This document specifies the data communication concepts applicable to the data requirements of the transport community. It also includes the regulatory authorities related to freight and its intermodal transfer to participate in common reporting.

Data communication concepts include information entities (data elements), aggregated/associated information entities (groups of data elements) and messages that comprise information exchanges at transport interfaces along the chain of participants responsible for the delivery of goods from the point of origin through to the final recipient. This includes all transport entities carrying the cargo as well as the documents and information required to facilitate the cargo movement.

This document focuses on a single "thread" of the overall end-to-end supply chain. It includes motor transport data needs within the international supply chain to satisfy the requirements of both businesses and governmental organizations on business to business (B2B), business to government (B2G), government to business (G2B) and government to government (G2G) relationships. This document is applicable to shipments that originate in one country and terminate in another. It can also be applied to shipments that originate and terminate in a single country. This document is applicable to freight movements that interface with other modes and incorporates interface requirements set for those other modes.

This document is also designed to incorporate the elements of the Govcbr message (a message developed by the World Customs organization, WCO, that can facilitate data exchange but can potentially not apply to all parties throughout the supply chain) and have them apply across the whole supply-chain, on a global basis.

This document does not constrain the requirements of customs, regulatory and safety bodies at border crossings but does include the data elements likely to be required by customs authorities and other governmental bodies within a single window environment or within a port community system environment.