ASTM F3804-26
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Summary
1.1 The global supply chain involves 5 distinct phases; the first and last are not included in the Goods Movement Process (as defined in Terminology F3682; see also Fig. 1).
1.1.1 The Goods Movement Process’ three phases are the Planning Phase, the Execution Phase, and the Reconciliation Phase. At the first intention to ship goods prepared as cargo, we define a default POSTED (200) status where the transport unit identifier (TUID) is first generated.
1.1.2 The pre-goods movement process phase is defined as the Forecast Phase, where product supplier selection is accomplished; and the last post-goods movement process phase being the Analysis Phase, where the information from what was planned to happen can be accurately compared to what actually occurred to reconcile and report on results of the transaction; these two phases “bookend” the three phases that make up the Goods Movement Process.
1.2 The practice will provide goods movement process codes (GMPC) that indicate the status of a transport unit resulting from events and milestones defined in the goods movement process. That link between a specific event and the associated GMPC enables a common unambiguous interpretation of the meaning of GMPC related to the transport management operations.
1.3 Purpose—This common understanding among stakeholders significantly facilitates the frictionless collaboration among them and the performance of the transportation operations they are involved in.
1.3.1 These GMPCs may be used in a variety of contexts such as the ISO 8000-119 TUID, electronic data interchanges (EDI) or within organizations’ IT systems (for example, transport management systems (TMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), etcetera).
1.3.2 This practice spans the three GMP phases mentioned above; the pre-goods movement process and post-goods movement process, the “bookend” phases are out of scope of this practice. The practice provides a high-level framework that helps organizations to design how they will structure their transportation and how transport unit identifiers and GMPCs will support those structures in daily operations.
1.3.3 The practice will not provide detailed instructions for any specific industry. Any example use cases included in the practice merely serve to illustrate the framework described in the practice; they should be reviewed (and adjusted as needed) before implementing in any particular industry context.
1.4 Units—The 3-character GMPC values associated with the Status Changes are to be regarded as the standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.
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.
Significance and Use:
5.1 This section elaborates how the GMPC may be used in the context of the two main approaches to managing the execution of transportation mentioned in 5.2. These elaborations do not go into every possible detail of these approaches. The purpose of the elaborations is to provide an outline of the overall approach and use of the GMPCs, within which much more detailed elaborations can be done. The terms used in this section are to be understood as described in Committee F49 terminology documents and especially Guide F3803. (Refer to Section 5 - Significance and Use, Fig. 3 and below).
5.2 Fire and Forget versus Manage Through Fire:
5.2.1 In the supply chain and transportation industry, two primary approaches have emerged between logistic service providers and logistic service buyers to manage these transportation transactions. These approaches are very different in terms of the division of responsibilities between the contracting parties. Guide F3803 provides more detailed descriptions of these approaches. The below brief descriptions provide a reminder of some of the main differences between the approaches.
5.2.2 Industry practice between transport service buyers and transport service providers will generally involve one of two main interaction models. We distinguish:
5.2.2.1 Fire and Forget—“Hands off”
5.2.2.2 Manage through Fire—“Hands on”
5.2.3 In the below sections, the document describes a high-level outline of the two approaches and how they relate to the main Goods Movement Process Codes (GMPC).
5.3 Fire and Forget:
5.3.1 In the Fire and Forget approach, the transport service buyer contracts the logistic service provider to make all necessary arrangements to transport the cargo from the source location (generally the seller) to the destination location (generally the buyer). In principle, the logistics service buyer will “trust” that the cargo will be transported as contracted. Because the service buyer basically “may forget” about the delivery of the goods once the logistics service buyer has handed the cargo over to the service provider, we call this the Fire and Forget approach. Obviously, the logistics service buyer will expect a level of feedback on progress (for example, GMPCs).
Note 5: The role of transport service buyer can be performed by the seller or the buyer. Who will take the role, generally depends on the Incoterms agreed between the Seller and Buyer as part of the Goods Transaction contract (Buy/Sell contract).
