Why SSCC?
SSCC stands for Serial Shipping Container Code: an internationally accepted despatch code that makes a logistic unit — usually a pallet or roll container — unique worldwide. Using it means meeting the GS1 standard for despatch and receipt, and making the logistics process traceable.
Where it is used
SSCC labels appear in retail and supermarkets, in drugstores, fashion, horticulture, pharmaceuticals and DIY, and just as much outside retail. Anywhere a logistic unit changes hands and has to be recognised at every handover.
What it gets you
- Shorter goods receipt at your customer: one scan per logistic unit instead of sorting out a pallet.
- Shorter waiting times for drivers, and with that a lower cost per trip.
- Better stock records, because the SSCC can be linked to your Warehouse Management System.
- Track and trace across the chain, through the same barcode everyone scans along the way.
- Fewer rejections and fewer corrections afterwards, because shipment and despatch advice meet in one code.
How the number is built up
An SSCC is always 18 digits long and consists of four parts. On the label it follows Application Identifier (00).
| Extension digit | 1 digit | Officially there to increase capacity; in practice you use it to lengthen the serial reference. You choose it yourself. |
|---|---|---|
| GS1 company prefix | 16 together | The company number GS1 issued to you — you cannot make one up. This part makes the code yours and nobody else’s. |
| Serial reference | 16 together | Your own running number for this shipment. Keep counting up, across customers too — never a separate series per recipient. |
| Check digit | 1 digit | The check digit, calculated from the seventeen before it. Scanners use it to catch read errors. You do not work it out yourself. |
Add it up: 1 extension digit + 16 digits of prefix and serial reference together + 1 check digit = the 18 digits of the SSCC. Those 16 are fixed, the split is not: the longer your GS1 company prefix, the shorter the series you can fit underneath it. When that series runs out you start again at zero; in practice you never use the same reference twice within a year.
GS1 issues the company prefix and the GLN; without those two you cannot make a valid SSCC. Find your GS1 organisation
How the label is built up
The GS1 logistic label has three sections stacked. Free information at the top: who sends, who receives. In the middle the same data in plain text, each with its data title. At the bottom the barcodes, the last of which is always the SSCC, across the full width.
Application Identifiers
An Application Identifier (AI) says what the block of digits after it means. In the human-readable line it appears in brackets; in the barcode it does not. These are the AIs found on a retail pallet label.
| AI | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| (00) | SSCC | The SSCC itself. Always on the label, always in its own barcode. |
| (02) | Article code of the packaging (GTIN) | The article code of the packaging, not that of the individual consumer item. |
| (37) | Number of packages | The number of packages on the logistic unit. Always goes together with (02). |
| (15) | Best before | Best before: a quality date. After it the product may still be sold. |
| (17) | Use by | Use by: a safety date. After it the product may no longer be sold. |
| (10) | Batch or lot number | The batch or lot number that lets you trace a production run in a recall. |
| (310n) | Net weight (kg) | Net weight in kilograms, for items traded by weight. |
| (413n) | GLN of final destination | The GLN of the final destination, when the pallet travels on through a cross-dock. |
Which fields should you use?
Your customer decides that, not the standard. What ends up on the label depends on the product. Dutch supermarket labels typically encode (02), (37), (15) and (10) alongside the SSCC — measured on five production labels — and leave the weight off, even where the source data holds one.
| Type of product | Fields alongside the SSCC |
|---|---|
| Food with best-before date | (02) (37) (15) (10) |
| Fresh products (use-by date) | (02) (37) (17) (10) |
| Non-food and non-perishable | (02) (37) |
Where the barcode comes from
The barcode begins in 1952, with a patent by Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland for a code of concentric rings — something like a dartboard, so it could be read from any angle. The printing of the day was not precise enough for it, and the idea went into a drawer.
In 1959 the Pennsylvania Railroad wanted a way to identify rail cars automatically. Engineer David Collins came up with KarTrak: rectangular reflective red and blue stripes. Dirty cars and the cost killed the project, but Collins kept faith in the technique and founded Computer Identics in 1967, reading black-and-white codes with a laser.
The laser itself grew out of maser research at Bell Labs. Computer Identics’ first industrial system ran at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, identifying gearboxes on the line.
In 1966 the American National Association of Food Chains looked into whether the same technique could work at the checkout. The Woodland patent was bought, and after years of work on the code definition, the readers and the printing, the first item was scanned on 26 June 1974 at Marsh’s Supermarket in Troy, Ohio: a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit.
The SSCC builds on that same agreement. Where the checkout barcode says which article this is, the SSCC says which logistic unit this is — and that is exactly what goods receipt needs.
See how it comes out
The demo turns your data into a laid-out label, with a valid check digit and barcodes that scan. Producing labels is a paid service; the demo shows you what you get.