What is the difference between an API and EDI in logistics?

Both exchange structured data between companies. EDI sends standard messages such as the X12 214 status; an API lets systems request data or subscribe to events as they happen, and UN/CEFACT describes REST/JSON replacing EDI/XML.

What is DCSA Track & Trace?

The Digital Container Shipping Association's standard for shipment visibility, organising events into five types under one shared model. Version 2.2 added subscriptions, so carriers push events to shippers.

How are logistics APIs secured?

With authentication and signed messages. DCSA's Track & Trace 2.2 added subscription-ID and notification-signature headers, and Fasah says it has fully adopted the OAuth protocol.

Term

Logistics API

A logistics API (application programming interface) lets one company's system ask another's for data, or receive it automatically, in a fixed format — a booking, a container event, a delivery status. Industry standards such as DCSA's define common data models, communication protocols and processes, so a shipper can build once against a standard instead of per partner.

Also called freight API, tracking API, shipping API, carrier API, subscription callback APIUpdated 14 October 2026

Pull, push and events

Request and response: the shipper's system asks for a shipment's status when it needs it.
Subscription and callback: DCSA's Track & Trace 2.2, released on 26 October 2021, added a subscription callback API so shippers and consignees receive shipment events from carriers automatically.
Events, not datasets: Portbase's export API sends messages about specific logistics occurrences instead of transmitting entire datasets.
One model: DCSA's Track & Trace standard organises shipment visibility into five event types, exchanged through a shared model.

API or EDI

EDI is still everywhere: DCSA notes that booking is often done manually across EDI, carrier web pages and email in non-standardised formats. UN/CEFACT's 2026 work on its Recommendation 36 puts the shift plainly — REST/JSON replaces EDI/XML. DCSA's Track & Trace 3.0.0, announced on 30 September 2026, goes to its members and partners first and to the public in the second half of 2027.

Worked example: tracking 200 containers

Polling: 200 containers × 1 status request an hour × 24 hours = 4,800 calls a day, most returning no change · subscription: 200 subscriptions, and a callback only when an event happens

Illustrative. DCSA added subscription callbacks in Track & Trace 2.2, with subscription-ID and notification-signature headers for security.

The mistake people make

Building a bespoke link to every partner. DCSA's case for its standard is that partners build against one standard instead of negotiating bespoke mappings and connections with every partner. Secure it too: DCSA's callbacks carry subscription-ID and notification-signature headers, and Saudi Arabia's Fasah says it has fully adopted the OAuth protocol.

FAQ

Logistics API: common questions

What is the difference between an API and EDI in logistics?: Both exchange structured data between companies. EDI sends standard messages such as the X12 214 status; an API lets systems request data or subscribe to events as they happen, and UN/CEFACT describes REST/JSON replacing EDI/XML.
What is DCSA Track & Trace?: The Digital Container Shipping Association's standard for shipment visibility, organising events into five types under one shared model. Version 2.2 added subscriptions, so carriers push events to shippers.
How are logistics APIs secured?: With authentication and signed messages. DCSA's Track & Trace 2.2 added subscription-ID and notification-signature headers, and Fasah says it has fully adopted the OAuth protocol.