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Retail & CPG

Healthcare

Logistics

Foodservice

Technical Industries

Transport
Management

Visibility & coordination of the movement of goods across transport modes.

Transport management is about the physical movement of goods, and knowing where they are at any given moment. GS1 standards allow shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders to track vehicles, equipment, and shipments using a shared identification framework, enabling real-time visibility across road, sea, air, and rail.

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GS1 identifiers used in transport operation

  • GLN (Global Location Number) Identifies transport-related locations such as ports, airports, transport hubs, and unloading docks.

  • GIAI (Global Individual Asset Identifier) Identifies transport vehicles, such as trucks, ships, and locomotives, and transport equipment, such as trailers, containers, and wagons, individually, allowing specific assets to be tracked through a network.

  • SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code) Remains the identifier scanned at each transport milestone, such as loading, transfer, or delivery, to confirm the logistics unit is on the correct route.

  • EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) Captures “what, when, where, and why” event data (for example, departed origin, arrived at hub, out for delivery), giving all parties a shared visibility timeline.

  • EDI transport status messages (e.g. IFTSTA) A standardised way to communicate transport milestones and status updates between trading partners.

How it works

  1. Vehicles and transport equipment are identified individually using GIAI.
  2. As logistics units move through the network, their SSCCs are scanned at each transport milestone.
  3. These scans generate EPCIS events, timestamped and location-tagged, that are shared with relevant trading partners.
  4. Shippers and receivers gain a synchronised view of shipment status, without relying on manual updates or phone calls between parties.

Benefits

  • Real-time shipment status visibility across multiple carriers and modes
  • Reduced dependency on manual status updates between parties
  • Better exception handling for delays or misroutes through milestone-level tracking
  • Interoperability between shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders using a shared identifier set
  • Support for multimodal transport (sea, air, road, rail) with one consistent identification framework

Example in practice

A GIAI-tagged trailer moves between a port and a distribution centre. At each transfer point, the trailer and its SSCC-tagged pallets are scanned, generating EPCIS events that give the shipper and receiver synchronised, real-time visibility of location and status.

Need better visibility of goods in transit?

Talk to us about implementing standards-based transport tracking.

contact@gs1.org.sg

+65 6859 0451

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