DIL / CTN Glossary

Colophon

Purpose	Glossary
Author	Ramon de Noronha & Léarco Kooman
Target Audience	Program Team CTN
Status	Approved
Date of approval
Name of approver	Program Team CTN
Version	1.2
Version explanation	NA
Rights	Shared externally with stakeholders

Glossary

This is a glossary with the terms, acronyms, and concepts used in the Connected Trade Network (CTN) architecture by the CTN Project Team.

Important Terminology Note: This glossary distinguishes between “Connected Trade Network (CTN)” (the digital infrastructure initiative/system) and “Container Transport” (the physical business process being improved).

Audience and Scope. This glossary is written for two overlapping audiences. First, the CTN Stakeholders and delivery-party onboarding: senior people from outside the logistics field who need to follow CTN steering-committee conversations — for them, the CTN Business Terms and CTN Technical Terms sections are the relevant parts. Second, anyone joining the programme who wants a working understanding of the surrounding container-logistics vocabulary — for them, the Logistics Terms section is the entry point. The Dutch Maritime Heritage section is included as light context; skip it if you are in a hurry. Where terms overlap with the BDI reference architecture (e.g. Association, Association Register, Custodian, Authority), the definitions in this glossary aim to be consistent with the BDI gitbook; where they differ, the BDI gitbook is leading.

A Brief History on Dutch Maritime Heritage

Pick up any modern container-logistics document — a Hong Kong terminal’s operating manual, a Long Beach trucker’s schedule, an Italian forwarder’s rate sheet — and you will find Dutch words on every page. They have been thoroughly anglicised, sometimes for so long that English-speaking professionals no longer recognize them as foreign at all, but they are recognizably Dutch. Bill of Lading. Skipper. Freight. Deck. Dock. Yacht. Sloop. Cruise. Cargo. Hoist. Keel. The vocabulary of moving things by water is, to a remarkable degree, the vocabulary of the Low Countries.

This is not an accident. It is the linguistic residue of about four hundred years during which the Dutch dominated, and then helped to professionalize, long-distance maritime trade. The story is worth a short detour, both for fun and because it explains why a glossary like this one — written in English, in Rotterdam, in 2026, by a Dutch program team — reads the way it does.

The Hanseatic League (12th–17th century)

The first big wave of Dutch / Low-German maritime vocabulary reached English through the Hanseatic League, a confederation of trading cities that ran the North Sea and Baltic economy for roughly four centuries. London had a Hansa “factory” (the Steelyard) from the 13th century until 1598; English merchants, dockworkers, and shipwrights worked alongside Hansa skippers daily for generations. The Hansa’s working language was Middle Low German, very closely related to Middle Dutch. Words such as “skipper” (schipper), “freight” (vrecht / vracht), “keel” (kiel), “deck” (dek), and “hoy” (heude) enter English in this period and never really leave.

The Dutch Golden Age & the VOC (1602–1799)

The second, much larger wave comes during the Dutch Golden Age, when Amsterdam was the financial capital of Europe and the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the Dutch East India Company) was the world’s largest commercial enterprise. The VOC operated for almost two centuries (1602–1799), at its peak ran some 4,700 ships, employed roughly a million Europeans on Asia voyages, and shipped some 2.5 million tonnes of Asian goods to Europe. Its sister organization, the WIC (West-Indische Compagnie, 1621–1791), did the same for the Atlantic and the Americas.

The VOC effectively invented or perfected several practices that the rest of the world later copied: the publicly traded joint-stock company; standardised cargo manifests and bills of lading; insurance and average-loss conventions; a centralised admiralty bookkeeping system; standardised ship designs (the fluyt) optimised for cargo capacity rather than warship duty; and the use of professional captains and supercargoes under written instructions from a board. Each of these practices came with its own vocabulary — and when the English and others adopted the practices, they tended to import the words too.

Anglo-Dutch relations in this period were a tense mixture of cooperation and rivalry — four Anglo-Dutch wars in 130 years, a Dutch invasion of London (the Medway raid of 1667), and finally a Dutch stadtholder (William III) on the English throne. Throughout it all, English shipwrights, sailors, and merchants worked with Dutch counterparts, copied their ships, and absorbed their terminology. By the end of the 17th century the vocabulary was effectively shared.

A non-exhaustive list of Dutch words still in working English

Roughly grouped — many of these are now so anglicised that their origin is invisible. NL form in parentheses.

