The pallet label is often applied by the manufacturer and is needed for their own handling in the warehouse and for the buyer’s goods reception and warehousing. The label contains information about the content of the logistic unit.
The pallet label should be used to mark homogenous and heterogeneous whole pallets, layer pads and display pallets that are whole pallets.
The pallet label consists of three parts:
- The upper section of the label contains optional information, for example the company name.
- The middle section contains the barcoded information in plain text.
- The lower section contains the barcoded information
Recommended sizes on the pallet label are A6 (105x148mm) and A5 (148x210mm).
Optional information
In the upper section of the pallet label the company marking the pallet can choose what information they want to print. Usually this is the company name or logo..
If it is necessary to print other information, such as the consumer package’s GTIN or an internal number, this should only be printed in the upper section of the pallet label and not be included in the barcodes on the label.
Plain text information
The barcode on the label can sometimes become unreadable. The information in the barcode must therefore always be printed in plain text, too. The middle section of the label is reserved for this plain text information.
Standard descriptions (Data Titles) are used in the middle section of the label to show what information is printed in plain text. Examples of Data Titles are “SSCC” or “BATCH/LOT”.
Barcoded information
The lower section of the label contains the barcoded information. The GS1‑128 symbology must be used on the label.
The barcode must always include the logistic unit’s SSCC. When a transport label is used together with a pallet label and/or a store and customer label, the SSCC must be the same on each label or only printed on one of them.
GS1‑128 includes Application Identifiers (AI). These describe what type of information is in the barcode. An application identifier consists of two to four digits and is printed in parentheses below the barcode together with information it describes. For example, the application identifier for SSCC is “00”.