FIT Alliance established to standardize Electronic Bill of Lading for the container shipping industry

BIMCO, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), SWIFT and FIATA join the Digital Container Shipping Association (DSCA) to standardize and promote the adoption of Electronic Bills of Lading (eBL) in the container shipping industry.

FIT Alliance

FIT Alliance (Photo: Phaata.com)

Five of the most powerful associations supporting global trade have joined together to form an alliance to accelerate digital transformation and simplify the world's trade, including the idea of a single electronic bill of lading (eBL) accepted throughout the shipping industry.

In an effort to avoid costly and unwanted discrepancies in shipping industry digitization standards, the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with BIMCO, International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and SWIFT will create Future International Trade Alliance (FIT Alliance) with a mission to coordinate modernize industry data management and best solutions for managing digital transactions.

The FIT Alliance will work to raise awareness of the importance of common data standards as well as common and interoperable legislative conditions on an international basis.

One of the main goals of the initiative is to unite industry stakeholders around the idea of an electronic bill of lading (eBL) that will be accepted by regulators, banks and insurance companies, unifying the communication between these organizations, shippers and carriers, as well as other stakeholders involved in international commercial transactions.

“From the beginning, DCSA has understood the importance of cross-industry collaboration to achieve the elusive goal of universal eBL,” said Thomas Bagge, Chief Executive Officer of DCSA. “The FIT Alliance is one exciting result of our ongoing effort to drive that collaboration. Container ships carry 90% of the world’s goods. As such, an incredibly diverse set of stakeholders touches the B/L transaction—from government regulators, to insurers, to shippers from every industry. To achieve widespread use of eBL, they must all be on board with adopting digital B/L standards."

“The agreement between DCSA and these diverse industry associations is an exciting milestone in our journey towards standardising all container shipping documentation through our eDocumentation initiative."

DCSA previously estimated that the adoption of E-Bills by 50% of the container shipping industry could save about $4 billion in annual costs.

The move to establish FIT has been welcomed by the world's largest container shipping line - MSC.

André Simha, MSC's Global Chief Digital & Innovation Officer and also Chairman of DCSA, commented: “MSC believes that for digitalisation to work at its best, everyone needs to be on board, working hand-in-hand establishing a common language, defined by the whole industry."

“By bringing together so many important trade associations, the FIT Alliance represents a major step forward, and it I’m excited to see the benefits that this collaboration will bring about.”

FIATA, which has developed its own solution accepted by the ICC, welcomes the opportunity to work with other industries to ensure that documents for all different types of goods can be simplified by creating an open source solution that meets the diverse needs of the industry.

“Interoperability between all actors of the trade and transport industry is the key foundation to enable smooth data exchange and to streamline the end-to-end shipping process for our members,” said FIATA Director General, Dr. Stephane Graber. “FIATA, as the owner of the only negotiable multimodal transport document, endorsed by UNCTAD and ICC, is convinced that an industry-wide effort to establish open-source, interoperable, technology-agnostic standards is essential to make digitalization of international trade a reality.”

The move was welcomed by ICC Secretary-General John Denton, who said the initiative's success would "make international trade far less complex than it currently is. Through the FIT Alliance, we are collaborating with key industry players to create and accelerate the adoption of digital standards for bills of lading that will make international shipping dramatically more simple, secure and seamless.”

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Source: Phaata.com (According to SeatradeMaritimes)

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