• Ships & rigging — yacht (jacht), sloop (sloep), schooner (schoener — via Dutch from English “to scoon”), smack (smak), hoy (heude), pink (pink), iceboat (ijsboot), brig (likely from Dutch brik), cruiser (kruiser), frigate (fregat — ultimately Italian, but the modern naval sense reached English via Dutch usage).
• Ship parts — deck (dek), keel (kiel), bow (boeg), aft (achter), hull (hol — cognate), mast (mast), boom (boom, “tree, pole”), bowsprit (boegspriet), avast (houd vast, “hold fast”), caboose (kombuis, ship’s galley).
• Cargo & handling — lading (laden, to load), freight (vrecht / vracht), cargo (via Spanish from Latin, but reinforced by Dutch usage), hoist (hijsen), pump (pomp), buoy (boei), boom (boom, also “barrier”), bulwark (bolwerk), dredge (dreggen).
• Ports & infrastructure — dock (dok), quay (kaai — via French but reinforced by Dutch usage in English ports), dam (dam), dike (dijk), polder (polder), sluice (sluis), lock (sluis / lok), wharf (werf), bollard (bolder).
• People & roles — skipper (schipper), boss (baas), freebooter (vrijbuiter), filibuster (vrijbuiter, via Spanish filibustero), boodle (boedel, “estate”), wagon (wagen).
• Trade, finance & bookkeeping — stock (stok / stokken, share register), guilder (gulden), dollar (daalder, via Low German), groove (groef), tariff (via French and Italian, but the Dutch were the major standardisers in early modern Europe), bond (band, in the financial-instrument sense).
• Weather & navigation — cruise (kruisen, “to cross”), maelstrom (maalstroom), iceberg (ijsberg), reef (rif), shoal (schol — cognate), landscape (landschap — not maritime, but emblematic).
• Less obvious — blunderbuss (donderbus, “thunder gun”), brandy (brandewijn, “burnt wine”), coleslaw (koolsla, “cabbage salad”), cookie (koekje), cruller (kruller), gin (jenever — via genever), Santa Claus (Sinterklaas), Yankee (Jan Kees, allegedly — debated).

Why so many?

Three reinforcing reasons. First, the languages were already cousins: English and Dutch are both West Germanic, so a Dutch loanword tends to sit comfortably in English phonology and never feel foreign. Second, the Dutch dominated the practices — from joint-stock finance to standardised ship designs — so when those practices spread, the vocabulary spread with them. Third, the maritime world is small and shared: the same dockyards in London, Hamburg, and Amsterdam employed the same kinds of people doing the same kinds of work, and the working vocabulary cross-pollinated continuously for centuries.

The pattern continues in the modern era. Containerisation itself was an American invention (Malcolm McLean, 1956), but Rotterdam built the first dedicated container terminal in continental Europe (1967), the first ECT terminal on Maasvlakte opened in 1984, and the Dutch have been disproportionately present in international logistics standardisation ever since — including, now, in BDI and CTN. The vocabulary keeps coming.

The terms below are organised by theme rather than alphabetically. They are not exhaustive — for a broader reference, Crowley’s public glossary (crowley.com/resources/glossary) is a useful companion — but they cover the vocabulary you will hear in any CTN conversation about container flows, terminals, and hinterland transport.

Container Basics

• FCL / LCL — Full Container Load vs. Less than Container Load. FCL means one shipper fills an entire container; LCL is consolidated cargo from multiple shippers sharing one container, handled at a CFS (Container Freight Station).
• TEU / FEU — Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit and Forty-foot Equivalent Unit. The standard capacity measure for container ships, terminals, and trade statistics. A 40’ container counts as 2 TEU.
• Reefer — Refrigerated container with its own cooling unit. Used for perishables, pharmaceuticals, and temperature-sensitive cargo. Requires power (genset, ship reefer plug, or terminal plug-in) throughout the journey.
• Tare / Payload / VGM — Tare is the empty weight of the container; payload is the cargo weight; VGM (Verified Gross Mass) is the SOLAS-mandated total weight (tare + cargo) that must be declared by the shipper before loading on a sea vessel.
• ISO Container Sizes — Standard sizes are 20’, 40’, and 45’ long, in standard (8’6”) and high-cube (9’6”) heights. Identified per ISO 6346 with a four-letter owner/equipment code plus a six-digit serial and check digit.

Locations

• CY (Container Yard) — The stacking area at a terminal where containers wait between vessel and onward transport. CY-to-CY service means the carrier’s responsibility is from origin yard to destination yard.
• CFS (Container Freight Station) — Facility where LCL cargo is consolidated into containers (stuffing) or de-consolidated out of them (stripping). Typically operated by the carrier or a logistics provider.
• ICD (Inland Container Depot) — An inland “dry port” with customs facilities, container handling, and rail or barge connections to a seaport. Allows customs clearance away from congested seaport terminals.
• Bonded Warehouse — A customs-supervised facility where imported goods can be stored without duties being paid, until released for free circulation, re-exported, or moved under transit. Known in NL as a douane-entrepot.
• Empty Depot — Off-terminal storage for empty containers. Carriers reposition empties here for the next export booking; truckers pick up and drop off empties to avoid using scarce terminal slots.

Movements

• Gate-in / Gate-out — The physical entry or exit of a container at a terminal gate. Triggers CODECO messages and starts/stops detention or demurrage clocks. The exact gate-in moment is the most common dispute point between carriers and customers.
• LOLO / RORO — Lift On – Lift Off (containers lifted by crane) versus Roll On – Roll Off (wheeled cargo driven on and off). Most container traffic is LOLO; RORO is used for cars, trucks, and project cargo.
• Stripping / Stuffing — Unloading cargo out of a container (stripping) or loading cargo into one (stuffing). Done at a CFS, warehouse, or directly at the consignee’s site.
• Transhipment — Moving a container from one vessel to another at an intermediate port, without customs clearance. Critical for hub-and-spoke networks; transhipment-heavy ports (e.g. Algeciras, Tangier Med) compete on crane productivity.
• Pre-/On-/End-carriage — Three legs of an intermodal journey: pre-carriage (origin to load port), on-carriage / main-carriage (the sea or rail trunk leg), and end-carriage (discharge port to destination). The carrier may handle one, two, or all three.
• Modal Shift — Strategic shift of freight from one mode to another — usually road to rail or inland waterway — for emissions, cost, or congestion reasons. A core policy driver for CTN and Dutch hinterland strategy.