5.3.2 However, the service buyer would prefer not to get involved in the execution of the transportation. As far as the relationship between the logistics service buyer and the service provider is concerned there is only a single transport contract involved. That transport covers the entire journey of the shipment from seller to buyer
5.3.3 In this approach, there is only one single transport contract to be considered (the one between the transport service buyer and transport service seller). The transport service buyer is generally the owner of the cargo to be transported.
5.3.3.1 Either the buyer or seller of transport services should generate the TUID at the first intention to ship goods from a known origin location to a known destination location. The TUID shall be generated initially as POSTED (200).
Note 6: Transport Services, once agreed, will be executed under a Transport Contract. The Transport Contract will stipulate a consignor and a consignee indicating where the cargo should be collected and where it should be delivered. In the Fire and Forget scenario, the seller will generally be the consignor and the buyer will be the consignee.
5.3.3.2 The shipper may broadcast the requirements for the transportation transaction, seeking qualified carriers who offer their service of moving goods as cargo for shippers.
5.3.3.3 When a qualified carrier has expressed interest in servicing the transport need, the status shall change to PRE-BOOKED (300), meaning that the transport service buyer has an option but has not yet committed to a specific carrier who will perform the service as quoted.
5.3.3.4 When the transport service buyer selects and confirms a qualified carrier to move the goods that have been prepared as cargo, the transaction advances to status BOOKED (400).
5.3.3.5 Often before the BOOKED (400) carrier dispatches a driver to move the goods under contract, there is an appointment or confirmation of pick-up communicated between the carrier and the shipper. This step can trigger an update to the precise pick-up location and the precise time. Changes that specify more precise locations for pick-up are welcomed, but they do not change the TUID number that was generated initially. The appointment scheduling generates a record of the more precise pick-up location, and conveys the updated, more precise pick-up location for the collection of the sender’s cargo.
5.3.3.6 When the carrier’s driver has signed for the sender’s cargo and has begun the service of moving the goods as cargo, the EN ROUTE (500) status occurs and continues until DELIVERED (700) at the destination prescribed on the bill of lading or other shipping contracts.
5.3.3.7 DELIVERED (700) occurs when the cargo has been unloaded from the carrier's transport asset and inspected for comparison to the bill of lading for accuracy and no damage. There are many tracking and tracing events that can be updated between the EN ROUTE (500) and DELIVERED (700) statuses, but these are not covered in this document.
5.3.3.8 When the carrier’s driver completes transportation assignments, the completed transport documents (for example, bill of lading) are returned to the carrier who reviews them looking for any discrepancy between what services were requested to those services performed to complete the work. The carrier invoices for the transportation services and will note any accessorial charges or expenses incurred that were not accounted for in the original transport documents. This will change the status of the TUID to INVOICED (800).
5.3.3.9 The carrier’s invoice is delivered to the buyer of the transport services and the Reconciliation Phase begins.
5.3.3.10 When all parties are satisfied that the transaction has been completed, including final settlement with no remaining financial obligations, the transaction advances to an ARCHIVED (900) status for required recordkeeping.
5.3.4 Here is an example of what this could look like from a more technical perspective using the GMPCs in the ISO TUID. In this very basic Fire and Forget approach related to a single transport unit:
5.3.4.1 TerrificToys (the seller of toys) has identified a need for transportation, based on their receipt of buyers PO 123456 and as part of the purchase, Terrific Toys has agreed to arrange for the transport services.
5.3.4.2 TerrificToys makes it known to a community of transport service providers (see Line No. 1 on Fig. 5). The string means that what follows after the first colon is an ISO TUID as designated by the prefix (text to the left of the first colon) and it follows the format defined in ISO 8000-119. The ISO TUID (shown as bold underlined text) ends at the third colon; the three digits after the third colon are the GMPC (shown as bold blue and highlighted text). Transport buyer TerrificToys at 20240822T1449Z (2:49 PM UTC on 22 August 2024) populated the Origin NLI and the Destination NLI, and identified themselves Terrific Toys as the buyer of the transport services that are carrying a Reference number of 123456. (See Fig. 6.)
5.3.4.3 From TerrificToys known community of transport service providers, two respond they are qualified, willing and able to execute the transportation services needed from origin to destination.
