Adoption of DCSA Standards to Accelerate Thanks to New Collaboration

The digitalisation of container shipping has received a boost thanks to the announcement of a new collaboration between the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) and the European Shippers’ Council (ESC).

The DCSA - which is a neutral, non-profit group established to further standardise the digitalisation of container shipping - publishes and promotes digital standards to enable interoperable IT solutions in container shipping.

These standards are designed to effectively provide a ‘standard way’ of implementing digital container shipping, allowing end-to-end data exchange that will make shipping services easier to use, more flexible, efficient and providing increased visibility of cargoes across the container journey.

But, as with any standards, they’re only standards if they’re adopted by all parties involved. That’s why this new collaboration with the ESC represents a significant development.

By working together, the DCSA and ESC will be able to carry out structured, cross-member engagement activities to ensure the DCSA standards are not just adopted by European shippers but are done so in such a way that they meet the needs of shippers too.

With the ESC representing approximately 100,000 manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers throughout Europe, this collaboration represents a significant leap forward for container digitalisation.

Commenting on the collaboration, ESC’s Secretary General, Godfried Smit, said:

“Our members need seamless data exchange across the supply chain to optimally orchestrate the movement of their goods. In the digital realm, this can only be achieved when communication is standards based. Collaboration with DCSA is one of the three pillars of our strategy going forward because its work on standards aligns with our own goals for transparent, stable and resilient supply”.

It is expected that the DCSA and ESC will collaborate in three main ways:

1. Both organisations will invest time and resources in helping members adopt and implement DCSA standards.
2. DCSA and the ESC will share knowledge and contribute regularly to each other’s member forums.
3. DCSA will gather input from ESC members in order to optimise existing standards and ensure future standards are developed in close alignment with the needs of shippers.

Discussing the collaboration, Thomas Bagge, Chief Executive Officer of DCSA, said:

“Global supply chains have been continuously optimised over decades; present-day technologies allow for the further improvement in customer experience. Unstandardised, paper-based processes for exchanging information to conduct business and keep goods moving should not be needed in the 21st century.

The lack of digitalisation limits progress towards greater transparency and end-to-end, real-time cargo visibility. We can only bring about digital transformation together. That is why we are committed to closer collaboration with the ESC and its like-minded members and are confident our joint efforts will accelerate standards adoption among cargo owners and other industry stakeholders”.

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