The Digital Container Shipping Association  has published Track & Trace 3.0.0, extending one of the industry’s most widely adopted standard beyond shipment, transport and equipment visibility to also cover IoT and reefer events. The update builds on Track & Trace’s role as the common language the industry uses to describe and exchange container visibility information across the shipment journey.

Track & Trace 3.0.0 will initially be made available to DCSA members and DCSA+ partners before being released to the public during the second half of 2027.

Without a common standard, the same shipment event can be described differently by every supply chain party and platform that touches it. A single gate-in or discharge might carry a different name, format or set of fields depending on who reports it, leaving users and solution providers to reconcile these differences themselves, one counterparty at a time.

Track & Trace 2.2.0 established a shared foundation for shipment, transport and equipment visibility. Several years of implementation experience, together with feedback from carriers, users and technology providers, surfaced needs that a minor update could not address: more reliable ways to communicate corrections and changes to shipments and documents, and a growing need to exchange data from smart containers. Version 3.0.0 responds to both.

The most remarkable version change is the addition of two event types. IoT events cover occurrences and conditions detected by connected containers and devices, such as geolocation, geofence crossing and door status. Reefer events cover measurements and control actions associated with refrigerated containers, including temperature, setpoint adjustments, power status and alarms. Alongside these additions, the standard also introduces clearer ways to represent changes to shipments and related documents, improves how corrected or withdrawn events are communicated, and supports event exchange through carriers, platforms and other intermediaries.

The standard is relevant to any organisation that produces, consumes or forwards container-shipping visibility events, including carriers, terminals, inland operators, shippers, freight forwarders and IoT or telematics providers.

Iker Echave, Head of Standards at DCSA, said: “Track & Trace 2.2.0 is one of DCSA’s most widely used and adopted standards, and version 3.0.0 builds directly on that foundation. Extending it to connected containers and refrigerated cargo reflects DCSA’s broader push to digitalise container shipping end to end, giving the industry a wider, more consistent view of a shipment as it moves. Each update to this standard is shaped directly by how organisations are actually using it, so the standard keeps pace with where visibility is heading rather than where it started.”

Organisations currently using Track & Trace 2.2.0 will need to plan and implement a migration to version 3.0.0, as the changes affect both the information exchanged and how it is shared. DCSA has published a migration guide with detailed comparisons, value mappings and implementation guidance.