--- title: Shipping: The Shape Of The Answer | daily.dev description: Shipping has more of its data shapes already standardized than most industries. DCSA publishes ocean shipping standards like Track and Trace and Booking as... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/shipping-the-shape-of-the-answer-orpbjm2rf twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Shipping: The Shape Of The Answer | daily.dev og:description: Shipping has more of its data shapes already standardized than most industries. DCSA publishes ocean shipping standards like Track and Trace and Booking as... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/shipping-the-shape-of-the-answer-orpbjm2rf og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ORPbJM2rf.png og:image:alt: Shipping: The Shape Of The Answer og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Shipping: The Shape Of The Answer **[API Evangelist](https://daily.dev/sources/apievangelist)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Shipping has more of its data shapes already standardized than most industries. DCSA publishes ocean shipping standards like Track and Trace and Booking as OpenAPI, GS1 governs identifiers like GTIN and SSCC, and AfterShip's tracking API collapses every carrier's status into nine enum values. Yet catalog scores show aggregators like SMKlog (86.1) and AfterShip (82.6) far ahead of the carriers themselves, with FedEx at 29.3, UPS at 29.0 and DHL at 24.4. Big ocean carriers like Hapag-Lloyd, MSC and COSCO have no OpenAPI found in the catalog, and GS1 and EDI identifiers show zero tags, leaving the shared vocabulary owned by aggregators rather than published standards. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What are the possible tracking status values in AfterShip's API? AfterShip's tracking API settles every carrier's status into nine enum values: Pending, InfoReceived, InTransit, OutForDelivery, AttemptFail, Delivered, AvailableForPickup, Exception and Expired. This vocabulary is used as a constrained decoder target so a model parsing an exception email can only return one of these nine values, preventing invented or malformed statuses. _Teams building AI-parsed logistics pipelines can track vocabulary and schema standards like this one on daily.dev._ ### Does DCSA publish ocean shipping standards as OpenAPI specs? Yes, the Digital Container Shipping Association publishes Track and Trace, Booking, electronic Bill of Lading, Commercial Schedules, Operational Vessel Schedules, Port Call and Arrival Notice standards as OpenAPI. Maersk is one carrier that references DCSA directly in its contracts, with booking paths under dcsa/bkg/v2/bookings and transport document paths under dcsa/ebl/v3/transport-documents. _Developers evaluating maritime or logistics API integrations can follow standards coverage like DCSA on daily.dev._ ### Why do major ocean carriers like Maersk, MSC and COSCO score poorly on API catalog readiness? Major ocean carriers largely lack published OpenAPI contracts a model can be constrained against: Hapag-Lloyd scores 5.7, MSC 5.4, Ocean Network Express 4.7 and COSCO 3.3, with no OpenAPI found in the catalog for any of them, and CMA CGM sits at 14.3. Maersk is the exception, scoring 43.0 and directly referencing DCSA standards in its OpenAPI files. _Anyone weighing which carrier APIs are actually machine-readable can track scores like these on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Amazon opens up its global logistics network to all businesses](https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-opens-up-its-global-logistics-network-to-all-businesses-rwwemx3pw) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Market-driven shipping now available in feature preview](https://daily.dev/posts/market-driven-shipping-now-available-in-feature-preview-chvgmdtkq) · Shopify Developer changelog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Blog: Shipping Code Is Not the Job](https://daily.dev/posts/blog-shipping-code-is-not-the-job-glt1yhy9e) · Wawandco · 2 upvotes · 1 comments - [VTEX omnichannel: ship-from-store, pickup & endless aisle](https://daily.dev/posts/vtex-omnichannel-ship-from-store-pickup-endless-aisle-m7dj7ojfu) · Netguru · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UPS is building a real-time digital twin of its entire logistics network, updated every 10 minutes](https://daily.dev/posts/ups-is-building-a-real-time-digital-twin-of-its-entire-logistics-network-updated-every-10-minutes-dwpcifife) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#openapi](https://daily.dev/tags/openapi) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/shipping-the-shape-of-the-answer-orpbjm2rf) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Shipping: The Shape Of The Answer","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/shipping-the-shape-of-the-answer-orpbjm2rf","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/shipping-the-shape-of-the-answer-orpbjm2rf"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T12:55:11.917Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T13:00:18.018Z","description":"Shipping has more of its data shapes already standardized than most industries. 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