Time & Cost

• Demurrage — Charge levied by the carrier when a container stays on the terminal beyond its free time, waiting to be picked up. Paid by the consignee. The clock runs from gate-in (import) or container availability.
• Detention — Charge levied by the carrier when a container stays off the terminal (at the customer’s site) beyond its free time, before being returned empty. Paid by the consignee. Often combined with demurrage as “D&D.”
• Dwell Time — The total time a container spends on a terminal between arrival and departure. A key terminal performance KPI; long dwell times signal congestion or customs delays.
• Free Time — The window granted by the carrier or terminal before demurrage / detention starts. Typically 3–7 days; negotiable for large shippers.
• THC (Terminal Handling Charge) — Fee charged by the carrier (and ultimately the terminal) for loading or discharging the container at origin and destination ports. Itemised on the freight invoice.
• BAF / CAF — Bunker Adjustment Factor (fuel surcharge) and Currency Adjustment Factor (FX surcharge). Surcharges added to the base sea freight rate; volatility passes through to shippers.

Documents

• B/L (Bill of Lading) — The classic sea transport contract, cargo receipt, and document of title issued by the carrier. Three originals are common; whoever holds an endorsed original can claim the cargo. See also the Business Terms section for variants.
• Sea Waybill — Non-negotiable transport document. Faster than a B/L (no original needs to be couriered to the consignee) but cannot be used to transfer title in transit. Common in trusted shipper-consignee relationships.
• HBL / MBL — House Bill of Lading (issued by a forwarder or NVOCC to the actual shipper) vs. Master Bill of Lading (issued by the carrier to the forwarder/NVOCC). Both cover the same physical cargo.
• CMR — International road consignment note under the CMR Convention. The default freight document for cross-border trucking in Europe; required for customs and proof of delivery.
• MRN (Movement Reference Number) — Unique customs reference for a declaration (import, export, or transit). Links physical cargo to its customs status; the terminal will not release a container without a valid MRN.
• T1 / T2 — EU customs transit documents. T1 covers non-Union goods moving under customs supervision (e.g. from a seaport to an inland clearance point); T2 covers Union goods crossing a non-EU territory.
• ENS (Entry Summary Declaration) — Pre-arrival security declaration that must be filed with the customs authority of the first EU port of entry, before the vessel arrives. Filed by the carrier or a representative.

EDI Messages (CTN-relevant)

• CODECO — EDIFACT message for container gate-in and gate-out events at a terminal. Sent from terminal operator to carrier (and increasingly to platforms like CTN) to confirm physical container movement.
• COPRAR — Container discharge / load order. Sent by the carrier to the terminal listing which containers to load on or discharge from a specific vessel call.
• COARRI — Container discharge / load report. Sent by the terminal back to the carrier confirming which containers were actually loaded or discharged, with stowage positions.
• COPINO — Container pre-notification. Sent by a trucker or barge operator to the terminal announcing an upcoming visit and the containers involved.
• BAPLIE — Bayplan / Stowage Plan Occupied and Empty Locations. Standardised stowage plan for a container vessel, exchanged between carriers, terminals, and stowage planners.
• IFTMIN / IFTSTA — IFTMIN is a transport instruction (booking, pickup, delivery order); IFTSTA is a transport status report. Together they cover most carrier-to-shipper status messaging.

Parties

• Shipper / Consignee / Notify Party — Shipper is the contractual sender of the cargo; consignee is the party entitled to receive it; notify party is whoever the carrier alerts on arrival (often the customs broker). All three are named on the B/L.
• Forwarder — Freight forwarder — arranges transport on behalf of the shipper or consignee, typically without operating ships, planes, or trucks themselves. The English word comes via Dutch trade vocabulary.
• Carrier — The party that contractually performs the transport. For sea cargo, usually a shipping line operating its own or chartered vessels. See also “Carrier” in the Business Terms section.
• NVOCC (Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier) — A party that issues its own bills of lading and acts as a carrier to the shipper, but does not own or operate vessels — it buys slots from actual carriers. Common in the US and Asia trades.
• Terminal Operator — Operates the physical terminal (cranes, yard, gates). Major Rotterdam examples: ECT, APM Terminals Maasvlakte II, Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG).
• BCO (Beneficial Cargo Owner) — The actual owner of the goods being shipped — not the forwarder, not the carrier, not the consignee on paper, but the commercial entity that owns the cargo and bears the trade risk.
• 3PL / 4PL — Third-Party Logistics provider executes logistics (warehousing, transport) for a shipper. A Fourth-Party Logistics provider orchestrates and manages multiple 3PLs and supply-chain partners on the shipper’s behalf.

