Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Identify Shipping Carrier Based on the Number of Characters or Digits of its Tracking Numbers

Each shipping carrier applies a unique logic in generating its own tracking number. It is the same concept in generating check-digits in barcodes to validate it. 


However, this article is not intended to tell whether the tracking number is valid or not based on its auto generated check digit. Instead, it simply aims to identify the shipping carrier based on the number of characters or digits of its tracking numbers.


To tell the name of the carrier based on the tracking numbers:


1. For UPS, its tracking number generally has 18 alpha-numeric characters starting with "1Z".


Example:  1ZYA95396791123850


2. For FedEx, FedEx Express generally has 12 digits while FedEx Ground has 15 digits.


Example: 798229407498 and 488641715005092


3. For USPS, the list of acceptable tracking number formats are available at https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input. However, the tracking numbers generated by Endicia for NetSuite are generally  22 digits.


Example: 9499907123456123456781


Note


The sample tracking numbers above are generated from a test account, thus not valid and not traceable.

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