Shipping Solutions comes pre-loaded with two lists of carrier codes and two lists of port codes that are needed for filing your Electronic Export Information (EEI) through AESDirect. These lists change periodically, and Shipping Solutions provides two ways to update the lists.
Each of the four lists is described below:
- IATA Codes – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) codes identify all air carriers, both domestic and international. All carriers have a two-digit IATA code, and some carriers have secondary codes that are three digits. You can use either the two- or three-digit code for AES filing.
- SCAC Codes – The Standard Carrier Alpha Codes (SCAC) are two to four characters long and were developed by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association to identify freight carriers including ocean carriers, trucking companies, and railroad cars.
- Foreign Port Codes – Foreign port codes are maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. They are listed by country along with their five-digit code in Schedule K of Appendix F at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.
- Port of Export Codes – This list shows all the U.S. ports of export and their four-digit codes. The codes are maintained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and include all seaports and airports where goods can be loaded on an aircraft or vessel to be taken out of the United States. For AESDirect reporting purposes, the port of export is the first port where the goods were loaded even if they are making several stops before leaving the United States.
To manually add a new code, go to the Databases tab and click Carriers and Ports. Click on the list where you want to add a code. Click Add New and type in the Code and Name.
You can also electronically update the port code lists. To do so go to the Databases tab and click Carriers and Ports. Click Update AES Codes. You can either check the Get All Updates box or click on the specific table that you want to update, such as Foreign Port Codes. Then click Run Selected Updates. A box will pop up when the update is complete.
The update must be run on each workstation. When you run the update through the software, any codes you have previously added manually will be overwritten. How often you run this update is up to you.
Please be aware that upgrading from one version of Shipping Solutions to another will not update the codes. The codes can only be updated with the manual or electronic method described above.