In the delivery journey for a transport unit, there are three main stages:

1. Pre-carriage/First mile;
collecting the transport units from source and moving it to a (first) depot where it may be consolidated with other transport units to achieve efficiencies in the logistics network.

2. Main carriage;
transporting consolidated transport units usually over longer distances to a deconsolidation centre near the final delivery location.

Transport & Logistics networks have always been complex generally involving numerous stakeholders with different roles, who at times are not known to each other. The complexity of T&L networks is increasing, and the complexity is showing an accelerated pace.

Transport is the backbone of all economies in the world. All value chains that (partly) rely on the transportation of physical objects need reliable, effective and efficient transport & logistics (T&L) networks. Here are just a few examples of such value chain: Healthcare (pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumables and general supplies), Technical industries (e.g.,mining, construction), Energy (Oil & Gas), Retail and Finance (cash handling).

Human readable interpretation (HRI)

Characters, such as letters and numbers, which can be read by persons and are encoded in GS1 AIDC data carriers confined to a GS1 standard structure and format. The human readable interpretation is a one-to-one illustration of the encoded data. However, start, stop, shift and function characters, as well as the symbol check character, are not shown in the human readable interpretation. [GENSPECS]

Non-HRI text

Unique identification

Depending on the scope / context, the term unique identification may be used to refer to a globally unique identification key for a transport unit, shipment, consignment, location or party.

■ When referring to the transport unit, the term transport unit ID (SSCC) is used.

■ When referring to the shipment, the term Shipment ID (GSIN) is used.

Location

A geographic position of an entity, in either the form of geospatial coordinates (latitude, longitude, altitude) or a civic address

Note: A civic address can extend to internal landmarks within a site, e.g., building number, floor number, room number.

(ISO/IEC TR 16167:2011(en), 3.2.4)

Transport Unit

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

The term Logistic Label stands for the label on a transport unit that includes an SSCC. As this Implementation Guideline focuses on transport issues and the term transport label is the more accepted term in the transport area this document also uses transport label.

Table 2‑1 Normative references