Each shipping unit, which can be a pallet or a carton, for example, is automatically assigned a “Serial Shipping Container Code” (prev. “Serial Shipping Container Code” (SSCC)). This is a globally unique and unmistakable sequence of digits that makes it possible to trace shipments from the sender to the recipient across companies.

It is 18 digits long, is usually required for identificationin goods receipt and may be requested or used by all participants in the respective transport chain. This ensures that everyone can see the transport, the handover, or a backtrace of the shipment. This ensures that everyone can see the transport, the handover or a backtrace of the shipment.

Important: Specifying the SSCC as the central access key to packages in electronic data interchange, EDI for short, ensures that an ident is assigned to a package at all levels of the supply chain. For machine readability of the SSCC, it is presented in the GS1-128 barcode format.

SSCC-Code - GS1_128

The 18 digits are divided as follows:

  • The first two digits in the parentheses describe the application identifier. They subsequently determine the meaning, structure and function of the individual data elements.
  • a reserve digit
  • a seven- to nine-digit base number (assigned by GS1 itself),
  • a seven- to nine-digit sequential number (assigned by the shipper)
  • and a checksum.

For more information, see GS1 128 identifier standard.

Image source: © Stefan Rajewski – Fotolia.com

Also available in Deutsch (German)