S10 (UPU standard)

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The UPU S10 standard defines a system for assigning 13-character identifiers to items for the purpose of tracking and tracing them during shipping.

The identifiers consist of a two letter service indicator code, an eight digit number, a check-digit, or an X, and a two-letter ISO country code, the latter identifying the issuing postal service.

With increased liberalization and the possibility of multiple postal services operating in the same country, the use of country codes to designate the postal service is a problem. To solve this, each country have a designated postal service that controls all S10 identifiers from that country; any competing postal services will have to cooperate with the designated owner.

[edit] See also

• Serial Shipping Container Code, a related standard.

[edit] External links

• Draft of S10:
  • Part A: Identifier structures and encoding principles
  • Part B: EMS items
  • Part C: Special letter products
  • Part D: Parcels
  • Part E: Domestic / bilateral use
• The UPU service indicator code list, list 124 (via the Internet Archive, apparently no longer online)
• Country codes, S31 issuer codes and S10 13 character identifiers for postal items, September 2, 2004