DCSA Track & Trace v2.2: The Standard Behind Container Tracking

Before DCSA published its Track & Trace standard, every shipping line had its own way of describing what happened to a container. MSC's status codes didn't match COSCO's, ONE's event names didn't match HMM's, and integrating across multiple carriers meant writing custom mapping logic for each one. This fragmentation made it nearly impossible to build cross-carrier visibility tools — until the Digital Container Shipping Association stepped in.

What is DCSA?

The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) is a non-profit founded in 2019 by the world's major container shipping companies. Its mission is to drive digitalization and standardization across the container shipping industry. DCSA publishes open, implementation-friendly standards for everything from port calls to bills of lading.

The 9 standard events of Track & Trace v2.2

DCSA's Track & Trace v2.2 standard defines exactly 9 events that describe a container's complete journey from origin to destination and back:

1. 1Empty Picked Up — empty container released by carrier to shipper
2. 2Gate In — loaded container entered origin terminal
3. 3Loaded on Vessel — container loaded onto the vessel
4. 4Vessel Departure — vessel departed the origin port
5. 5Vessel Arrival — vessel arrived at the destination port
6. 6Discharged from Vessel — container discharged at destination
7. 7Gate Out — container exited the destination terminal
8. 8Delivered — container delivered to the consignee
9. 9Empty Returned — empty container returned to the depot

How MariMetric implements DCSA

MariMetric translates each carrier's native event codes into DCSA v2.2 standard events at the adapter layer. The result: every container you track on MariMetric, regardless of carrier, renders the same clean 9-step timeline. You always know exactly where your container is in its journey, and which steps are still ahead.

Beyond the happy path: the exception state

Real-world shipments don't always go smoothly. Customs holds, port congestion, equipment shortages — these operational exceptions matter to anyone tracking a container. MariMetric's timeline supports an exception state that highlights any step where the container has been held or delayed, with a clear visual indicator and a note explaining what happened.

Why open standards matter for the industry

DCSA's standard isn't just a technical specification — it's an economic enabler. When every carrier speaks the same event vocabulary, the cost of building cross-carrier supply chain tools drops dramatically. Small freight forwarders, independent developers, and AI agents can all access container tracking data without writing carrier-specific integrations. That's the future MariMetric is building toward: a unified maritime data layer accessible to everyone.