5.3.4.4 Reviewing the POSTED TUID from TerrificToys, FABULOUSFREIGHT expressed interest with a quote at 20240822T1451Z (2:51 PM UTC on 22 August 2024); FABULOUSFREIGHT did not provide a link with their update. (See Line No. 2 on Fig. 5)
5.3.4.5 Reviewing the POSTED TUID from TerrificToys, TransportWell expressed interest with a quote at 20240822T1453Z (2:53 PM UTC on 22 August 2024) (see Line No. 3 on Fig. 5).
5.3.4.6 TerrificToys, having knowledge of 2 options chooses to contract with TransportWell (see Line No. 4 on Fig. 5). TerrificToys updates GMPC from 300 to 400 at 20240822T1458Z (2:58 PM UTC on 22 August 2024); TerrificToys provided a link to the executable Rate Confirmation with their update. And subsequent events and milestones are communicated between TerrificToys and TransportWell (primarily).
5.3.4.7 TransportWell reports its transport unit has been despatched with cargo from TerrificToys origin location under TUID and updates the GMPC from 400 to 500 (see Line No. 5 on Fig. 5). Update to TUID provided by TransportWell at 20240824T1000Z (10:00 AM UTC on 24 August 2024);TransportWell provided a link with this update.
5.3.4.8 Transport unit delivered to destination location (TerrificToys customer) (see Line No. 6 on Fig. 5). Update provided by TransportWell at 20240828T1300Z (1:00 PM UTC on 28 August 2024); TransportWell provided a link with this update.
5.3.4.9 TransportWell updates GMPC from 700 to 800 after sending an invoice for its services to TerrificToys (see Line No. 7 on Fig. 5). Update provided by TransportWell at 20240830T0900Z (09:00 AM UTC on 30 August 2024); TransportWell provided a link with this update.
5.3.4.10 TerrificToys reviews TUID log of event changes and pays TransportWell and archives the transaction for this transport unit (see Line No. 8 on Fig. 5). Update provided by TerrificToys at 20240902T1000Z (10:00 AM UTC on 2 September 2024); TerrificToys did not provide a link with this update, the default hyperlink is the log of event changes on that TUID with active links.
5.3.4.11 TransportWell acknowledges full and complete payment for completed transportation transactions and updates GMPC from 800 to 900 (see Line No. 9 on Fig. 5). Update provided by TransportWell at 20240908T1100Z (11:00 AM UTC on 8 September 2024); TransportWell did not provide a link with this update, the default hyperlink is the log of event changes on that TUID with active links.
5.3.5 In Fire and Forget, the cargo owner (logistic service buyer) and logistics service seller agreed in the transport contract to “view” the consignment covered in their contract as “one thing” that moves through the transport network as “one thing” and will be delivered to the destination as “one thing.”
5.3.6 In actual practice, that consignment will generally be transported on several legs (for example, pre-carriage, main carriage, onward carriage).
5.3.7 In Fig. 7, TerrificToys is “Seller A” and their customer is “Buyer A”. The shipment of goods sold and bought between them is depicted as the green dotted line (and document icon).
5.3.8 The transportation for that shipment is executed through three consignments. The first consignment covers the transportation from Seller A to the Consolidator (an LSP specialised in combining cargo to improve transport efficiency and effectiveness). The pre-carriage stage of the transportation. See also Fig. 1 and Fig. 4.
5.3.9 The consolidator combines the consignment from Seller A with a consignment received from Seller B creating a new consignment. This new consignment is transported from the consolidator to a deconsolidator - main carriage stage.
Note 7: In general, a consolidator will combine consignments received from more than two sources. To keep the figure as simple as possible, it only includes two shipments from two different sellers. Consolidator and deconsolidator are roles performed by parties. Both roles may be performed by the same (global) party such as a global freight forwarder
5.3.10 The deconsolidator will split the received main carriage consignment and create two new consignments for transportation to Buyer A (and Buyer B) - onward carriage.
5.3.11 Each of the three consignments related to the shipment between Seller A and Buyer A may be covered by transport contracts between the carriers involved in each consignment and the logistic service seller contracted by Seller A.
5.3.12 Each of the consignments shall also be assigned their own globally unique identifier (such as the TUID) to ensure all parties involved in the transport execution and administration of these consignments and associated transport contracts will be able to communicate efficiently and without confusion about these consignments.
