Data Model to ensure this compliance.

The standard aims to cover the most relevant events for all types of cargo transported via the maritime mode, e.g. including break-bulk, wet and dry bulk and unitized cargo.

Where feasible, the standard will build on work already done by other standardisation bodies and results of efforts by relevant industry associations regarding definitions of events already being used in intermodal transport.

The following main principles will be used in developing the standard:

1. The scope will be events related to the voyage of the ship, its stay in ports and in terminals as well as events related to the cargo being handled in these stages of maritime transportation.

2. The main terminating event for the scope is gate-in and gate-out from the terminal. Gate-in and gate-out events also include transhipments to train, inland waterways, short sea feeders and similar.

3. Ship events will be included to the degree that they are interesting to the parties that are interested in the cargo. This may include the tendering of the notice of readiness as well as various other stages in making the ship ready to load or discharge cargo.

4. The cargo related events covered in this standard will be aligned with the events already defined in the ISO 28005 series for various ship related operations.

5. The scope is limited to those events that provide the most relevant information for stakeholders not executing those activities..

6. The standard will not cover passengers or other persons on the ships.

The standard will define:

- The relevant events.

- For each event an indication of the relevant information associated with the event, which typically includes among others, identifiers for event location, party logging the event, transport means, transport equipment, transport units, etc. as well as information regarding the business context of the event (e.g., cargo discharged/offloaded, vessel/barge/truck/rail-vehicle departed).

Purpose

This is necessary to continue the digitalisation of maritime transport, port and port terminals’ operations. By aligning the new ISO standard with similar efforts covering other areas of the end-to-end transportation of cargo between Seller and Buyer, a wide range of supply chain optimizations may be achieved. Those optimizations include (but are not limited to):

• Realise benefits indicated in Just-in-Time (JIT) arrival specifications and similar.

• Optimize and synchronise services rendered to the ship during its port call (Port Call Optimization - PCO).

• Improve synchronisation of terminal operations with ship operations.

• Ensuring hinterland activities linked to the in-port processes may be synchronised with those in the port (much better).

• Provide the “connecting tissue” between ship operations, terminal operations and the linked hinterland processes.

This standard will not specify new mechanisms for identification of cargo in any step of the transport system. It will fully rely on existing specifications for cargo or transport unit identification.