The Operation
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Of course, you don’t care about those 15 million packages. You care about your packages – your important contract, your product prototype, your daughter’s birthday present you just ordered online.
And that’s what UPS cares about, too. That’s why most every one of those 15 million packages out in the operation on any given day has one of those bullseye-looking labels on it. It’s called a smart label.
High-IQ Labels
Why’s it smart? Well, for one thing, that bullseye thingy takes the concept of a flat bar code – which is read from left to right, in one direction, and alters it, so it can be read in any direction, and store more information. A lot more information. Like how much that present weighs. Who shipped it. Where it’s going. How fast it needs to get there. And more. That label also lets UPS keep track of nearly every package is in its system. And pass that information on to you.
The statistical information included here was current at the time it was published in 2007. To see more recent statistics, visit our pressroom.
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Anatomy of a Shipping Label
Here’s an overview of the elements that comprise a UPS shipping label:
- Routing Code: This code tells us how to route a package within a UPS building.
- Postal Bar Code: The linear version features the zip code for the package's destination.
- Service Icon: This symbol indicates the package level of service (1DA, 2DA etc.) without reading any other text on the label.
- MaxiCode: This machine-readable code can be understood regardless of its direction. It uses 2D symbology for such information as postal code, country code, service class (1DA etc), tracking number, Julian date, package quantity and weight, address validation, and ship street, city and state.
- 1Z tracking number: This code lets a customer follow a package as it moves through our system. A 1Z tracking number identifies the customer shipper number, package service level, and customer reference number.
