Track & Trace standard

Standardised event exchange for end-to-end shipment and container visibility

Track & Trace explained

Watch this overview of the key facts of DCSA's most widely adopted standard

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Access the latest Track & Trace documentation, including event definitions, implementation guidance, technical specifications, conformance information, and guidance for organisations moving from earlier versions.

A common language for shipment and container visibility

The DCSA Track & Trace standard gives the container shipping industry one way to describe and exchange visibility information across the container journey. Shipment, transport, equipment, IoT and reefer events are all defined within the same shared structure, so different organisations can read and act on the same information consistently, whatever systems they run.

Inconsistent event data makes visibility unreliable

Carriers, shippers, terminals and platforms all need the same operational facts: when a container was loaded, discharged, gated in or out, transshipped, picked up or dropped off. Today those facts arrive in different formats, on different timelines, through different channels, if they arrive at all.

The result is expensive. Teams reconcile the same milestone by hand across incompatible feeds. Data gaps open at exactly the points that matter most. Disputes follow, and every new connection means another bespoke integration. The information exists. What is missing is a shared way to describe it.

One event model for visibility across the journey

Track & Trace organises shipment visibility into five event types, all described and exchanged through a shared model.

Shipment events

Key milestones in the shipment and documentation lifecycle

Transport events

Milestones across transport modes and journey legs

Equipment events

Physical events involving containers and other transport equipment

IoT events

Observations and signals from connected devices

Reefer events

Measurements, settings and alerts for refrigerated containers

A standard for everyone who produces, consumes or forwards events

Track & Trace matters to any organisation that publishes, receives or routes visibility events.

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