GS1 railway standard: GCP, GTIN and coding plan

The GS1 company prefix (GCP)

Everything starts with the GCP, the prefix allocated to your company by GS1 (4 to 12 digits). Trainparts.online checks that a declared GCP is not the prefix of another one, calculates the available numbering capacity and suggests the next free item reference.

Generate compliant GTINs

The GTIN identifies a category of parts. The platform builds it from your GCP and an item reference, then calculates the check digit. GTIN-12, GTIN-13 and GTIN-14 formats are supported; a GTIN-14 is derived from a GTIN-13 with an indicator digit from 1 to 8.

• the GTIN is allocated with the brand owner's GCP (rule 6-2);
• an allocated GTIN is never modified (rules 7-3 and 7-5);
• a GTIN put into production is never deleted or reused (rule 7-6): the product is set to “discontinued”;
• a GTIN never put into production may be reused (rule 7-7).

Attributes that matter for rail

The standard provides sector-specific attributes, which the platform checks (length, character set, mandatory associations):

• AI 7021 – functional status (up to 5 characters);
• AI 7022 – revision status (up to 5 characters, with AI 7021);
• AI 240 – additional identification, for example the supplier's reference;
• AI 241 – customer part number, for example the integrator's code.

Checks at every level

All alphanumeric values are restricted to GS1 character set 82. Rules are checked in the user interface, to guide users, and in the database, to guarantee them, including for data received through the API.