In short: a GS1-128 pallet label is an A5 or 4×6 inch label carrying the pallet’s SSCC and a handful of other data (contents, quantity, dates, batch) encoded in GS1-128 barcodes with human-readable text alongside. Retailers scan the SSCC to receive the pallet against your ASN. The label has to be readable first time, in the right place, on every pallet, and it has to match the ASN exactly.
What GS1-128 is
GS1-128 is a barcode symbology (a subset of Code 128) combined with a data structure. The structure is the important part: every piece of data is prefixed with an Application Identifier (AI), a two- to four-digit code that says what the following data means. A scanner reading (00)306141410000000012 knows from the 00 that the 18 digits following are an SSCC.
This is what lets one barcode carry several fields, and what lets the retailer’s system parse a label from any supplier without knowing anything about the supplier’s layout.
The application identifiers you will use
| AI | Name | Format | Purpose on a pallet label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | SSCC | 18 digits, fixed | The pallet’s unique serial. Mandatory everywhere. |
| 02 | GTIN of contained trade items | 14 digits, fixed | The outer-case GTIN for a homogeneous pallet. Must be paired with AI 37. |
| 37 | Count of trade items | Up to 8 digits, variable | Number of cases on the pallet. Only valid with AI 02. |
| 15 | Best before date | YYMMDD | For short-life products where the retailer rotates by BBE. |
| 17 | Expiry / use by date | YYMMDD | Used where the product has a use-by rather than a best-before. |
| 10 | Batch or lot number | Up to 20 alphanumeric, variable | Traceability. Mandatory for most chilled and fresh categories. |
| 01 | GTIN | 14 digits | Occasionally used instead of 02 for a pallet that is itself a trade item. |
| 400 | Customer PO number | Up to 30 alphanumeric | Some retailers want this on the label. |
Two rules about combining AIs:
- Fixed-length AIs first. Because AIs 00, 02, 15 and 17 have fixed lengths, a scanner can parse them without a separator. Variable-length AIs (10, 37, 400) must either be last in the barcode or be followed by a Function Code 1 (FNC1) separator. The safe habit is to put AI 10 last.
- AI 02 and 37 go together. A GTIN of contained items without a count is meaningless; most retailers reject it.
A typical homogeneous chilled pallet carries two barcodes:
(02)05012345678900(37)48(15)261024(10)L24297
(00)350123456000000018The three zones of the label
GS1’s logistics label standard splits the label into three zones, top to bottom. Retailers follow this closely.
Top zone: free text
Supplier name and address, ship-to depot, and sometimes a logo. No barcodes. This is for people, not scanners.
Middle zone: human-readable data
Every data element that appears in the barcodes, printed in plain text with its AI in brackets. Content description (“Free-range eggs 6pk”), GTIN, count, best-before, batch, and the SSCC as a 18-digit number. Text must be at least 3 mm high; retailers check this.
Bottom zone: barcodes
The barcodes, with the SSCC (AI 00) always at the bottom. Below each barcode, the human-readable interpretation in brackets. The SSCC barcode is the one the depot scans first, so it goes where a handheld scanner reaches it most easily.
Placement on the pallet
The GS1 rule is that the bottom edge of the SSCC barcode sits between 400 mm and 800 mm from the floor, at least 50 mm in from the vertical edge, on two adjacent sides of the pallet. In practice:
- Two labels, on the front and one side, so a forklift driver can scan without walking round.
- Not over a join in the stretch wrap, and not where the wrap will crease.
- Not on the pallet timber. Labels on the base get torn off by forks.
- For a pallet under 400 mm high, as high as possible without wrapping over the top edge.
Suppliers who apply labels by hand should put a horizontal tape line on the wrapping station at 500 mm as a guide.
Print quality
Almost every “label would not scan” complaint comes back to one of four things.
- Thermal transfer, not direct thermal. Direct thermal labels fade under UV and heat. A pallet that spends a day on a hot yard will arrive with a grey barcode. Retailers’ specifications usually mandate thermal transfer for that reason.
