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Container BIC Code — Cover

About Container BIC Code

A shipping container carries no branding worth the name. It carries an address: three letters of owner code, the category identifier U, six digits of serial, and a check digit boxed off so a yard clerk can verify it by eye. The characters are at least 100 mm high because they have to be read across a stacking bay in rain.

This system takes that discipline literally. RAL 5010 gentian blue on corrugated steel, DIN-lineage condensed stencil letterforms in white, data stacked in a left-aligned column, and a riveted CSC plate holding the numbers nobody markets with. Nothing is centred. Nothing is decorative. Everything is legible at distance and after ten years of salt.

Learn more about the Container BIC Code style

Origin
Global — Bureau International des Containers, Paris, registers owner codes for the world fleet
Era
1950–1990 (Ideal X 1956; ISO 6346 marking standard 1960s–70s; CSC convention 1972); DIN 1451 lettering standardised 1931
Key figures
Malcom McLean · Keith Tantlinger · Bureau International des Containers · DIN 1451 committee
Movements
intermodal containerisation · ISO 6346 marking · DIN technical lettering · industrial stencil practice

Container BIC Code design spec

Colors

Background
Surface
Primary
Secondary
Accent
Text

Typography

Big Shoulders Stencil DisplayHeadings
Barlow Semi CondensedBody
IBM Plex MonoMono
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