5.3.13 However, the logistic service buyer (Seller A in this example) in the Fire and Forget approach generally does not want to know about those details. If so, they will only get status updates for the milestones defined in the Goods Movement Process related to the TUID that was created for the end-to-end transportation (shipment) of cargo from TerrificToys to their customer. The technical TUID example above shows what that would look like between TerrificToys and TransportWell.
5.3.14 The logistic service seller (TransportWell) in the discussion above acts as the transport director towards TerrificToys. They function as an intermediary to help vet logistic service providers and match the needs of the cargo owner to logistic service provider offerings.
5.3.15 The transport director in the Fire and Forget approach generally becomes the conduit for information and the holder of the single source of truth related to the execution of transportation related to the shipment. Both cargo owners and carriers will contact the transport director for information about scheduled activities in the goods movement process as well as any changes that need to be made.
5.3.16 All parties involved shall use the transport unit identifier in their communications related to the transport unit.
5.4 Manage Through Fire:
5.4.1 Some sellers or buyers of goods (cargo owners) build transportation management departments to coordinate their goods movement themselves directly with carriers or with their own transport assets, instead of working through an intermediary to source capacity.
5.4.2 In this approach, the cargo owner is interested in the details of the transport execution and wants to have control over the transport execution arrangements for each stage of the journey of the goods from seller to buyer. The cargo owner assumes the role of transport director.
5.4.3 To illustrate the main differences with Fire and Forget, we look at a few quite common use cases in supply chains and transportation. The descriptions below highlight some of the main items to be considered when implementing the Manage through Fire approach in a given context. The sections below by no means provide a comprehensive description of all items and aspects related to the implementation of a Manage through Fire approach.
5.4.4 The cargo owner will act as the logistic service buyer (LSB) towards all logistic service providers needed for the transport execution.
5.4.5 Large Shipment Transported as Multiple Consignments:
5.4.5.1 Consider a shipment of 40 containers from a distribution center (DC) in Belgium to a DC in the UK. The seller (SmoothSkin) has taken the responsibility to make all arrangements needed to transport these 40 containers from Belgium to the UK.
5.4.5.2 SmoothSkin assigns a TUID to the shipment between the Belgian and UK DCs.
5.4.5.3 SmoothSkin needs to contract 40 separate transport movements from the DC to an inland port where the 40 containers will be loaded onto a barge. Each of these transport movements to the inland port is a separate consignment covered under its own transport contract. For each of these transport contracts a separate TUID and associated statuses should be created and recorded. Each of those 40 new TUIDs will be linked to the TUID for the shipment (by including the shipment TUID in the transport file for each of the new consignments).
5.4.5.4 Once all 40 containers have been delivered to the inland port, all 40 may be transported as a single consignment under a single transport contract from the inland port to the maritime port of Antwerp. This transport contract will have its own separate TUID, which will be linked with the shipment TUID. This also establishes the logical links between the preceding consignments and the new consignment.
5.4.5.5 In the port of Antwerp, the 40 containers will be loaded on a ship for maritime transportation to a port in the UK. This would be a single consignment covered by a single transport contract with its own TUID (and associated statuses), which will be linked with the shipment TUID. This again establishes the logical link between the preceding consignment and the new consignment.
5.4.5.6 In the UK, there are two options (in our example case):
(1) Transport each container to the UK DC separately using a road carrier. That results in 40 consignments and 40 transport contracts, each of which will have its own TUID and associated statuses. Each of the new TUID will be linked with the shipment TUID.
(2) Transport all 40 containers as a single consignment via rail to the DC in the UK. That results in a single transport contract with its own TUID and associated statuses. The new rail consignment TUID will be linked with the shipment TUID.
5.4.5.7 When using road transport also in the UK, there are 82 (40+40+1+1) consignments that the seller needs to manage related to a single shipment. The consignments and the shipment each have their own TUID, meaning SmoothSkin needs to manage 83 TUIDs and the links among them. In case they use rail in the UK there would be “only” 43 consignments and transport contracts, resulting in 44 TUIDs to be managed.
