Batch Import File Specification

Field Name	Mandatory / Optional / Conditional	Type	Comments
Job Name	O	Max length 25 alphanumeric	Used only for GBD shipments.
Business Name	M	Max length 40 characters
Recipient Name	C	Max length 30 characters	Mandatory if convenient collect indicator = Y
Address Line 1	M	Max length 40 characters
Address Line 2	O	Max length 40 characters
Address Line 3	O	Max length 40 characters
Postcode	M	Max length 16 characters	Must be a valid UK postcode Mandatory when using service EPB, EPK or GBD (international)
Post Town	M	Max length 30 characters	Must be the correct Post Town for the supplied postcode
Recipient Phone #	O	Max length 21 characters
Contact Name	O	Max length 30 characters	Not used for batch processing
Destination Country Code	C/M	Max length 2 characters	Only Mandatory when International shipments are being processed
Address Type	C	Max length 1 character	Accepted values are B for "Business" or P for "Private" only (not case sensitive) Mandatory if shipping with EPB or EPK If specified when not required (I.e., when not shipping EPB or EPK) then this value will be ignored
Document Description	C/M	Max length 30 characters	Only Mandatory when International shipments are being processed, with shipment type = 1
Purpose of Shipment	C	See 'Purpose of Shipment' table for valid codes and values	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments
Delivery Notification	O	Y or N	Only applicable if recipient email address field is populated
Shipping Costs	O	Max length 10 numeric
Invoice Number	O	Max length 30 characters
Export License Number	O	Max length 30 characters
Certificate Number	O	Max length 30 characters
Comments	O	Max length 80 characters
Description of Parcel(s)	O	See 'Description of Parcel' table for valid values	Parcel description for Global Bulk Direct and Global Value shipments, see table below.
Parcel Value under 200$	O	Max length 3 characters	Allowed values are Yes or No or Y or N, Defaults to N; Relevant for Global Bulk Direct and Global Value shipments
Returned From Multiple Shipments	O	Max Length 3 characters	Allowed values are Yes or No or Y or N, Defaults to N
Orig. Export Shipment Number	O	Max length 30 characters	Required if goods are being returned from a previous export shipment
Orig.Invoice Number	O	Max length 30 characters	Original invoice number of the item being returned
Orig.Export License Number(s)	O	Max length 30 characters	Original export license number
Orig.Certificate Number	O	Max length 30 characters	Original certificate number
Shipment Type	C	Fixed character	Only Mandatory when International shipments are being processed; values 1 or D for documents and 0 or N for non-documents
Length (L)	C/M	In cm with decimal point, e.g. 5.12 for 5.12cm or 12 for 12cm	Must not exceed max length for service. Ignored if the Service & Contract are not dimension based
Width (W)	C/M	In cm with decimal point, e.g. 5.12 for 5.12cm or 12 for 12cm	Must not exceed max width for service. Ignored if the Service & Contract are not dimension based
Height (H)	C/M	In cm with decimal point, e.g. 5.12 for 5.12cm or 12 for 12cm	Must not exceed max height for service. Ignored if the Service & Contract are not dimension based
Recipient EORI/VAT Number	O	Max length 17 chars	Optional otherwise must be between 9 and 17 characters max with the first 2 characters being alpha (A-Z or a-z) and the following characters can be a mixture of alpha and numeric characters
Consignment Identifier	O	Max length 3 alphanumeric	Must be empty for mono parcel. Multi parcel shipments must use the same identifier.
Special Instructions 1	O *	Max length 25 chars
Special Instructions 2	O *	Max length 25 chars
Special Instructions 3	O *	Max length 25 chars
Special Instructions 4	O *	Max length 25 chars
Email Address	C	Max length 50 chars	Mandatory if convenient collect indicator = Y
Mobile Phone	O	Max length 21 characters	Must be 11 numeric’s and begin with 01, 02 or 07 following correction / validation rules applied on processing.
Address Code	M (if address book is used)	Max length 20 characters	Only mandatory if Address book format is used.
Sequence Code	O	Max length 3 numeric	Used in conjunction with Address Code where appropriate.
Service Code	O *	See table below for valid service codes	Must be a valid service allocated to your contract
Contract Number	O *		Must be the correct contract number set up for batch processing
Reference Number	O *	Max length 24 characters
Booking In Req’d	O *	Single character; Y or N
Shipping Date	O *	DDMMYY e.g. 010404 for 1 ^st April 2004	Must be current day or a date within 4 weeks
Sat Del Req’d	O *	Y or N	Must be applicable for the service and Shipping Date (i.e. Shipping date must be a Friday for Parcelforce 24)
No. of Parcels	O *	Number 1-999	Must between 1 & 999 (inclusive)
Total Consignment Weight	C/M *	In Kilograms with decimal point, e.g. 5.12 for 5.12Kg or 12 for 12Kg	Must not exceed max weight for service Ignored if the Service & Contract are not weight based Mandatory when weight is mandatory for the department/service
Enhanced Compensation	O *	See table below for valid compensation codes
FILLER	O	Any	The system will ignore any data in this field
Convenient Collect Ind	O	Y or N	To be used for convenient collect shipments
Reservation Reference	O	Max length 12 alphanumeric	To be used for convenient collect shipments to enter the Post Office reservation confirmation.
Personal Parcel Description	O	Max length 20 alphanumeric	Enter the Short Description assigned to the Personal Parcel Instruction.
No Signature Required	O	See 'NSR - Allowed Safe Places' table for valid codes and values	Must be 1 from the allowed list; as specified in Table – Allowed Safe Places. Can use the code or the value in the import file.
Specified Post Office	O	Max length 40 characters, Max length 40 characters, Max length 16 characters	Post Office name, Post Office Address Line 1 and Post Office Postcode separated by a separator specified by user on the import wizard.
Specified Neighbour	O	Max length 15 characters
PIN Delivery	O	Max length 4 numeric	Must be a 4 digit number
Named Recipient	O	Single character; Y or N
Address Only	O	Single character; Y or N
Nominated Delivery Date	O	Date format DDMMYY	Must be in the same format as Shipping Date
Exchange Instruction 1	O	Max length 15 alphanumeric	To be used for exchange shipments
Exchange Instruction 2	O	Max length 15 alphanumeric	To be used for exchange shipments
Exchange Instruction 3	O	Max length 15 alphanumeric	To be used for exchange shipments

