SSCC (00)
The license plate for one logistics unit: an 18-digit serial that lets a receipt say "this pallet," not "a pallet."
Reference · Dock operations
Dock door scanning: what gets read, and when.
Scanning at the dock door is the moment a pallet stops being a shipment and starts being inventory: one read as the load comes off the trailer, and every count, exception, and photo downstream hangs off it. Here is where the scans happen, what they have to match, and what is left behind when the door closes.
The scan points
Where the scans happen.
Check-in opens the record before anything moves. The door read is the one that matters: as each pallet crosses the threshold, its label is read once, carrying the identifier, the time, and the door. Verification on the floor confirms counts against that read, and closeout posts the quantities and releases the trailer. Each read is also matched against the advance ship notice (or the packing list, when there is no ASN) and tied to a trailer, carrier, and door.
The failure mode is the batch scan: unload the whole trailer, stage it, and read the labels afterward. It is faster in the moment, and it destroys the sequence, the per-unit timing, and the tie between a pallet and the trailer it rode in on.
The read
What a single read carries.
A GS1-128 logistics label carries several fields, each introduced by an Application Identifier, and each one answers a different question at the door.
GTIN (01)
The item number, confirmed against the purchase order line without opening the load.
Batch or lot (10)
The production batch: the thread a recall pulls on.
Count (37)
How many trade items the unit contains, checked against the floor count.
Camera-based readers decode 1D and 2D barcode types in the same pass, so the crew never picks a device in advance. See every field on a GS1-128 label and the barcode types that show up on inbound pallets.
The exception path
When a label will not cooperate.
Labels fail. No exception stops the unload; it gets handled and documented, in that order.
The label will not read
Key the human-readable number and log it as a failure. A supplier cannot fix a label problem nobody reported.
The same SSCC reads twice
An SSCC is a serial and should appear once. Seconds apart at the same door, it is one pallet counted twice. Minutes apart, it is two units.
The label is missing
Identify it from the packing list, receive it as an exception, and note its position in the unload.
Every exception is recorded at the moment it happens, with the time and the door, not reconstructed from memory at end of shift. See documenting a receiving discrepancy, including how shortages and damage get recorded the same way.
The audit bar
What makes a record audit-ready.
"Audit-ready" is not a document format. It is a set of properties the record has the moment it is created, or never has at all.
Unit-level
One row per handling unit, keyed to its SSCC, not a summary line per purchase order.
Timestamped at capture
Set by the device that made the read, not typed in afterward.
Backed by a picture
Text says what someone concluded. A picture shows what was in front of them.
Exception-complete
Shortages, overages, damage, and failed reads live in the same record as the clean receives.
Flowtally reads the label as the pallet crosses the door, and the read itself triggers the picture, so the time, the door, and the image are already attached when the trailer leaves. See how receiving automation fits the wider dock.
Common questions from the dock.
What should be scanned at the dock door?
Every handling unit as it crosses the threshold, which on a single-SKU pallet operation means one read per pallet off the SSCC on its logistics label. Case-level reads are the exception path, used when a unit has to be broken down. The goal is one read per unit at the door, not a batch of reads in the staging lane afterward.
How does dock door scanning identify duplicate pallets?
An SSCC is a serial number for exactly one logistics unit, so it should appear once in a receive. When the same SSCC reads twice, the time and sequence tell you which problem you have: seconds apart at the same door is almost always one pallet scanned twice, while reads far apart are two physical units, meaning a supplier printed the same license plate on both.
Which records should be tied to each trailer?
Everything captured during that unload: the purchase order and advance ship notice it was received against, the bill of lading and delivery receipt, every unit read with its capture time and door, and every exception including shortages, overages, damage, and failed reads. Carrier, trailer number, and the receive window belong on the rows themselves rather than only on a cover sheet.