Inland Navigation & Hinterland (NL focus)

• Inland Terminal / Barge Terminal — A terminal in the hinterland served by inland waterways (barges) and / or rail, connecting to one or more seaports. Examples: Contargo, ITG, Van Berkel, BCTN. The backbone of Dutch and German container hinterland.
• Hinterland — The inland region served by a seaport — where its containers come from and go to. Rotterdam’s hinterland reaches deep into Germany, Switzerland, and Austria via the Rhine corridor.
• Call Size — Number of containers a barge or feeder vessel exchanges (load + discharge) at a single seaport terminal call. Small call sizes are inefficient for terminals and a structural source of friction in Rotterdam’s inland network.
• Bundling — Combining containers from multiple barge operators or shippers into larger, more efficient terminal calls. A central tactic for reducing waiting time at deep-sea terminals.
• Corridor — A fixed inland transport route with regular service, often jointly marketed by multiple terminals and operators (e.g. the Rotterdam–Duisburg or Rotterdam–Basel corridors).

Customs & Compliance

• AEO (Authorised Economic Operator) — EU customs status granted to traders that meet specific reliability, solvency, and security standards. Brings benefits such as fewer physical inspections and simplified declarations.
• HS Code — Harmonised System code — the international six-digit goods classification used for tariffs, statistics, and trade controls. EU adds two further digits (CN code) and member states sometimes more.
• Incoterms — International Commercial Terms (ICC) defining where in the journey the seller’s responsibility ends and the buyer’s begins. Common ones: FOB, CIF, DAP, DDP, EXW. Determines who arranges and pays for transport, insurance, and clearance.
• Customs Broker — Licensed party that files import, export, and transit declarations on behalf of the trader. In Dutch: douane-expediteur.

Data & Platforms (CTN World)

• Port Community System (PCS) — Neutral platform that exchanges information between all parties in a port community (carriers, terminals, customs, forwarders, truckers). The Dutch PCS is Portbase; Antwerp’s is NxtPort.
• Track & Trace / ETA / ETD — Container or shipment visibility services. ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival; ETD = Estimated Time of Departure. CTN aims to replace fragmented tracking with federated, source-of-truth events.
• Data Sovereignty — The principle that the party producing or holding data controls who may see and use it, under what conditions. Central to BDI and CTN architecture; contrasts with central-platform models.
• Federated Data Sharing — Architectural pattern where data stays at the source (the custodian) and is accessed on request via authorised, audited queries — rather than being copied into a central database. The technical heart of CTN.

CTN Business Terms

A

• Association — Legal entity that serves as trust anchor for both federated trust/authentication and local onboarding. In CTN, the Association will be structured as a “Coöperatieve Vereniging”: it has no legal members but rather participants who are onboarded to it and is governed by its founding members on the board. Participation is not limited to industry — regulators such as ILT and RWS can also join as participants.
• Association Register (ASR) — Register of onboarded participants of a particular BDI Association instance. Performs compliance checks and issues VAD tokens that prove participant status and trustworthiness.
• Authority — Regulatory bodies (customs, port authorities, safety inspectors) that need access to transport data in order to perform regulatory oversight, ensure compliance, and support security operations.

B

• BDI (Basic Data Infrastructure) — The foundational framework that defines principles, standards, and protocols for secure, sovereign data exchange between organizations. BDI has seven core principles:

  1. Connecting Physical and Digital Processes — Digital data flows mirror physical operations
  2. Event-Driven Architecture — Systems communicate through asynchronous events
  3. Zero Trust — Every interaction requires explicit verification
  4. Dynamic Data — Information reflects current operational state
  5. Data at the Source — Data remains with its owner/custodian
  6. Local Decision-Making — Distributed control, no central authority
  7. Coherent Security — Comprehensive security framework across all layers

  CTN is a specific implementation of the BDI framework for container transport.

• BDI Connector — A software component that implements BDI protocols, enabling organizations to participate in the data exchange network.

• Beneficial Cargo Owner (BCO) — The ultimate owner of the goods being transported. Decides on the booking approach, pays transport charges, bears responsibility for compliance with applicable regulations, and receives the cargo at destination. May orchestrate container movements directly, or delegate orchestration to a freight forwarder.

• Bill of Lading (B/L or BOL) — Transport contract and cargo receipt issued by the carrier; includes Shipper, Consignee, and Notify Party(ies). Variants include Master B/L (carrier-issued) and House B/L (forwarder/NVOCC-issued). Serves as proof of ownership and is required for cargo release at destination.

• BRIS (Business Registers Interconnection System) — European system enabling the identification of companies and their branches across EU Member States by interconnecting national business registers. Used to verify EUID identifiers.

