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Marks and Numbers of your cargo serve the purpose of the ID card of someone. They identify the cargo in the same manner as the ID card indentifies a person.

All companies involved in the transport of your cargo (manufacturer, shipper, customs, carriers, warehouses, consignees, etc.) trust on the respective marks and numbers to distinguish it from all others.

Any old marks (when used packages are used), or irrelevant information shown in the external packing, may interfere with the correct identification of your cargo.

Purpose of Marks and Numbers is consequently to identify the cargo and NOT the consignee/buyer and help to move it rapidly and safety with no delays to its final destination and allow at any moment its identification through respective documents (Commercial Invoice, Packing List, Bill of Lading etc.)

This obviously means that Marks and Numbers of external main packing MUST be coincident with the Marks and Numbers of respective shipping documents.

This is becomes even more important when cargo suffers one or more transshipments
from origin to final destination, namely (but not only!) in multimodal transportation.

Improper Marks and Numbers will release the carrier of his responsibilities, namely delays and shipment to wrong destinations!

Many times however, the purpose of Marks and Numbers is affected, leading frequently to un-necessary costs and avoidable errors, confusions and delays during transportation to final destination.

Among others, the following reasons must be emphasized:

1. Unawareness of manufacturers/shippers and/or consignees/buyers of the real meaning and purpose of Marks & Numbers;
2. Fear of some of these entities to expose and/or reveal confidential information (names of manufacturers, names of final customers, etc.);
3. Demand of one or various entities to include in the Marks all sort of information, making them so detailed, extensive and confusing that, in some cases, someone said, packages become documents!

Attentive to this important theme and in the scope of its functions, Un-United Nations, through UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – (unece), released recommendation nº 15, with title “SIMPLER SHIPPING MARKS”, which latest revision (publication ECE/TRADE/243, of November 1999) may be found at Click here

We took the liberty to extract the following good example provided by this recommendation:

Complicated Shipping Mark ASSOCIATED BUYING CORPORATION LIMITED MUMBAI INDIA 1234 CONTRACT NO. 1234 IMPORT LICENCE SA-100-77-35790 PACKAGE NO. 1 OF 25 DESTINATION: MUMBAI INDIA NET WEIGHT: 401 KGS GROSS WEIGHT: 402 KGS DIMENSIONS: 105 CMLx90CMWx62CMH CONTRACTOR: STANDARD TRADING CO LTD TOKYO JAPAN MADE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Simple Shipping Mark ABC1234MUMBAI 1/25

Simple Shipping Marks, on the left, result of the Complicated Shipping Marks and identify the cargo correctly for handling and transportation, as follows:
ABC  Initials or Abbreviated Name of the consignee of the cargo
1234  A reference number, in this case the contract.
MUMBAI Real destination of the cargo
1/25  Package Number

It becomes very much obvious that “Complicated Shipping Marks” really complicates the identification of the cargo!
Different companies and, even worse, different countries are mentioned, which may lead the persons handling the cargo to put it in a container to a wrong destination!

For all above mentioned reasons, we strongly recommend you to read it and act accordingly, to avoid consequences of improper Marks & Numbers in your cargo.

Please contact us for further information.