International Content Fields

Field Name	Mandatory / Optional / Conditional	Type	Comments
Content Details Identifier	C	Max length 1 alphanumeric	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments
Contents Description	C	Max length 150 characters	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments
Country of Manufacture	C	Max length 2 characters	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments
Preferential Invoice Treatment	O	Max length 1 character	Accepted values are Y and N (not case sensitive) If not specified where field Country of Manufacture = UK then the value will be defaulted to N If specified and not required (I.e. when shipping domestically or country of Manufacture = non-UK) the value will be ignored
No of Units	C	Max length 3 numeric	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments
Unit Weight	C	Max length 8 numeric	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments
Unit Value	C	Max length 8 numeric	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments
Unit Currency	O	Max length 3 characters	Must be a valid currency code, Defaults to GBP
Declared Value	C	Max length 8 characters	Mandatory for International Return shipments
Manufacturer's Name	C	Max length 30 characters	Mandatory for Global Bulk Direct Shipments
Article Reference	O	Max length 30 characters	Additional information to Tariff description
Tariff Code	C/M	Max length 14 characters	- Mandatory for EPB/ EPK/ GBD - the length MUST be equal to: 8, 10, 12 or 14 characters (after non-numeric characters and spaces were stripped out). - For any service not equal to EPB/ EPK/ GBD - the length MUST be equal to: 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14 characters (after non-numeric characters and spaces were stripped out).
Tariff Description	C	Max length 30 characters	Mandatory with Global Bulk Direct shipments.

Importer Address Fields

Field Name	Mandatory / Optional / Conditional	Type	Comments
Importer Business Name	C	Max length 40 characters	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments and when at least one of the importer address field is selected in the import layout
Importer Recipient Name	O	Max length 30 characters
Importer Address Line 1	C	Max length 40 characters	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments and when at least one of the importer address field is selected in the import layout
Importer Address Line 2	O	Max length 40 characters
Importer Address Line 3	O	Max length 40 characters
Importer Postcode	C	Max length 16 characters	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments and when at least one of the importer address field is selected in the import layout
Importer Post Town	C	Max length 30 characters	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments and when at least one of the importer address field is selected in the import layout
Importer Country Code	C	Max length 2 characters	Only Mandatory for international non-document shipments and when at least one of the importer address field is selected in the import layout If an incorrect code is entered then the shipment errors
Importer Telephone No	O	Max length 30 characters
Importer FAX	O	Max length 30 characters
Importer EORI/VAT Number	O	Max length 17 characters	Optional otherwise must be between 9 and 17 characters max with the first 2 characters being alpha (A-Z or a-z) and the following characters can be a mixture of alpha and numeric characters
EU VAT Number	C	Max length 45 characters	Allow 45 characters max. Alphanumeric characters will be allowed, also hyphens and space and forward slash i.e. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, space, -, / Mandatory if shipping to a business address type and where delivery country and service combination requires this additional data. If specified when not required (I.e., if shipping to a private address or a business address or delivery country and service combination does not require it then the value of this field will be ignored.