C

• Cargo Director (PCS Secure Chain) — is the ‘director of the cargo’ and can orchestrate the inland transport or appoint someone else as cargo director. The party designated as Release-to-Party automatically also assumes the role of Cargo Director. This role was introduced as part of the trusted supply chain concept. Multiple parties may act as Cargo Director throughout the chain, but at any given moment there is only one active Cargo Director. The Cargo Director can transfer this role to another party. This role can be fulfilled by importers, forwarders, and in some cases inland terminals and/or carriers.
• Carrier (Ocean Carrier / Line / Agent) — Issues the Bill of Lading or electronic B/L, operates the ocean service, manages release conditions and destination charges. May operate through local agents at various ports.
• Carrier’s Agent — Local representative of the carrier at destination ports, handling arrival notices, delivery orders, and coordination with terminal operators.
  • Carrier (PCS Secure Chain) — also known as Shipping Company. Responsible for releasing the container to a release-to-party at the terminal. This party has agreements with the terminal and pays the handling costs. The interests of the shipping company may be represented by a local agent that performs the administrative activities on its behalf. In such cases, this local party submits the release in Portbase on behalf of the carrier.
• Chamber of Commerce (CoC) — National business registry that registers companies and maintains legal entity information. Examples include Kamer van Koophandel (KvK) in the Netherlands, Handelsregister (HRB) in Germany. Provides verification services for company legitimacy and business information.
• Charter (PCS Secure Chain) — Within MCA Road, it is possible to designate an executing carrier in the pre-notification. This party does not perform any actions within MCA but is responsible for physically collecting the container. This role is therefore purely operational and can only be assumed by road carriers.
• CIM/SMGS (Rail Consignment Note) — International rail consignment documentation used for cross-border rail transport.
• CMR (Road Consignment Note) — Proof of contract for international road transport under the CMR convention.
• Commercial Invoice & Packing List — Seller’s invoice and detailed cargo packaging information used for customs valuation and compliance verification.
• Consignee — Party entitled to take delivery of cargo at destination; named on the Bill of Lading. Can be the BCO or another entity authorized to receive the goods.
• Container — Standard shipping container (20ft, 40ft, or 45ft) used in intermodal transport. The primary unit of cargo being tracked and coordinated in container transport operations.
• Container Number (ISO 6346) — Standardized container identifier consisting of owner code, serial number, and check digit, used for unique identification throughout the transport chain.
• Custodian — An organization that holds operational data (terminals, carriers, logistics providers) and controls access to it based on authorization policies.
• Customs (Douane) — Government authority responsible for import, export, transit, and security filings. Manages compliance with trade regulations and collects duties.
• Customs Broker — Licensed agent who files import declarations on behalf of BCO/Consignee; links MRN (Movement Reference Number) to B/L and coordinates with terminal processes.
• Container Transport — The business process of moving containers from origin to destination, involving multiple parties (carriers, terminals, truckers) and modes of transport (ship, rail, truck). This is the problem domain that CTN addresses.
• CTN (Connected Trade Network) — The programme that defines and delivers shared, federated data infrastructure for container transport. CTN is a programme (not a single solution): it coordinates participants, agreements, and technical components that together enable secure data sharing across the chain. The 2026 scope is the Association Register, endpoint registration, and the use case Visibility Achterland Containerlogistiek; later phases are tracked in the Roadmap.

D

• Data at the Source — BDI principle that data primarily remains with its owner/custodian and is accessed on demand through controlled interfaces, rather than being copied into a central store. In practice this is a design preference rather than an absolute — specific datasets may be cached or replicated under explicit agreements.
• Delivery Order (DO) — Authorization from carrier or carrier’s agent to terminal operator for container release and pickup. In the Netherlands, typically issued via Portbase Secure Chain system.
• Dossier (out of scope for 2026 — see Roadmap) — A collection of information about a transport order, including involved parties, their roles, and relationships. Managed by the Orchestration Register in a later phase.
• Dual-Token Pattern (out of scope for 2026 — see Roadmap) — Authorisation pattern that combines a VAD (participation) and a VOD (involvement) token. Planned for the phase that introduces the Orchestration Register.

E

• Electronic B/L (eBL) — Digital version of the Bill of Lading, providing the same legal status as paper B/L while enabling faster, more secure transfer of ownership and cargo release.
• ENS (Entry Summary Declaration) — Pre-arrival security filing required under EU Import Control System 2 (ICS2) for risk assessment before cargo enters EU territory.
• Enrollment — The process of registering parties as participants in a specific transport dossier, giving them access rights to relevant data.
• EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) — Number required by the EU for all parties involved in customs activities (import, export, transit).
• Establishment (Vestiging) — A physical location of a legal entity (rechtspersoon) with its own address but no separate LEI/VAT. Identified by a location-level number — vestigingsnummer (NL, 12 digits), SIRET (FR), or equivalent — distinct from the entity-level identifiers (KVK, HRB, UID) it shares with its parent legal entity. See Identifier Enrichment Architecture.
• EUID (European Unique Identifier) — European standard for company identification introduced by the European Commission in 2017. Combines country code, trade register identifier, and company registration number to enable identification of companies and their branches across EU Member States through BRIS (Business Registers Interconnection System). Format example: NLHR12345678 (NL = Netherlands, HR = Handelsregister, followed by KvK number) or DEK1101R.HRB116737 (DE = Germany, K1101R = Hamburg trade register, HRB116737 = company number).
• Event-Driven — Architectural pattern where systems communicate through asynchronous events rather than direct API calls.
• Evidence Token — A signed token (in 2026: VAD) that provides evidence of a claim but is not itself an access token. Used by data providers when making authorisation decisions.

F

• Forwarder — Freight forwarding company that arranges transport and documentation for the BCO (cargo owner). May issue a house B/L, handles customs clearance and Port Community System (Portbase) actions. May act as a secondary orchestrator in the transport chain.
  • Forwarder (PCS Secure Chain) — is the inland operator who ‘forwarded’ the transport assignment to another inland operator. A single party may therefore have fulfilled both roles (inland operator and forwarder) at different points in the chain.

G

• GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) — International organization that manages the global LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) system. Provides LEI verification services and maintains the global LEI database, enabling unique identification of legal entities participating in financial and commercial transactions worldwide.

