New Suite of Supply Chain Standards

The new standards support goods movement process codes and transport unit identifiers.

Apr 16, 2026

ASTM International’s digital information in the supply chain committee (F49) has approved three new standards that combine with the standard terminologies for goods movement process (GMP) (F3682) and relating to supply chain stakeholders (F3776):

Standard terminology for supply chain locations (F3787);
Standard guide for applying GMP codes in common approaches to transport management (F3803); and
Standard practice for applying a GMP code as suffix to the ISO transport unit identifier(F3804).

“Committee F49 has a strong focus on the goods movement process with the aim to help stakeholders work together better,” says Michael Darden, chair of the subcommittee on terminology (F49.01).

Jaco Voorspuij, chair of recommendation practices subcommittee (F49.04), agrees. “Identification of transport units is a key enabler for working together better, especially when combined with unambiguous status codes," he says.

“F3803 describes how transport unit identification and goods movement process codes may be used to support common processes to move goods from where they are to where they should be. It provides easy-to-understand descriptions of those transport and logistics (T&L) processes and provides information on how parties may use unambiguous identification for transport units, in combination with commonly understood status codes,” says Voorspuij.

“When implemented, using standards that the stakeholders are familiar with will greatly improve the performance of their T&L operations," Darden adds. "If F3803’s recommended approaches are implemented, they will provide a common understanding of the transport unit’s progress and status to the parties involved."

F3804 describes the implementation of the process codes described in F3803, using ISO 8000-119 (transport unit identifier) as the basis. Darden notes that implementations of F3803 and F3804 based on other transport units, such as those used in the Global Business Identifier Test, are also possible.

The committee would like to hear from entities that are implementing the standards.

“We welcome members from buyers and sellers to transport service providers and regulators to join the work from the committee and evaluate any implementation that may be documented in early standards adoption efforts,” says Drew Zabrocki, member secretary for F49.

ASTM welcomes participation in the development of its standards. Join ASTM.

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