* If these fields are not supplied in the file, or left blank, the default value specified on the Batch Processing screen will be used

General:

· Do not use ‘plus’ (+) characters, these will be filtered out and replaced with a space

· Use the Filler field for any fields in the file to import that are not needed in processing the Shipment, e.g. Record Counts, etc.

· Ensure that the Post Town and Postcodes are correct, the record will be rejected if not.

· Ensure that the Post Town and Postcode are always in the correct field, the record will be rejected if the Post Town and/or Postcode is missing.

Example file specification

For example, if there is a file from an other system that looks like this:

Record Number, Customer Name, Address1, Address 2, Address 3, Post Town , Postcode, Phone number, Order number

“1”,”Mr. Smith”,”Flat 2A”,”15 High Street”,””,”MyTown”,”EC1 1AA”,”0111 223344”,”Ord-7854”

“2”,”Mr. Jones”,”Top Cottage”,”Bramble Lane”,”The Village”,”MyTown”,”EC1 1AA”,”0999 887766”,”Ord-7855”

The file spec. would look like this:

Separator as a comma (,) and the delimiter as quotes (“).

Field	Comment
Filler	Record Number is not used therefore treat as filler
Business Name
Address line 1
Address line 2
Address line 3
Post Town
Postcode
Recipient Phone #
Reference number	Use the order number as the Senders Reference on the shipment

Service Code Table

Service Code	Service Description
PF9	Express 9
PF10 or PF10_C	Express 10
PF12 or PF12_C	Express AM
AML	Express AM Large
PMD	Express PM
PF24 or PF24_C	Express 24
NDL	Express 24 Large
PF48 or PF48_C	Express 48
IDW or IDW_C	Express 48 Large
SLF	Express 24 Local
SLN	Express AM Local
SMS	Express Collect
SPR	Parcelrider Plus ( N. Ireland only)
24PAL	Pallets 24
48PAL	Pallets 48
72PAL	Pallets 72
SC9	Express 9 Courier Pack POU
SC0	Express 10 Courier Pack POU
SC0P	Express 10 Courier Pack PP
SC2	Express AM Courier Pack POU
SC2P	Express AM Sunday Delivery
SCD	Express 24 Courier Pack POU
SCDP	Express 24 Sunday Delivery
9S	Express 9 Secure
10S	Express 10 Secure
AMS	Express AM Secure
24S	Express 24 Secure
PMS	Express PM Secure
10E	Express 10 Exchange
AME	Express AM Exchange
24E	Express 24 Exchange
PME	Express PM Exchange
10SE	Express 10 Secure Exchange
AMSE	Express AM Secure Exchange
24SE	Express 24 Secure Exchange
PMSE	Express PM Secure Exchange
GBD	Global Bulk Direct
GEX	Global Express
GXE	Global Express Envelope
GXP	Global Express Pack
GPR	Global Priority
GVA	Global Value
I24	Ireland Express
EPB	Euro Priority
EPH	Euro Economy
EPK	Euro Priority Pack
EPP	Euro Priority Home (PO Box)
EPR	Global Priority Return

Compensation Code Table

Compensation Code	Compensation level
N or JCM0	Default Inclusive level
1 or JCM1	Up to £500 per consignment
2 or JCM2	Up to £1000 per consignment
3 or JCM3	Up to £1500 per consignment
4 or JCM4	Up to £2000 per consignment
5 or JCM5	Up to £2500 per consignment

NSR – Allowed Safe Places Table

Code	Value
01	Conservatory
02	Driver Choice
03	Garage
04	Greenhouse
05	Porch
06	Shed

Purpose of Shipment Table

Code	Value
551	Gift
554	Not Sold
552	Personal Effects
553	Sample
210	Sold
21	Returned Goods

Description of Parcel Table

Value

Books

Bounded Advertising

Bounded Catalogues

Bounded Directories

Bounded Phone Books

Bounded editorial mail

Bulletins

CDs

Catalogues

Computer media

DVDs

Diskettes

Films

General Merchandise

Manuscripts

Newsletters

Small Packages

Tapes

Videos