H

• Hinterland Carrier (Truck / Barge / Rail) — Transport operator performing port-to-inland or inland-to-port movements. Coordinates prenotifications and time slots with terminals for efficient gate operations.

I

• Inland Operator (PCS Secure Chain) — is authorized to execute the inland transport. This party is nominated by the Cargo Director to perform the transport. The Inland Operator role can be fulfilled by an Inland Terminal or an inland transport party.
• Inland Terminal / Depot — Facility that receives containers via barge, rail, or road; handles gate movements, storage, and empty container returns. Serves as consolidation point for hinterland distribution.
• Inspection Agencies (e.g., NVWA) — Regulatory bodies that can impose veterinary, phytosanitary, or other compliance inspections, potentially resulting in cargo holds or additional checks.
• Intermodal Transport — Movement of containers using multiple modes of transport (ship, rail, truck) without handling the cargo itself.
• Involvement Type — The role a party plays in a transport order (e.g., CARRIER, TERMINAL, TRUCKER, CUSTOMS_AGENT).

J

• JWT (JSON Web Token) — Standard token format used for the VAD token in 2026 (VOD in later phases). Self-contained, cryptographically signed tokens containing claims.
• JWS (JSON Web Signature) — The specific JWT variant used in CTN, where tokens are digitally signed but not encrypted.
• JWKS (JSON Web Key Set) — Endpoint that publishes public keys used to verify JWT signatures.

K

• Keycloak — Open-source identity and access management solution (OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0). The chosen IdP for CTN (see ADR-00002). One Keycloak realm hosts both human users (with outward federation to Entra ID, eHerkenning or local accounts per ADR-00008) and M2M clients (client-credentials grant). Keycloak Organizations (26.6) provide per-participant user grouping and per-participant IdP linking.
• KvK (Kamer van Koophandel) — Dutch Chamber of Commerce - the official business registry in the Netherlands. Registers all companies and legal entities, assigns unique 8-digit KvK numbers, and provides verification services for company legitimacy. CTN Association Register integrates with KvK API for automated verification of Dutch legal entities.

L

• LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) — 20-character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies legal entities participating in financial and commercial transactions globally. Issued and managed by GLEIF. Used in CTN for high-assurance identity verification of association participants. Format: 20 uppercase alphanumeric characters (e.g., 529900T8BM49AURSDO55).
• LINDAS — The Swiss federal Linked Data Service (lindas.admin.ch). Publishes the Zefix commercial-register data as open, queryable Linked Data (SPARQL), enabling Swiss UID lookup by company name without a Zefix account.

M

• Member (Founding) — Organizations that founded the CTN Association and form its board. Currently consists of Contargo, Inland Terminals Group, and Van Berkel Logistics. The board decides upon the terms for onboarding participants and determines which members and participants of other associations will be trusted.
  • Note: The CTN Association is structured as a Coöperatieve Vereniging. It has no general “members” in the legal sense; it is governed by its founding members on the board, while all organizations that join after founding are called Participants (see separate entry).
• MRN (Movement Reference Number) — Unique reference number issued by customs upon validation of a declaration (import, transit, or ENS). Used to track and link cargo movements through customs systems.
• Multi-Modal — Transport involving multiple containers that may be combined on the same vessel or vehicle for parts of their journey.

N

• Non-Participant Party — A transport party that is not an association participant but is involved in a transport through subcontracting relationships.
• Notify Party / First & Second Notify Party — Contact person(s) to be informed upon cargo arrival and release status. Listed on booking/shipping instructions and Bill of Lading to ensure timely notification of cargo availability.

O

• OAuth 2.0 — Industry-standard protocol used for service-to-service authentication in CTN (client credentials grant for M2M).
• OffeneRegister.de — Open-data publication of the German commercial register (Handelsregister) by OKFN / OpenCorporates: 5M+ companies as bulk JSONL / SQLite under CC-BY. Used as a no-rate-limit source for German HRB/HRA + court code (and hence EUID) in batch enrichment.
• Open Location Code (Plus Code) — Open geocoding standard that encodes a ~3×3 m location as a short alphanumeric code (e.g. 8FVC9G8F+6X). Used as a universal per-location identifier when no register identifier is available; an open alternative to what3words.
• Orchestration — The process of coordinating multiple parties involved in fulfilling a transport order.
• Orchestration Register (out of scope for 2026 — see Roadmap) — Planned later-phase component that would manage transport dossiers, party enrolment and issue VOD tokens. Not part of the 2026 delivery; design notes parked under docs/_out-of-scope-2026/.
• Orchestrator — The party responsible for coordinating a transport order (typically BCO or forwarder).

