Five eBL platforms adopt DCSA Standard Annex v.2, enabling electronic Bill of Lading exchange
The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) announces that five electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) solution providers, CargoX, edoxOnline, TradeGo, WaveBL and eTEU, have implemented the DCSA Standard Annex for eBL Platform Interoperability v.2, each having received approval from the International Group of Protection and Indemnity Clubs (IGP&I).
With this shared, IGP&I-approved framework now in place, businesses can for the first time exchange eBLs across a network of different platforms, removing the long-standing requirement for all parties to a shipment to use the same system. The framework also enables these eBLs to be exchanged globally, including in jurisdictions that do not yet legally recognise an eBL as equivalent to a paper Bill of Lading.
Each of the four platforms has incorporated the Standard Annex into its terms, and these have been approved by the IGP&I, whose member clubs underwrite the liabilities behind the majority of the world's ocean-going trade. This approval establishes the validity and security of the framework across the marine insurance market, providing the assurance on which industry-wide trust depends, while keeping the ecosystem open to any platform that adopts the shared framework.
"This is a defining moment for digital trade documentation." said Thomas Bagge, CEO of DCSA. "For digital trade to scale, interoperability cannot remain confined to isolated connections between individual platforms. The industry needs a shared framework that allows trusted exchange across a network of providers, regardless of which platform each party has chosen. By developing the technical, legal and trust foundations together with eBL solution providers and the wider industry, we are moving the electronic Bill of Lading from fragmented pilots toward dependable, industry-wide adoption. This is precisely the kind of collaboration required to achieve the industry's goal of 100% eBL adoption by 2030."
The milestone reflects close to five years of collaboration between DCSA and the participating eBL platforms, and builds on earlier live interoperability pilots and the first standards-based interoperable eBL transactions completed in 2025.