Industry standards

Communication between shippers and carriers is often done using industry standards. These standard are heavily documented and cover multiple scenarios within a business flow. This makes them sometimes complex to implement and maintain. Different implementations of these standards makes it important to agree between parties on the interpretation of the standard.

Some standards:

GS1

  • Initially focussed around the unique identification of products and locations, this has evolved in barcodes and EDI standards to facilitate the exchange of information between trading partners.
  • Not specifically focussed on transportation, making this generic and therefore sometimes complex for parties to implement.
  • Strong focus from GS1 on healthcare and retail
  • Messages for transportation like: Transport Instruction, Transport Capacity Plan/Booking/Requirements, Transport pickup and dropoff request, Transport status
  • Messages are in XML format

Open Trip Model

  • Mostly event driven to describe events that happen throughout a trip
  • Very useful for transport management systems used by carriers
  • To help with the complexity on how to implement variantions in this standard, they have OTM profiles which are a subset and implementation rules of the standard.
  • Messages are in JSON format

ANSI X12

  • An American standard for EDI

  • It offers a specific set of transport messages like: 106/107/108 For rate proposals on shipments, 204 for ordering a shipment, 214 for shipment status

  • About the message content:

    • It is a text in a fixed format
    • The text is seperated with identifiers like ST for start of message, SE for end of message with delimiters like *, ~
    • Due to the text indicators it is hard to read and understand but compact in size

  • Often used for communication through SFTP, not really suited for HTTP communication

  • Example ANSI X12 (204 order request): 
      ST*204*007913746
  B2**BTXA**1SI00001128**PP
  B2A*ZZ*AN
  L11*85039932*R1
  L11*0085039932*R2
  N1*SH*Shipper name
  N3*12345 Commercial Avenue
  N4*Northbrook*IL*60062*US
  G61*ZZ*John Doe*TE*800-123-4567
  N1*CN*MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE
  N3*124 ACTON ST
  N4*MAYNARD*MA*01754*US
  G61*ZZ*SGT ROBO COP*TE*9784519900
  S5*1*LD
  LAD*OTR*1*L*148***US*STC 4 BOXES Stnd Imaging Tower w/19  LCD*A7*1SI00001128001***W00033L00049H00030
  S5*2*UL
  LAD*OTR*1*L*148***US*STC 4 BOXES Stnd Imaging Tower w/19  LCD*A7*1SI00001128001***W00033L00049H00030
  L3*148*A3*********1*L
  SE*21*007913746
    </details>

Edifact

  • Maybe a bit simplified but lets say this as ‘European variant of the ANSI X12 standard’

  • For each year a release is made, sometimes more than one. Eg in 2001 3 releases where made: D.01A, D.01B and D.01C.

  • It offers messages for all kinds of industries, including transportation.

  • Commonly used message types are: IFTMIN (Ordering a shipment), IFCSUM (manifest a set of shipments), IFTSTA (Status of shipment/handling units), INVOIC (Invoice for shipment)

  • About the message content:

    • It is a text in a fixed format,
      • Although EDIXML is also available, this is a mix between XML and Edifact which removes the readibility from XML and makes the message larger than edifact, but more useable for HTTP transmission.
    • Fields are marked with a code, eg: UNH+1+IFTMBF:D:96A:UN:PN001’ —> UNH = message header, 1 = message number, IFTMBF = message type, D = message version, 96A = release, UN = association assigned code, PN001 = sender code
    • Due to the text indicators it is hard to read and understand but compact in size

  • Often used for communication through SFTP, not really suited for HTTP communication

  • Example Edifact (IFTSTA: Status message): 
    UNA:+.? '
UNB+UNOC:3+4023838:14+00164171:14+231120:1145+28837'
UNH+1+IFTSTA:D:01C:UN'
BGM+7+9438248+9'
DTM+137:20231120:102'
NAD+MS+00000041++DACHSER SE:CORPORATE IT+THOMAS-DACHSER-STRASSE 2+KEMPTEN++87404+DE'
NAD+MR+00164171++CUSTOMER NAME+ADDRESSLINE+CITY++POSTCODE+NL'
CNI+1+04538010846'
STS+11+21+108:::AFGELEVERD'
RFF+FF:04538010846'
RFF+CR:0020163661'
DTM+9:202311200942:203'
NAD+CS+53176448+DRUMMOND, BATHGATE+R DRUMMOND CARRIERS LTD  P112:"FOR PALLETLINE INVOICES ONLY"+E BATHGATE ROAD+BATHGATE 2PE++EH48+GB'
NAD+AP++NAME OF SIGNEE'
UNT+13+1'
UNZ+1+28837'

    </details>

Carrier gateway model

  • Each shipping application has its own standard that is an optimal match for the business flows they support
  • Viya’s carrier gateway offers a set in JSON and XML format

Availability of standards

Since each standard has a variety of messages, we have listed the most common ones we aim for Viya’s carrier gateway.

StandardOrderingManifestCancellationPickupPickup CancellationTracking
GS1Transport Instruction or
Transport Capacity Booking		Transport InstructionTransport Status Request & NotificationTransport pickup and dropoff requestTransport Status Request & NotificationTransport Status Request & Notification
Open Trip Modeltbdtbdtbdtbdtbdtbd
ANSI X12204215214216214214
EdifactIFTMINIFCSUM or IFTMINIFTSTAIFTMINIFTSTAIFTSTA
Carrier gateway modelOrderManifestOrder CancellationPickupPickup cancellationTracking