SSCC labels on pallets, cases and parcels
What an SSCC identifies, when a distributor or warehouse should label pallets and parcels with one, and how labels line up with stock moves and waybills.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Sooner or later a growing distributor gets the letter from a large retail customer: from next quarter, every pallet delivered to our distribution centre must carry an SSCC label. Warehouse staff who have only ever used a marker pen and a printed delivery note are left asking what an SSCC is, where the number comes from, and what it has to do with the stock system.
The short answer is that the SSCC is a number for a thing you ship, not for a thing you sell. This article explains what it identifies, what the label lets everyone in the chain do, and how it should line up with the stock transfers and waybills already in your books.
A number for the box, not the product
GS1, the organisation behind retail barcodes, states that companies can use the Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) to identify a logistic unit. A logistic unit can be any combination of trade items packaged together for storage or transport, such as a case, a pallet or a parcel.
The difference from a product barcode is the heart of it. A product barcode says "this is a bottle of this brand of cooking oil", and every bottle of that product carries the same one. An SSCC says "this is pallet number such-and-such", and no other pallet anywhere carries the same code. If the pallet holds forty cartons of cooking oil and ten of rice, the SSCC still identifies the pallet as one unit.
When to use one
Use an SSCC whenever a unit will be stored, moved or received as a unit, and someone downstream needs to track it:
- a mixed pallet built for one store's order;
- a full pallet of one product going to a retailer's distribution centre;
- a carton shipped by courier to a branch; or
- a crate moving between your own warehouses.
If a customer asks for SSCC labels, they are asking to be able to receive your delivery by scanning the unit rather than counting every item on it.
GS1's guidance on logistics labels
GS1 lists two documents as the application guidance for using the SSCC in transport and logistics: the GS1 Logistics Label Guideline and the GS1 Identification Keys in Transport and Logistics Guideline. Between them, they cover what the label should show and how the SSCC fits with the other identifiers used in moving goods.
Read them before you design your own label or buy labelling equipment. A label that looks right but puts the elements in the wrong place, or uses the wrong symbol, will be rejected at a receiving dock just as surely as a pallet with no label.
What the barcodes on a label let people do
GS1 explains that barcodes encode key identifiers, such as product, shipment and location, and key attributes, such as serial numbers, batch or lot numbers, and dates. On a logistics label, the SSCC is the identifier for the unit; other barcodes can carry what is inside it.
GS1 also states that barcodes let parties such as retailers, manufacturers, transport providers and hospitals automatically identify and track products as they move through the supply chain. In practice:
| Party | What scanning the SSCC lets them do |
|---|---|
| Your warehouse | Confirm that the pallet loaded is the one picked for that order |
| The transporter | Record collection and delivery of each unit, not just each trip |
| The receiving customer | Match the unit to your advance delivery information and book it in without opening it |
| Everyone, later | Trace where a unit went if a batch problem or a claim arises |
Lining the label up with stock moves
An SSCC on the pallet is only useful if it can be tied back to a movement in your books. Achekam does not hold barcodes today: no screen lets a business record a product's barcode, so a scanner at the till finds a product only when the scanned code matches its SKU. The label is therefore produced in your labelling tool, and the link to Achekam is the reference you share between the two.
Stock locations. With the Warehousing add-on, a business keeps stock locations such as warehouses, stores, bins and vans on the server, with the quantity on hand at each. Those are the places your SSCC-labelled units leave from and arrive at.
Transfers. With the same add-on, a transfer between locations goes from draft to dispatched to received. A short delivery is recorded as wastage. Writing the transfer reference into your label records, and the SSCCs onto the transfer's paperwork, lets you answer the question "which transfer was this pallet part of?" from either side.
Waybills for wholesale orders
For goods leaving to trade customers, the Wholesale add-on lets a business keep price lists with quantity breaks and trade customers with credit limits, terms and a hold. It confirms orders, dispatches them and prints a waybill. The waybill is the paper that travels with the labelled units: list the SSCCs of the pallets or cartons on it, or attach a list, so that the customer's receiving clerk can check the units against both the label and the document. More on the waybill itself is in waybills for a distributor's orders.
A starting checklist
- Ask the customer which identifiers and label layout they expect.
- Read GS1's two guidelines and set up your labels to match.
- Decide who prints labels: at picking, at packing or at dispatch.
- Record the transfer or order reference against each SSCC you issue.
- Check at the receiving end that units scanned match the dispatched transfer.
Whether the pallets themselves are stock, assets or returnable items is a separate question; pallets and crates: asset or stock deals with it.
Where the numbers come from
GS1's page on the Serial Shipping Container Code explains how the SSCC identifies a logistic unit and links to both guidelines. Start there, then talk to your largest customer about their receiving requirements before you print the first label.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