5.4.6 Shipments Consolidated in a Consignment for Transport Optimization:
5.4.6.1 A seller of apples (AwesomeApples) located in Washington state in the USA has two customers located in the Atlanta (Georgia; USA) area: FantasticFruits and PeerlessProduce. FantasticFruits and PeerlessProduce have each bought apples from AwesomeApples in quantities that are less than can fill an ISO intermodal container, but the combined quantity is big enough to fill most of such a container.
5.4.6.2 So Awesome Apples creates two shipments (one for FantasticFruits and one for PeerlessProduce). They assign a separate TUID for each shipment.
5.4.6.3 AwesomeApples decides to combine the two shipments in a single intermodal container for transportation between the AwesomeApples warehouse in Washington and Atlanta. In Atlanta the two shipments will be delivered separately to FantasticFruits and PeerlessProduce using road carriers. The transportation of the intermodal container is split into two stages: transportation by road to a rail terminal near the AwesomeApples warehouse and then transportation via rail to a rail terminal near Atlanta. AwesomeApples creates a separate consignment for each of the two stages and associated transport contracts. They assign a separate TUID to each of these two transport contracts and link those TUIDs with the two shipment TUIDs by including both in each of the transport files created for the consignments.
5.4.6.4 AwesomeApples also enters into two separate transport contracts with road carriers in Atlanta for the shipment deliveries to the facilities of FantasticFruits and PeerlessProduce. These deliveries are the consignments related to the onward carriage stage of the transportation of the shipments, which in this context is also often referred to as the “final mile.”
5.4.6.5 In this Use Case, there are 2 shipments and 4 consignments (1+1+2) to be managed. There are 6 TUIDs associated with them that are linked to each other enabling the IT systems of AwesomeApple to keep track of both the individual shipments and how they are transported on the consignments. The tables below indicate the TUIDs and logical links. (See Table 2.)
5.4.6.6 Consignments C201 and C202 are the onward carriage deliveries for shipments S001 and S002 respectively. The intermodal container also has an identifier, the so-called BIC code. In the table below shown as BIC-1. This document covers only the links between the various TUID. Therefore, strictly speaking, the bottom row is for information only. (See Table 3.)
5.4.6.7 Some cargo owners will elaborate this table to also include so-called logistic units (according to the GS1 definition) that are created at the AwesomeApples sending location. Those logistic units would be placed (stuffed) into the intermodal container. During that activity the links between the logistic units and the intermodal container as well as between the shipments and the logistic units would be created.
5.4.6.8 The UN/CEFACT Business Requirements Specification document “Integrated Track and Trace for Multi-Modal Transportation” describes in more detail how to do that.
5.4.6.9 Creating those links between the identifiers enables the cargo owner to achieve detailed visibility of its goods throughout the journey of the goods from seller to buyer.
5.5 Impact of Incoterms on Transport Arrangements:
5.5.1 In the above use cases, a single party has the responsibility to make arrangements for the transportation end-to-end (from seller to buyer).
5.5.2 Guide F3803 describes that the responsibility for the transportation of the shipment from seller to buyer may be split across them with the place where the transfer of responsibility occurs agreed in their trade contract.
5.5.3 In this split responsibility scenario, both seller and buyer will need to assign their own identifier for the part of the transportation journey that they are responsible for. The seller should assign its own TUIDs to cover the part from their own facility up to the place named in the Incoterms; the buyer should assign its own TUIDs for the part starting at the named place up to delivery at its own facility.
5.5.4 These consignment TUIDs may be linked to each other in case the seller and buyer link them to the common identifier for the trade transaction (generally referred to as Order ID or Shipment ID).
Note 8: The seller will generally have its own Sales Order ID and the buyer its own related Purchase Order ID. To achieve easy end-to-end tracking of the traded goods (the shipment), they would need to agree on a common Order ID to be used. They may choose one or the other or implement a global data standard identifier for this Order ID. They may opt for a shipment TUID (assigned by the seller), which both seller and buyer may link with their own consignment TUIDs.
Technical characteristics
| Publisher | American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International) |
| Publication Date | 01/01/2026 |
| Collection | |
| Page Count | 11 |
| EAN | --- |
| ISBN | --- |
| Weight (in grams) | --- |
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