P

• Participant — Any organization that has been successfully onboarded to the CTN Association and has accepted its terms and conditions. Participants can consume and provide data to other participants and founding members within the association’s network. Since the CTN Association is structured as a Coöperatieve Vereniging governed by its founding members on the board, all organizations that join the association (after its founding) are called participants rather than members. Participants receive VAD tokens after passing compliance checks.
• Party — Any organization involved in the transport of containers, regardless of their membership or participation status in an association. This includes carriers, terminals, truckers, forwarders, customs brokers, and other logistics service providers.
• PDP (Policy Decision Point) — Component that makes authorisation decisions based on policies and provided evidence. In 2026 the PDP is the data provider itself; no central CTN PDP exists.
• PIP (Policy Information Point) — Component that provides information needed for authorisation decisions (e.g. party participation status).
• Port Authority / Harbour Master — Entity responsible for managing port operations, vessel traffic, nautical safety, and port infrastructure in major ports (e.g., Rotterdam, Amsterdam).
• Portbase (PCS) — Dutch Port Community System used for Notification Import Documentation (MID) and Hinterland Container Notification (HCN). Facilitates digital information exchange between port stakeholders.
• Principal — The party that takes responsibility (including potential billing) for another party’s data access.

R

• Release-to-Party (PCS Secure Chain) — is the party to whom the cargo is released. This is a contractual agreement between the shipping company (carrier) and the party that booked the transport. For example, the cargo may belong to Tesla, but Tesla may have directly registered DHL as the Release-to-Party in the Port Community System. In that case, DHL is the Release-to-Party.

S

• Sea Waybill (SWB) — Non-negotiable transport document where no original bills are required. Carrier releases cargo directly to the named consignee without requiring presentation of physical documents.
• SIREN — French 9-digit identifier of a legal entity (entreprise), issued by INSEE. The entity-level French identifier (basis for the EUID FR.SIREN.…).
• SIRET — French 14-digit identifier of a specific establishment (établissement) = SIREN + 5-digit NIC. The French establishment-level identifier; retrievable per location from the free recherche-entreprises API.
• Shipper — Party contracting the carriage at origin; named on the Bill of Lading. May be the BCO (cargo owner) or a forwarder/NVOCC acting on behalf of the BCO.
• Subcontractor — A party brought into a transport operation by another party, often not directly contracted by the orchestrator.

T

• Telex Release / Express Release — Release instruction allowing cargo pickup without presenting original Bill of Lading documents. Shipper surrenders originals at origin or carrier issues electronic release authorization.
• Tenant — In multi-tenant architecture, an isolated instance serving a specific orchestrator or organization.
• Terminal Operator (Deepsea) — Operator managing container discharge, storage, and gate-in/gate-out operations at seaport terminals. Coordinates with carriers, hauliers, and customs for efficient cargo flow.
• Tiered Access — Different levels of data access based on participation status and business relationships. The exact tier model is policy-owned by each data provider in 2026.
• Transport Order — The business transaction that initiates container movement from origin to destination.
• Trust Chain — The hierarchy of trust relationships from association participation through orchestration to data access.

U

• UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) — The natural person who ultimately owns or controls an organization. Verified during compliance checks.
• UID (Unternehmens-Identifikationsnummer) — Swiss business identification number, format CHE-###.###.###. The Swiss legal-entity identifier, retrievable from Zefix / LINDAS.
• UN/LOCODE — United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations - standardized location codes for ports, terminals, and inland facilities (e.g., NLRTM for Rotterdam).
• User — The human person who interacts with CTN systems to consume data, register endpoints, manage organization profiles, and perform other operational activities. Users represent their organisation (founding member, participant, or party) within the CTN network. Users live in Keycloak; the linkage between a user and the participant(s) they act for is handled by Keycloak Organizations (see ADR-00003).

W

• Wild-Card VOD (out of scope for 2026 — see Roadmap) — Concept for a special VOD that would give authorities oversight access across multiple dossiers. Tied to the (deferred) Orchestration Register.

Z

• Zefix (Zentraler Firmenindex) — The central index of the Swiss commercial register. Offers a web search and a REST API (ZefixPublicREST, free but requires a registered account via zefix@bj.admin.ch); the same data is openly queryable via LINDAS SPARQL and opendata.swiss.
• Zero Trust — Security principle where no implicit trust exists between parties; every interaction must be verified.

CTN Technical Terms

A

• ACME Protocol — Automated Certificate Management Environment - protocol for automated certificate issuance and renewal.
• AES-256 — Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit keys, used for data encryption at rest.
• API Gateway — Entry point for all API requests, handling authentication, rate limiting, and routing.
• Asymmetric Cryptography — Encryption using public/private key pairs, used for token signing.

C

• Cache — High-speed data storage (Redis) used to improve performance for frequently accessed data.
• Circuit Breaker — Pattern that prevents cascading failures by stopping calls to failing services.
• CloudEvents — Specification for describing event data in a common format.
• Correlation ID — Unique identifier that tracks a request across multiple services.

E

• Event Grid — Azure service for event routing and delivery at scale.
• Eventual Consistency — Data consistency model where updates propagate asynchronously.

H

• HATEOAS — Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State - REST maturity level with discoverable APIs.
• HSM (Hardware Security Module) — Dedicated hardware for secure key storage and cryptographic operations.

I

• Idempotency — Property where repeated operations produce the same result, important for retry logic.

M

• Managed Identity — Azure feature for service-to-service authentication without credentials.
• mTLS (Mutual TLS) — Transport Layer Security where both client and server authenticate using certificates.

O

• OpenAPI — Specification format for describing REST APIs (formerly Swagger).

P

• PostgreSQL — Open-source relational database used for transactional data storage.
• Private Endpoint — Azure networking feature that provides private IP addresses for services.

