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Shipping Container Code (ISO 6346)

geography.transportation.iso6346

International shipping container identification code per ISO 6346. Owner code (3 uppercase letters) + equipment category (U, J, or Z) + serial number (6 digits) + check digit (1 digit). Total 11 characters.

Casts to
VARCHAR
Check digit
ISO 6346 mod 11
Standard

Shape

Pattern
^[A-Z]{3}[UJZ]\d{7}$
ValueLengthShape
MSCU123456611matches
HLXU345678411matches
CMAU654321011matches
TRIU789012511matches
MSKU234567111matches
MSCU12345610rejected: one character short

Background

Origin

ISO 6346 is the international standard titled Freight containers — Coding, identification and marking.[1]

The international register of identification codes for container owners was originated by the Bureau International des Containers (BIC) and has been published continually since 1970.[2] The International Organization for Standardization adopted the BIC owner-code register in 1972.[2] BIC describes its register as an essential part of the ISO 6346 standard.[2]

BIC gives BICU 123456 5 as a theoretical example of a container code.[2] An owner code has to be registered with the Bureau International des Containers in Paris to ensure that it is unique worldwide.[3] Wikipedia notes that an owner can apply for more than one owner code.[3]

Use

To compute an ISO 6346 check digit, each letter is first given a numerical value, beginning with 10 for the letter A, with 11 and its multiples omitted.[3][4]

BIC says the check digit lets operators, terminals, depots and other parties in the supply chain validate container numbers automatically and catch errors from data entry or erroneous OCR readings.[5] BIC warns that the check digit must be changed when a container is re-marked with a different BIC code.[5] BIC notes that ISO 6346 also describes technical markings such as the size and type code, country code and various operational marks.[2]

The Association of American Railroads recognises codes similar to ISO 6346 for containers and trailers travelling by rail in North America, but these are not recognised by BIC and lack check digits.[3] When many numbers in a file fail the check digit, ask where the equipment came from before treating every failure as a typo. (Meridian's view) Wikipedia notes that many Customs Administrations have begun validating that containers are marked as per ISO 6346.[3]

Sources

  1. [1]ISO 6346:2022 - EVS standard evs.ee | encatalogue entry
  2. [2]Container BIC Code Lookup Tool | BICorganisation
  3. [3]ISO 6346secondary source
  4. [4]Container Handbook - Section 3.3 Identification systemsecondary source
  5. [5]Container Check Digit Calculator | BICorganisation

Detection notes

ISO 6346:1995 — Freight containers. U = freight container, J = detachable freight container-related equipment, Z = trailer/chassis. 7th digit is a check digit (mod 11).

Use it

CLI · DuckDB
$ finetype infer -i "MSCU1234566" --mode column
→ geography.transportation.iso6346

SELECT ft_infer('MSCU1234566');
-- → 'geography.transportation.iso6346'
Cast expression
CAST({col} AS VARCHAR)

Schema

https://meridian.online/schemas/geography.transportation.iso6346 · Frictionless type string

finetype taxonomy geography.transportation.iso6346 -o json-schema

Aliases

container_codebic_code

Type Registry