DCSA Reference Documentation / Standards / Standard Releases / Verified Gross Mass / Verified Gross Mass v1.0.0

DCSA Interface Standard for VGM 1.0.0 - Purpose & Scope

Contents

• Introduction
  • Preface
  • Purpose
  • Scope
  • Supporting publications

Introduction

Preface

DCSA envisions a digitally interconnected container shipping industry. Our mission is to be the de facto standards body for the industry, setting the technological foundation for interoperable IT solutions. Together with our member carriers, DCSA creates vendor-neutral standards for IT and non-competitive business practices. By working towards the widespread adoption of these standards, our aim is to move the industry forward in terms of customer experience, efficiency, collaboration, innovation and respect for the environment.

The objective of DCSA is to strengthen the container shipping industry’s ability to send and receive data across all parties in the industry. Furthermore, it aims to enhance inter-carrier cooperation based on shared requirements and to ensure interoperability by using a shared data language. This language is inspired by existing standards and is aligned with the industry process definitions put forth in the DCSA Industry Blueprint.

Apart from the reliance on a small set of widely used open-source technologies and standards (e.g. JSON, REST, OpenAPI), the standards published by DCSA are technology agnostic.

This chapter describes the purpose, scope and supporting publications of this document.

Purpose

The objective of the DCSA Interface Standard for the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) process is to standardise the communication between carriers and the parties responsible for submitting and retrieving VGM (e.g. shipper, consolidator/NVOCC, terminal, vendors providing weighing services), making the process more efficient and less prone to errors. In doing so, this publication supports standardisation of the fundamental information exchanged between these parties in relation to SOLAS VGM requirements.

This publication focuses on creating agreement around the functional and data standards needed to enable seamless interoperability between industry participants. By aligning these requirements, all adopters of the standard will offer consistent interface behavior and data formats, eliminating the need for custom integrations. To that end, the standard must be implemented in a 100% conformant way by every adopter in the ecosystem.

Scope

The scope of the Interface Standard for the VGM process is summarised in the table below.

Actors	The Interface Standard describes all exchanges of information between any two parties. For the VGM process, the most relevant parties are: - VGM Producer (Shipper, Consolidator/NVOCC, Terminal/Facility, Intermediary parties, a party acting on behalf of the shipper) - VGM Consumer (Carrier, Terminal, Intermediary parties)
Scope​	The VGM Interface Standard supports the following processes: - Submitting a VGM for one or more containerized export bookings to the carrier - Updating (re-submitting) a previously provided VGM - Retrieving VGM information by an authorized party (VGM is required for packed export containers under SOLAS; empties are excluded.)

Supporting publications

This Interface Standard document is supported by a range of supplementary DCSA publications. The supporting publications are listed in the table below and can be found on the DCSA website.

Publication	Descriptions
DCSA VGM 1.0.0 Data Overview	This document contains the complete list of data objects and attributes relevant to the VGM use cases, specifying whether each attribute is mandatory, conditionally mandatory, or optional. In addition, the data overview includes the parameters available for filtering queries and the possible filter combinations.
DCSA Information Model	This document has been created to organise and catalogue the information being generated or consumed in connection with the processes described in the DCSA Industry Blueprint. The Information Model is also used as a collective term to describe all products that model data. It includes a diagrammatic representation of selected data entities and their relationships with one another.
DCSA Glossary of Terms	This document explains international container shipping terminology used within the industry, fostering communication and promoting standardisation among stakeholders.
DCSA Industry Blueprint	This document consists of a compilation of business processes that are considered critical for industry digitalization and standardisation efforts, and that are not considered commercially sensitive or of competitive advantage. It offers an accessible way to understand the container shipping industry by providing industry-approved processes and data definitions. Additionally, it visually demonstrates the domains where DCSA’s standards are applied.