R

• Rate Limiting — Controlling the rate of requests to prevent abuse and ensure fair usage.
• RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) — Access control based on user roles rather than individual permissions.
• Redis — In-memory data structure store used for caching and real-time operations.
• REST (Representational State Transfer) — Architectural style for designing networked applications.
• Retry Policy — Strategy for retrying failed operations with backoff and limits.
• RS256 — RSA signature with SHA-256, algorithm used for JWT signing.
• RTO (Recovery Time Objective) — Target time to restore service after a failure.
• RPO (Recovery Point Objective) — Maximum acceptable data loss measured in time.

S

• Saga Pattern — Pattern for managing distributed transactions across multiple services.
• Service Bus — Azure messaging service for reliable async communication.
• SLA (Service Level Agreement) — Formal agreement defining expected service performance.

T

• TLS (Transport Layer Security) — Cryptographic protocol for secure communications.
• TTL (Time To Live) — Duration for which data remains valid in cache or storage.

V

• VAD (Verifiable Association Data) — A JWT token issued by the Association Register that proves an organization’s participant status, compliance verification, and trustworthiness. Contains static claims about the organization.
• VAT (Value Added Tax) — Consumption tax levied on goods and services in the EU. Each EU member state issues VAT numbers to registered businesses for tax identification and cross-border trade. VAT numbers are verified through VIES system.
• VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) — European Commission system for validating VAT numbers across the EU. Provides a single access point to query and validate VAT numbers from individual EU member state registries, helping businesses verify trading partners and ensure correct VAT treatment. Each EU country has its own VAT number format, but VIES provides centralized validation. API: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/
• VNet (Virtual Network) — Azure networking construct for isolating and connecting resources.
• VOD (Verifiable Orchestration Data) (out of scope for 2026 — see Roadmap) — Planned later-phase JWT token, to be issued by the Orchestration Register, that would prove a party’s involvement in a specific transport order. Not part of the 2026 delivery.

W

• WAF (Web Application Firewall) — Security layer protecting web applications from common attacks.
• Webhook — HTTP callback for event notifications.

X

• X.509 — Standard for public key certificates used in TLS and signing.

ASR Bounded Context

The Association Register (ASR) bounded context manages the registration, verification, and lifecycle of participants within the CTN dataspace.

• Participant — Root entity: a registered CTN participant. Holds lifecycle status, membership tier, trust level, and the link to its identity representation.

Acronym Reference

Acronym	Full Form
ACME	Automated Certificate Management Environment
ADR	Architecture Decision Record
API	Application Programming Interface
ASR	Association Register
B/L	Bill of Lading
BCO	Beneficial Cargo Owner
BDI	Basic Data Infrastructure
BRIS	Business Registers Interconnection System
VAD	BDI Verifiable Assurance Document
VOD	BDI Verifiable Orchestration Document (later-phase, see roadmap)
CDN	Content Delivery Network
CIM/SMGS	Rail Consignment Note (International)
CMR	Road Consignment Note (Convention Marchandises Routières)
CoC	Chamber of Commerce
CTN	Connected Trade Network
DAR	Dynamic Authorization Register
DCSA	Digital Container Shipping Association
DO	Delivery Order
eBL	Electronic Bill of Lading
ENS	Entry Summary Declaration
EORI	Economic Operators Registration and Identification
EUID	European Unique Identifier
GDPR	General Data Protection Regulation
GLEIF	Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation
HRB	Handelsregister (German Trade Register)
HSM	Hardware Security Module
ICS2	Import Control System 2
ISO 6346	Container Number Standard
JWT	JSON Web Token
JWK	JSON Web Key
JWKS	JSON Web Key Set
JWS	JSON Web Signature
KPI	Key Performance Indicator
KRI	Key Risk Indicator
KvK	Kamer van Koophandel (Dutch Chamber of Commerce)
LEI	Legal Entity Identifier
MFA	Multi-Factor Authentication
MRN	Movement Reference Number
mTLS	Mutual Transport Layer Security
NIS2	Network and Information Security Directive 2
NSG	Network Security Group
NVOCC	Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier
NVWA	Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit (Dutch Food Safety Authority)
OAuth	Open Authorization
OIDC	OpenID Connect
OPA	Open Policy Agent (later-phase, see roadmap)
P95/P99	95th/99th Percentile
PaaS	Platform as a Service
PCS	Port Community System
PDP	Policy Decision Point
PEP	Policy Enforcement Point
PIP	Policy Information Point
RBAC	Role-Based Access Control
REST	Representational State Transfer
RPO	Recovery Point Objective
RTO	Recovery Time Objective
SAML	Security Assertion Markup Language
SDK	Software Development Kit
SIEM	Security Information and Event Management
SLA	Service Level Agreement
SOC	Service Organization Control
SPA	Single Page Application
SQL	Structured Query Language
SWB	Sea Waybill
TLS	Transport Layer Security
TMS	Transport Management System
TTL	Time To Live
UAT	User Acceptance Testing
UBO	Ultimate Beneficial Owner
UN/LOCODE	United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations
URI	Uniform Resource Identifier
URL	Uniform Resource Locator
UUID	Universally Unique Identifier
VAT	Value Added Tax
VIES	VAT Information Exchange System
WAF	Web Application Firewall
XML	Extensible Markup Language

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This glossary is maintained by the architecture team and updated as new terms are introduced.