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Shipping Standards

The global trade network is like an internet for physical goods, without standardization. The same way data passes between devices via the internet, goods pass between network nodes to reach their final destination.

  • Ocean ports
  • Airports
  • Warehouses

Without a logistics standard to act as a request-response protocol, all the players must stitch their networks together manually.

  • Suppliers
  • Drayage
  • Ports
  • Warehouses
  • Buyers

Questions​

Which standard covered here is most frequently adopted in name but not in practice — and what's the gap between stated adoption and actual behavior?

  • At what adoption percentage does a standard produce enough network effects to become the de facto requirement for a new entrant?
  • How does a standard age when the underlying technology evolves faster than the standards body can update the specification?
  • Which standard decision — naming conventions, interface design, or versioning strategy — compounds most over time as a codebase grows?