Look at the label on a pallet arriving at any large warehouse and you will usually find a long barcode with "(00)" in the text beneath it. That 18-digit number is an SSCC. It is the identity of that one pallet for as long as it exists, and it is what lets a warehouse receive hundreds of products by scanning a single label.
The identifier ladder
- GTIN“What product?”The product type — every bottle of the same 100 ml fragrance shares it.
- Batch / lot“Which production run?”Units made together, usually sharing a production date and expiry.
- Serial“Which exact unit?”Combined with the GTIN, one individual bottle.
- SSCC“Which logistic unit?”A specific carton or pallet as it moves through the supply chain.
- GLN“Which party or place?”A company, factory, warehouse, store or dock door.
What an SSCC identifies
The SSCC, or Serial Shipping Container Code, identifies a logistic unit: any combination of items packed together for transport or storage that needs to be tracked through the supply chain. In practice that means:
- a shipper case of 12 bottles;
- a pallet of 48 cases;
- a parcel sent to a single store or customer;
- a roll cage built at a distribution centre for one shop's delivery.
The key word is one. A GTIN identifies a type of product that is shared by every identical item. An SSCC identifies one particular physical unit. Two pallets with exactly the same contents still get two different SSCCs, in the same way two cars of the same model have different registration plates.
The structure: 18 digits in four parts
Every SSCC is exactly 18 digits long. Here is one built by Maison Ardent, a fictional perfume house, for a pallet leaving its factory:
395011010000012012
| Part | Digits | In the example | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extension digit | 1 | 3 | A digit from 0 to 9 chosen by the company to extend its numbering capacity |
| GS1 Company Prefix | varies | 9501101 | Shows which company assigned the number |
| Serial reference | varies | 000001201 | The company's own running reference for this unit |
| Check digit | 1 | 2 | Calculated from the other 17 digits to catch reading and keying errors |
The prefix and serial reference share 16 digits between them, so a company with a longer prefix has fewer digits left for serial references. The extension digit gives it ten times more room, and some companies use it to keep different sites or label printers from ever issuing the same number. The check digit uses the same GS1 calculation as a GTIN.
How it appears on a label
In a barcode, the SSCC is introduced by Application Identifier (00), the short label that tells a scanner "the next 18 digits are an SSCC". The human-readable text under the barcode looks like this:
(00) 395011010000012012
The SSCC is the heart of the GS1 logistic label, a printed sticker that pallets often carry on more than one side so it can be scanned from different aisles. The label is usually a GS1-128 linear barcode, which handheld and fixed warehouse scanners read easily at distance. Depending on what trading partners agree, the same label can also show other information, such as the GTIN of the contents, the quantity, the batch or the delivery address. But the SSCC is the identity; the rest is description.
Who assigns it
The company that builds the logistic unit assigns the SSCC, using its own GS1 Company Prefix. That is usually:
- the manufacturer, for cases and pallets leaving the factory;
- a distributor or logistics provider, when it builds new logistic units, for example by breaking down full pallets and making mixed pallets or parcels for individual stores;
- a retailer's distribution centre, for the cages or totes it sends to its own shops.
Each new logistic unit gets a new SSCC from whoever built it. The original pallet's SSCC does not travel on to the mixed pallet built from its cases.
One unit, one number, used once
Three rules keep SSCCs trustworthy:
- One SSCC per logistic unit. Never put the same SSCC on two pallets, even for a split delivery of the same order.
- Do not recycle numbers. Partners' systems may hold records about a logistic unit long after it was delivered, so a reused SSCC can be mistaken for the earlier unit. The simplest and safest policy is never to reallocate one.
- A changed unit is a new unit. If a pallet is broken down and rebuilt with different contents, the new pallet gets a new SSCC and the old one is retired.
In practice, SSCCs are generated by warehouse or line software from a counter that only ever moves forward, so duplicates come from configuration mistakes, such as two sites sharing an extension digit, rather than from people.
Why businesses use SSCCs
The SSCC turns a pallet into something a computer can recognise. When the receiving warehouse scans the label, it can match the pallet against the shipping notice it received in advance, receive everything on it in one action, and record where it was put away. The step-by-step version of this is in how individual products become cartons and pallets, and the trust question it raises is covered in why warehouses scan a carton or pallet instead of every unit.
The SSCC also answers a question that other identifiers cannot: "which of the twenty identical pallets on that truck was damaged?" A GTIN cannot tell them apart; an SSCC can.
How the SSCC fits with other GS1 identifiers
| Identifier | Names | Example |
|---|---|---|
| GTIN | A product type | Ambre Nuit 100 ml |
| GTIN + serial | One unit | Bottle A7K29Q |
| SSCC | One logistic unit | Pallet 395011010000012012 |
| GLN | A party or location | The receiving warehouse |
The GLN often travels alongside the SSCC in shipping data, recording where a pallet was shipped from and received at; see what is a GLN? For the wider family, see GTIN, batch, serial, SSCC and GLN explained.
The SSCC can also be written as a GS1 Digital Link, with the path /00/ followed by the 18 digits. GS1's own resolver at id.gs1.org lists the SSCC among the keys it supports. That opens the door to logistics labels that a phone can open, though most warehouse scanning today still uses the linear barcode.