The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) is reminding carriers to renew their Standard Carrier Alpha Code (SCAC) if it expires between June 30 and July 7.

NMFTA assigns SCAC for all companies except those used for identifying freight containers not operating exclusively in North America, intermodal chassis and trailers, non-railroad-owned rail cars, and railroads.

“Canadian carriers operating in the U.S. and transporting goods across U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are required to obtain a SCAC,” said Debra Edwards, client service senior manager at NMFTA, in a news release. “This applies to a private carrier with no U.S. Department of Transportation authority numbers as well as those with authority numbers.”

She added, “SCAC identification codes have existed since the mid-1960s and were developed to facilitate computerization in the transportation industry.

“It’s a unique two to four-letter code utilized to identify various transportation companies properly, and while certain groups of a SCAC are reserved for specific purposes, overall, the code is recognized by various organizations.”

Why is a SCAC required?

A SCAC is required when doing business with all U.S. government agencies and with many commercial shippers such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, CBP, Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), Automated Manifest and Pre-Arrival Processing (PAPS) systems, according to the release.

Carriers who use the Uniform Intermodal Interchange Facilities Access Agreement are also required to maintain a valid SCAC.

To renew or apply for a SCAC code, visit the SCAC website for real-time integration into the computer system. NMFTA publishes all codes, and the data is available via an online search engine through SCAC Online once a subscription has been purchased.

If a data download is required, SCAC data is also accessible daily or quarterly by either email or FTP. Both are provided in UTF8 encoded ASCII format with a record length of 254 characters.