ASTM F3787-26

1.1 Throughout the supply chain and the goods movement process, stakeholders and their systems need to know where things happen, their location. There are at least two levels at which the location question “where?” may be responded to:

1.2 In this terminology document the focus is exclusively on the commonly understood terms and definitions referred to in 1.1.1 and not in 1.1.2.

1.3 To be able to respond to the “where?” question, parties involved in supply chains and goods movement process have developed and associated a vast array of attributes with a location that parties may use to “position” the location in space, generally on a map covering some part of planet Earth. Common examples of such attributes include postal addresses (which themselves are composed of several attributes) and geographical coordinates. In general, other standards development organizations (SDOs) have already defined quite well the terms associated with those attributes and ASTM will adopt and use those terms and definitions from other SDO sources.

1.4 It is important to note that a location may cover a surface area of very significant size (see the port example above). Within such an area, one or several smaller locations may be enclosed. This terminology document does not cover how to handle such location hierarchies; it will indicate, where appropriate, when a location is generally enclosed within another location. For instance, a maritime terminal is enclosed in a port, a berth is enclosed in a maritime terminal, and a berth position is enclosed in a berth.

1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety, health, and environmental practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

1.6 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.

3.1 This standard builds on the concepts of interconnected supply chains and the dynamic goods movement process, to create clarity and precise understanding of the locations terms and definition and how they are used in the transport of cargo by logistics service providers, carriers, terminal operators and other involved parties.

3.2 This terminology standard describes terms and definitions that help answer the “where” question that is asked throughout most if not all supply chain and goods movement process activities. People involved in those activities will use an abundance of terms and definitions associated with the “where” question but all too often these people do not bother to check whether they use a specific term with the same meaning as their counterpart understands the term. This document aims to provide location terms and definitions that can be commonly used across a wide range of activities in supply chain and goods movement process operations and be understood the same way by those using these terms.

3.3 The document first introduces a number of foundational location terms and concepts related to being able to start responding to the “where” question. After that section, the document is split into sections that group related terms and concepts together rather than providing an alphabetical list of terms and definitions.

3.4 The structuring of the section grouping the related terms and definitions evolves over time and therefore this section does not provide an overview of those sections. Such an overview may be added in future versions of this document.