- X-dimension. The narrowest bar should be at least 0.5 mm (0.020 in) for a pallet label. Smaller and a scanner at arm’s length will struggle.
- Quiet zones. Leave at least 10× the X-dimension of blank space either side of the barcode. Trimming labels to fit a smaller stock is the usual culprit.
- Verification grade. ISO/IEC 15416 grade C (1.5) is the minimum most retailers accept; Tesco and Lidl want grade B or above. A £300 verifier, run once a shift on a sample label, pays for itself the first time it prevents a fine.
Keep the printhead clean. A dead element on the head produces a white line through every barcode, and the label will still look fine to the eye.
Retailer variations
The GS1 standard is the base; retailers add their own requirements. Always work from the retailer’s current specification, but these are the differences suppliers most often meet.
Tesco
- Label size 148 × 210 mm (A5), portrait.
- SSCC in AI 00, plus AI 02 and 37 for homogeneous pallets. Mixed pallets carry only the SSCC and are described fully in the ASN.
- Tesco product code (TPNB) printed in the human-readable zone.
- Best-before (AI 15) and batch (AI 10) on all short-life lines.
- Tesco checks barcode grade at depot audits and applies a compliance score.
Lidl
- Label size 148 × 210 mm, and Lidl is strict about label position at 400–600 mm from the floor.
- Lidl requires the delivery note number and the Lidl item number in the free-text zone.
- One SSCC per pallet across the whole consignment; Lidl rejects the ASN if any SSCC is repeated within a delivery.
- Lidl expects the DESADV within 30 minutes of despatch, so label generation and ASN generation must come from the same event.
Sainsbury’s
- Accepts A5 or 4 × 6 inch; portrait preferred.
- SSCC mandatory, AI 02/37 for homogeneous pallets, AI 15 or 17 depending on the product’s date type.
- Sainsbury’s uses the pallet label to drive depot-level rotation, so the BBE on the label must match the BBE in the ASN and on the case. A mismatch is treated as a labelling failure.
- Mixed pallets must carry a “MIXED” indicator in the text zone.
Others in brief
Morrisons and Asda broadly follow the GS1 logistics label with SSCC and AI 02/37. Boots asks for the Boots product code in the text zone. Amazon’s FBA and vendor labels are a different scheme altogether (Amazon’s own pallet and carton labels); if you sell to Amazon Vendor Central, follow their vendor manual rather than the GS1 pallet label.
The link to the ASN
The label and the ASN describe the same pallet and must agree exactly:
| On the label | In the ASN (EDIFACT) |
|---|---|
| AI 00 SSCC | GIN+BJ under the pallet’s CPS/PAC |
| AI 02 GTIN | LIN / PIA at case level |
| AI 37 count | QTY+12 at case level |
| AI 15/17 date | DTM+361 (BBE) or DTM+36 (expiry) |
| AI 10 batch | PIA+1+...+NB or RFF+BT |
The most reliable way to guarantee agreement is to generate both from a single pick record, rather than printing labels from the WMS and building the ASN separately. Any process where the two are generated independently will eventually drift.
Checklist before you go live
- SSCC serials allocated centrally and never reused
- Labels printed thermal transfer, verified grade B or better
- Two labels per pallet, 400–800 mm from the floor, 50 mm from the edge
- AI 02 always paired with AI 37; AI 10 last in the barcode
- Best-before/batch present on every short-life line, matching the ASN
- Retailer’s own product code and any mandated text present in the free-text zone
- Label and ASN produced from the same pick data
How FTP EDI helps
FTP EDI generates GS1-128 pallet and case labels from the same data as the ASN, laid out to each retailer’s specification, with SSCC allocation handled centrally so serials are never duplicated. Labels come back as print-ready PDFs or ZPL for your warehouse printers, and every field on the label is validated against the order before printing.
- See ASNs and GS1-128 labels for how labels, ASNs and delivery notes are produced together.
- Connect your warehouse so pick confirmations trigger labels automatically: warehouse integration.
- Retailer specifics: Tesco, Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons.
- Take the product tour to see the label preview in the platform.