Glossary

Standard Carrier Alpha Code (SCAC)

A Standard Carrier Alpha Code is a 2 to 4 letter unique code that identifies a transportation company. It is assigned and maintained by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA), a private industry body, and it must be renewed periodically. Shippers, brokers, and their systems use the SCAC as a short, machine-friendly handle for a carrier in electronic data interchange (EDI), on bills of lading, and in routing guides.

Where it shows up

The SCAC is the carrier identifier in the paperwork and data of a shipment rather than in the federal safety record. It appears in EDI transaction sets, on the bill of lading, in a shipper's routing instructions, and in intermodal and government systems where a compact code is easier to pass around than a full legal name. Some suffix letters are reserved for particular modes, for example codes ending in certain letters are set aside for intermodal containers or rail.

How it differs from federal numbers

A SCAC is a commercial identifier, not a regulatory one. It says a company has registered a code for doing business; it does not carry authority status, insurance, or safety history. Those live under the carrier's federal identifiers: the USDOT number is the primary key of the federal safety record, and the legacy MC number ties to operating authority. For vetting, the SCAC is useful for matching a carrier across a shipper's systems, while the federal numbers are where the compliance signals are read.

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