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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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X12 214 — Transportation Carrier Shipment Status

Status message sent by a carrier (motor, rail, ocean, air) to inform its shipper of in-transit events: pick-up, departure, arrival, delivery, exception.

Purpose

The 214 is the standard EDI channel for shipment tracking in North America. On every operational event — pick-up, dock departure, terminal arrival, weather exception, actual delivery — the carrier emits a 214 carrying a standardised status code (X1 Arrived at Pick-up Location, AF Carrier Departed Pick-up, X6 En Route to Delivery, D1 Completed Loading, OA Origin Departure, etc.) and a reason code for any exception (NS Normal Status, A1 Missed Delivery, AM Shipment Damaged…). In practice the 214 feeds the TMS real-time tracking view. It coexists with ELD telematics feeds and Project44 / FourKites APIs that layered on from 2015 onwards without replacing EDI as the system of record.

Envelope and structure

The 214 lives in the usual triple X12 envelope. Its functional group identifier QM groups transportation status messages. A minimal 214 reporting an "en route to delivery" event:

x12 minimal-214.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*ACMECARRIER    *ZZ*BIGSHIPPER     *260513*1810*U*00501*000000214*0*P*>~
GS*QM*ACMECARRIER*BIGSHIPPER*20260513*1810*1*X*005010~
ST*214*0001~
B10*REF-0001*BOL-554433*ACMECARRIER~
L11*PO-12345*PO~
N1*SH*ATLANTA FACTORY*25*ATL-7~
N1*CN*DALLAS DC*25*DAL-3~
LX*1~
AT7*X6*NS***20260513*1745*LT~
MS1*MEMPHIS*TN*US~
MS2*ACME*TRAILER-7740~
SE*10*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000214~

Common segments (concept)

  • Header — B10 Beginning Segment for Transportation Carrier Shipment Status (shipment reference, BOL, carrier identifier), with L11 Business Instructions and Reference Number (PO, booking, ASN…) and the N1 loop for parties (shipper, consignee, third-party logistics).
  • Detail — each event opens an LX, then AT7 Shipment Status Details carries the status-code / reason-code pair along with the event date and time. MS1 Equipment, Shipment, or Real Property Location states the city/state/country of the event, and MS2 Equipment or Container Owner and Type carries the rolling stock (trailer, container or rail-car number).
  • Summary — a single SE trailer; the 214 is a notification message and has no totals.

A shipment typically yields 4 to 10 individual 214 messages over its lifecycle: pick-up, origin departure, intermediate arrival, intermediate departure, destination arrival, delivery, signed POD.

When you'll see it

The 214 is required by major US retailers (Walmart, Target, Costco, Lowe's) in their transportation contracts as a visibility data feed. Historical VANs (OpenText GXS, IBM Sterling, TrueCommerce, Boomi B2B, SPS Commerce) push it into shipper ERPs as JSON or XML after transcoding. On the carrier side, TMSs (McLeod LoadMaster, TMW, MercuryGate) emit the 214 directly from the event the driver records in their ELD.

  • 204 — Motor Carrier Load Tender (origin of the shipment being tracked).
  • 210 — Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice. See 210 page →
  • 856 — Ship Notice/Manifest (ASN to consignee).
  • 990 — Response to a Load Tender. See 990 page →
  • 997 or 999 — Functional acknowledgment. 997 · 999

Documentation