United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations

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UN/LOCODE
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• United Nations Code for Trade and Transport
  Locations
• UN/LOCODE
• UNECE Recommendation No. 16

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UN/LOCODE Overview
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• In 1972 the UN/ECE W.P. on Facilitation of
  International Trade Procedures began the process
  to prepare a code for port names (cities, ports,
  airports, border crossing, terminals, etc.) to
  designate various locations involved in external
  trade, with a view to the subsequent creation of
  codes.
• Main contributors were the International Chamber
  of Shipping (ICS), the International Association
  of Ports and Harbours (IAPH), the Economic
  Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
  (ECLAC) and the Economic and Social Commission
  for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
• In addition, the secretariat had full-access to
  the list of airports and other locations
  maintained by the International Air Transport
  Association (IATA) and contributions were also
  received from a number of Governments.

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UN/LOCODE Background
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• The identification of a particular location is
  frequently required in information interchange in
  international trade and transport to direct the
  movement of goods.
• In addresses
• In shipping marks
• and in data elements identifying ports of call,
  ports or places of loading or unloading, ports or
  places of trans-shipment and destination, places
  of clearance by Customs, etc.
• The names of such locations are often spelt in
  different ways and sometimes the same location is
  given different names in different languages,
  which creates confusion and difficulties in data
  interchange.
• Genève Geneva Genf - Ginebra
• London Londres Londra
• Warzsaw - Varsovie Warszawa - Warschau

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UN/LOCODE Background
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• The identification in a unique and unambiguous
  way of any place involved in international trade
  is therefore an essential element for the
  facilitation of trade procedures and
  documentation.
• This can be achieved by using agreed, unique
  coded designations for such locations this would
  have the added advantage of permitting an
  exchange of data in a safer and more economical
  way.

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UN/LOCODE Background
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• To the code structure, one particular attention
  was given to the three-letter alphabetical
  location identifier code already used within the
  air transport industry used to designate airports
  and certain other locations (IATA International
  Air Transport Association).
• These codes have been widely used over a long
  period, have in most cases a mnemonic link to the
  place name, and have been introduced in other
  applications, notably in the ports code developed
  by ECLAC.

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UN/LOCODE UNECE Recommendation 16
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Defines an internationally agreed code system to
  represent names of locations of interest in
  international trade and transport.
• The code system is based on two-letter alphabetic
  code for the representation of names of
  countries, International Standard ISO 3166-1.
• Recommends the use of a five-character code
  system to designate locations whenever there is a
  need for a coded representation for the names of
  ports (maritime, railways, airports, inland
  clearance depots, inland freight terminals and
  any other transport related locations, such as
  places of receipt and delivery), which are used
  for goods movements associated with trade.

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UN/LOCODE Coding system
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Code system based on two-letter alphabetic code
  for the representation of names of countries ISO
  3166-1, e.g.
• CH Switzerland
• CL Chile
• KR Korea
• IN India
• UN/LOCODE five-character code system
• CHGVA Geneva
• CLSCL Santiago
• KRSEL Seoul
• INBOM Mumbai (Ex Bombay)

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UN/LOCODE Code List.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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UN/LOCODE Definitions
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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UN/LOCODE Definitions
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Function
• 0 Not known
• 1 Port terminal
• 2 Rail terminal
• 3 Road terminal
• 4 Airport terminal
• 5 Postal exchange office
• 6 Multimodal Functions (ICDs, etc.)
• 7 Fixed Transport Functions (e.g. Oil platform)
• B Border crossing function
• Status
• AA Approved by competent national government
  agency
• AC Approved by Customs Authority
• AF Approved by national facilitation body
• AI Code adopted by international organisation
• AS Approved by national standards/statistic
  body
• RL Recognised location
• RN Request from credible national sources for
  locations in their own country
• RQ Request under consideration

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UN/LOCODE Field of application
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Using definition of UNeDocs Paper Layout Key for
  the Invoice
• Invoice
• An invoice is a document/message claiming
  payment for goods or services supplied under
  conditions agreed between buyer and seller
  (UN/EDIFACT D.03A, Data Element 1001).
• An invoice issued by the seller can be for one or
  more transactions.
• An invoice may refer to goods or items or
  services related to one or more orders, delivery
  instructions, call offs, etc.
• An invoice may contain references to payment
  terms
• An invoice for cross border transactions may
  contain additional information for customs and/or
  statistical purposes/services
• An invoice may contain transport details
• Purchase Order
• A purchase order is a document/message
  specifying details for goods or services ordered
  under conditions agreed between the seller and
  the buyer.

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UN/LOCODE Field of application (Invoice)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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UN/LOCODE Field of application (Invoice)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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UN/LOCODE Field of application (UNTDED)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Port/airport of loading
• Consignment. Loading Location Text. Tag 3334
• Example Genève, Switzerland
• Consignment. Loading Location Identifier. Tag
  3335
• Use of UNECE Recommendation No. 16 UN/LOCODE.
• Example CHGVA
• Port/airport of discharge
• Consignment. Discharge Location Text. Tag 3392
• Example Valparaiso, Chile
• Consignment. Discharge Location Identifier. Tag
  3393
• Use of UNECE Recommendation No. 16 UN/LOCODE.
• Example CLVAP
• Final place of delivery
• Delivery. Location Text. Tag 3246
• Example Santiago, Chile
• Delivery. Location Identifier. Tag 3247
• Use of UNECE Recommendation No. 16 UN/LOCODE
• Example CLSCL

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UN/LOCODE Field of application (Invoice)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
CHGVA
Genève, Switzerland
CLSCL
CLVAP
Santiago, Chile
Valparaiso, Chile
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UN/LOCODE Data Maintenance Requests (DMR)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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UN/LOCODE Sample of Users
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
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UN/LOCODE Database
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Locations 42.000
• Total Entries 74.000
• IATA (11.000)
• UPU ( 1.400)
• EUROSTAT ( 1.600)
• Lloyds (18.000)

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UN/LOCODE Database (Download)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Code List formats
• Text
• CSV (Comma Separated Values)
• MS Access
• HTML

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UN/LOCODE Analysis of Internet hits
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• Visitors 33.000 / month
• Downloads 1.900 / month

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UN/LOCODE Contact Information
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

• UNECE Trade Development and Timber Division
• Claudio Meza
• 41 22 917.13.66
• claudio.meza_at_unece.org
• http//www.unece.org/locode