Understanding Shipping Labels

Although shipping labels can vary, they follow the UCC Common Label standard. This standard specifies label segments and defines the type of information that is contained in each segment.

This example illustrates a shipping label:

This table lists the segments within the previous example and the information that is contained in each:

Zone	Contents	Characteristics
Zone A - Ship From	Ship From name and address.	Conditional for full trailer shipments, mandatory for other shipments.
Zone B - Ship To	Ship To name and address.	Conditional for full trailer shipments, mandatory for other shipments.
Zone C - Carrier Routing Bar Code	Ship To postal code or PRO Number bar code.	Conditional.
Zone D - Carrier	Carrier Name, SCAC Bill of Lading Number, PRO Number Carrier Assigned Packaged ID, Carrier Assigned Shipper ID.	Conditional.
Zone E - Trading Partner Data	The agreed-upon data for the trading partners. Both bar code and text data can appear in this zone. For example, you can enter purchase order numbers, serial numbers, and product numbers.	Optional.
Zone F - Trading Partner Data	This is the agreed-upon data for the trading partners. This data is supplemental to the data that is in Zone E.	Optional.
Zone G - Final Destination Code	Can be large human-readable location number or bar code. For example, you can use this zone for the Mark-For number.	Conditional.
Zone H - Final Destination Code	The Final Destination ID, Mark-For name and address.	Conditional.
Zone I - SSCC-18 Bar Code	The Serial Shipping Container Code.	Mandatory.