scope:

This Technical Specification specifies the data concepts applicable to the movement of freight and its intermodal transfer. These data concepts include information entities (data elements), aggregated/associated information entities (groups of data elements) and messages that comprise information exchanges at transport interfaces along the chain of participants responsible for the delivery of goods from the point of origin through to the final recipient as presented in Figure 1. This Technical Specification focuses on a single "thread" of the overall end-to-end supply chain. It includes motor transport data needs within the international supply chain to satisfy the requirements of both businesses and governmental organizations. This Technical Specification is applicable to shipments that originate in one country and terminate in another. It may also be applied to shipments that originate and terminate in a single country. This Technical Specification is applicable to freight movements that interface with other modes and incorporates requirements set for those other modes. This Technical Specification does not constrain the requirements of customs, regulatory, and safety bodies at border crossings but does include the data elements likely to be required by customs authorities. The same is true with the requirements of any particular mode of operation. Some international shipments are carried out entirely by highway mode, but most begin and end with motor carrier service and travel by other modes in the course of the shipment. This Technical Specification focuses on motor carrier transport interfaces through the supply chain, or those data items that deal specifically with the key pieces of transport information critical to getting the goods to the marketplace without delay related to data sharing. Therefore, the interfacing modes' data structures and formats must accommodate each other to assure efficiency and security from end to end. Truck, rail and ocean transport are vital components of intermodal, international shipping. It is recognized that a robust intermodal standard must include interface connections to all of these modes, and may need to be proven through demonstration tests. Research and tests carried out in the US motivated the use of a truck-air-truck supply chain (shown in Figure 3). Preliminary investigations suggest that there is no single organization responsible for transport data standards through the intermodal supply chain. To achieve a coherent set of transport standards requires coordination among the various international organizations working on component parts of these international standards. TC 204 has advanced the idea of close coordination among other appropriate ISO Technical Committees, OASIS, IATA, IEC, CEN, UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, and the World Customs Organization. Contact has been made and interest has been expressed in cooperating on the development of intermodal data exchange standards that fully cover the supply chain. This Technical Specification is a preliminary step towards coordinating between the various standards organizations. The vision expressed in this Technical Specification is to allow electronic data sharing through many-to-many relationships between supply chain partners which will help ensure sustaining standards. One-to-one relationships require only two partners to have standard data relationships with each other, and could require other partners to adopt the standards of the original two or require third party translators, which increases costs in the transport of goods. The many-to-many relationships also ensure that data initiated by the first partner will allow other partners equal access and can also help customs agencies to access data early in the progress of goods coming through the supply chain.