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Four letters and seven digits on steel.
Also known as: Container number, Owner prefix and serial
The identifier stencilled on a shipping container, ending in a check digit.
Identifies a shipping container uniquely by owner prefix, serial number and a check digit.
Contexts: Public information
The final digit is computed from the other eleven characters, so a number misread from a photograph or a worn stencil fails the check rather than identifying the wrong box — the redundancy is the whole point.
Contexts: Public information
The fourth letter is a category identifier and is almost always U for freight containers, which is why the prefix looks like a three-letter code with a U attached.
Contexts: Public information
Four capital letters over or beside seven digits, stencilled large on the container's side and door, the last digit boxed off from the rest.