ISO 6346 Container Type Codes

Coded list of ISO 6346 shipping containers, used in international trade and electronic shipping messages: the size and type codes (for example 22G1) and the groups they belong to.

Column definitions and types are in datapackage.json.

Data

The data is compiled by hand. There is no script that updates it. It was put together between December 2015 and February 2020, and the last change to the data files was in February 2020, so new or changed codes since then are not included.

There are two files. Both use Windows line endings (CRLF).

data/iso-container-codes.csv has 716 rows, one per size and type code, with 5 columns:

data/iso-container-groups.csv has 28 rows with 2 columns, code (unique) and description, for example 20 BULK CONTAINER.

Known limitations

These are in the data as committed and have not been changed:

• code is not unique: 42HR appears in two rows, once with group 42HR ("Insulated (Conair)") and once with group 42RT.
• 45 codes start with a letter (for example L5G0, M2G0) and 3 have a letter second (4CG0, 4CG1, 4CGP).
• The group codes 42TN (33 rows) and L5RT (29 rows) are used in iso-container-codes.csv but are not in iso-container-groups.csv. The groups file instead has 42TD and L5R1, which no row uses as a group.
• Where a code starts with 4, the length column is normally 40. 13 rows say 45 (for example 45R0, 45H2) and 45G4 says 0. Other rows have an odd length for their code (3399 has length 23, 2650 has length 0, 12TR has length 42).
• The description of group 22BU ends with a tab character.
• The data is not complete or checked against the current standard. It was made before ISO 6346:2022 was published.
• Where each row comes from is not recorded (see Data sources).
• The codes are text, as datapackage.json says. Some are made only of digits (for example 3399). With pandas, read them as text: pd.read_csv("data/iso-container-codes.csv", dtype=str).

Data sources

There is no script and no record of how the rows were made. This is what we could establish.

• Container Container, a shipping container sales company (now Parsons Containers). The group list in iso-container-groups.csv matches the table on this page for most groups, with a length number added at the front of each description. Most of the rows in iso-container-codes.csv are not on this page, and the page has no length or height. Licence: unclear (see License).
• Wikipedia, "ISO 6346" has a table of size and type codes with the same codes as the Container Container table. We could not establish whether any rows were taken from it. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0, if rows were taken (see License).
• shippingcontainers24.com has the same list. The original page is gone; the link is to an Internet Archive copy. We could not establish whether it was used. Licence: unclear (we found no terms).
• ISO 6346:2022, the standard (paid; the ISO site refuses scripts, so this link could not be checked automatically). The BIC (Bureau International des Containers) page on size and type codes explains the structure of the codes. The size and type code list is part of the standard. We could not establish whether rows here come from it. Licence: unclear (ISO says reproduction needs its written permission).

Changes made to the source data: not recorded. The Container Container table has no length or height columns, and the group descriptions here have a length number added at the front. We could not tell where the length and height values come from, or how the other rows were made.

Not endorsed by, or affiliated with, Container Container, Parsons Containers, Wikipedia, ISO or BIC.

Preparation

The data is edited by hand in the two CSV files. There is no script and no GitHub workflow that changes them. Keep the CRLF line endings and the column order when editing, and update datapackage.json if columns change.

License

The licence of this data is unclear. What we checked:

• Container Container: the page of the ISO 6346 table has no licence. Its footer said "All rights reserved" in 2015 and now says "Copyright © Parsons Containers". We found no permission to copy the table.
• Wikipedia: its text is under CC BY-SA 4.0, which would need credit and sharing under the same licence. That does not fit the PDDL. We could not establish whether its table was used.
• ISO: ISO says all its publications are protected by copyright and that "any use, including reproduction requires our written permission". We could not read the paid standard to compare it with these rows.
• shippingcontainers24.com: we found no terms.

We could not establish where most of the rows come from, so we cannot say whether they may be released under an open licence. Do not rely on this data being in the public domain. If you plan to use it commercially, check the terms of the sources above first.

The maintainers place only their own work (for example the selection and arrangement of the rows and the CSV format) under the Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL). This does not cover the sources above. See also ATTRIBUTION.txt.