Among the many transaction sets of the Electronic Data Interchange ANSI X12 standard is the EDI 315. Part of the X12I Transportation transaction set, the EDI 315, also known as the Status Details (Ocean) Transactions form, is an electronic document used by ocean carriers to update buyers and sellers about the status of their goods traveling by ship.
EDI 315 is an important component of overseas shipping logistics, as it keeps players all along the supply chain informed of cargo movements in real-time. This improves shipment reliability and arrival predictability.
The ASC X12 EDI (Accredited Standards Committee X12, Electronic Data Interchange) standard is the most commonly used EDI standard in North America. Its forms, or transactions, are divided into several sets, each pertaining to a specific industry and managed by a subcommittee. These sets include finance, government, insurance, and transportation.
As part of the transportation group, EDI 315 allows authorized entities to access information related to a specific cargo container or shipment. It also lets authorized parties learn details pertaining to multiple events or status updates for a single piece of cargo. It is meant to convey details for both a single event or status related to multiple shipments or cargo containers and multiple events or statuses for a single shipment or container.
Because it was developed to give accurate, near-instantaneous EDI status details about shipments to authorized parties along the value chain, the EDI 315 must contain specific data points. These include:
International shipping can present risks for both buyer and seller. EDI 315: Status Details (Ocean) is meant to allay some of the concerns inherent in long-haul commerce by increasing visibility into operations.
Trading partners using EDI 315 will receive Status Details messages, which are set by the system to send automatically when certain, predetermined shipping occurrences–such as pickup, port arrival, and offloading–take place. Many partners in the supply chain require the sending of EDI 315 when these events happen, as a means of more accurately tracking their shipments.
Some cargo carriers also use EDI 315 to notify partners of unplanned events that may affect shipment or delivery. Global health emergencies, severe storms, port stoppages, and other generally unforeseen occurrences can slow ship travel, resulting in delivery delays, and recipients awaiting packages will receive an automated EDI 315 informing them of the delay.
There are several key transactions preceding, following or closely related to the EDI 315. These include the following:
There are multiple reasons for a logistics company to use the EDI 315 in their ocean shipping transactions. Some of these are:
Despite the significant help it provides, the EDI 315 can sometimes cause headaches for logistics firms. Some of the more common hassles experienced are:
Logistics companies doing international commerce today must EDI 315 in order to stay current and competitive. The transaction set saves them time and hassle and increases firms’ customer satisfaction while it speeds the pace of business.
However, implementing and maintaining an EDI solution requires near-constant management and maintenance by specialized information technology professionals. Remedi can help.
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