EDI 214: Shipment Status Codes and AT7 Segment

The EDI 214 is how a carrier keeps a shipper, consignee or freight payer informed while freight is moving. Each time a shipment hits a milestone, such as pickup, terminal arrival, out for delivery or delivery, the carrier sends a 214 with the status, the time and the place. It is the data behind shipment tracking, delivery confirmation and delay alerts. Without it, the shipper has the bill of lading at one end and the freight invoice at the other, and nothing in between.

This guide covers the status, reason and appointment codes that carry the meaning, the segments you will map, two live examples (an LTL shipment's milestones and a truckload delay with a new appointment), and how to turn a 214 feed into dependable tracking.

What Is an EDI 214?

An EDI 214 is the Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message transaction set defined by ASC X12, used by a transportation carrier to give shippers, consignees and their agents the status of shipments in terms of dates, times, locations, route, identifying numbers and conveyance. It travels in functional group QM (the GS01 value). Most motor carriers send it in X12 004010.

Authoritative references for 214 work:

• The X12 transaction set catalog defines the 214, and Stedi's X12 004010 reference for the 214 lists every loop, segment and code value, including the full status code list for element 1650
• Carrier implementation guides, such as YRC Freight's 214 guide and the TForce Freight 214 specification, show which codes each carrier actually sends and what it means by them
• The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) issues the SCAC that identifies the reporting carrier in B1003

Who sends it? The carrier moving the freight: truckload, LTL, intermodal and other modes. Ocean carriers report container events with the 315 Status Details (Ocean) instead.

Who receives it? Whoever the carrier has agreed to report to: the shipper, the consignee, the party paying the freight, or a 3PL or visibility provider acting for one of them.

When is it sent? At each status event the trading partners agreed on: pickup, terminal arrivals and departures, out for delivery, delivery, appointments, and exceptions such as delays.

Why does it matter? The 214 turns a booked load into a tracked shipment. It feeds delivery confirmation, on-time measurement, and the delay alerts that let you warn a customer before they call you.

Status Codes: Where the Meaning Lives

Each status event is an AT7 segment. AT701 is the status, AT702 the reason, and AT705 and AT706 the date and time. When the event is an appointment rather than a movement, AT703 and AT704 replace AT701 and AT702: the standard allows only one of AT701 or AT703 in the same segment. MS1 right after the AT7 gives the city where it happened.

EDI 214 Status Codes (AT7-01): Common Codes

AT701 holds X12 data element 1650, Shipment Status Code. The full list is long; the codes below are the ones motor carrier guides commonly include. The middle column is the X12 name; the right column notes how carriers use it, including where carrier guides gloss a code differently.

Carriers gloss the same code differently, and this is the trap. YRC Freight's 214 guide describes D1 as "delivered," while the TForce Freight specification uses its X12 name, "completed unloading at delivery location." It is the same code. If you build delivery confirmation across several carriers, read each carrier's guide rather than assuming one shared meaning, and keep a per-carrier map.

J1 is the code most often misread as a delivery. It means the freight went to a connecting line, so the shipment is still moving and another carrier now has it.

EDI 214 Reason Codes (AT7-02)

AT702 holds element 1651, Shipment Status or Appointment Reason Code. It explains why a status happened, and it is what turns "delayed" into something you can act on.

NS on a routine milestone means nothing is wrong. Alerting on every AT702 value produces noise; alert on the exception codes and ignore NS.

Appointment Codes (AT7-03)

AT703 holds element 1652, Shipment Appointment Status Code, and AT704 its reason (element 1651 again, usually NA normal appointment). When AT703 is present, AT705 and AT706 are the appointment's date and time, not the time something happened.

Carrier glosses differ here too. YRC's guide uses X9 for the moment it contacted the consignee about an appointment ("delivery appointment requested") and sends the appointment itself with AB.

Interactive Example: 214 LTL Shipment Milestones

This continues the LTL shipment from our 211 bill of lading guide: Lakeshore Home Goods' 316 cartons moving with carrier QLTX to the retailer's DC 6021. The retailer pays the freight, so it receives the carrier's 214s.

B10 carries the carrier's PRO number, the shipper's BOL number and the SCAC. The heading L11s add the retailer's load number and POs, and the N1 loops name the shipper and consignee. Then one LX loop per event: pickup in Grand Rapids (AF), arrival at the Grove City terminal (X4), available for delivery (AV), and completed unloading at the DC (D1), each with an MS1 city and an MS2 trailer number. Many carriers send one 214 per event as it happens; this example puts four events in one message so you can see the timeline. The sample uses X12 004010. All names, IDs and SCACs are fictional.

Use the Plain English tab for a readable summary, or click any segment to break it down element by element.

The delivery trailer 530118 in the last two events is the same trailer the carrier listed on its 212 delivery trailer manifest to the DC.

Interactive Example: 214 Delay and New Delivery Appointment

The second example follows the three-stop truckload from our 204 load tender guide. On the way to the last stop the carrier hits a road closure. It sends one LX loop with two AT7 segments: SD (shipment delayed) with reason BE (road conditions) and the place in MS1, then an appointment AT7 with AT703 = AB and AT704 = NA giving the rebooked delivery appointment. An L11 with qualifier QN says which stop is affected, and K1 explains in words.

AT7 Segment Reference

AT7*X6*NS***20260615*1430*LT~

AT707 says which clock the time is on. Many carriers send LT, which means local time at the place in MS1, not UTC and not your time zone. Normalizing times without reading AT707 and the MS1 location produces delivery times that drift by hours.

214 Structure at a Glance

The table follows X12 004010.

Key Segments Explained

B10: Beginning Segment for Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message

B10*QLTX20481557*LHG-BOL-77120*QLTX~

Match incoming 214s on both numbers. Shippers think in BOL numbers, carriers in PROs, and either can be missing on a given message.

LX, AT7, MS1 and MS2: The Event

LX*4~
AT7*D1*NS***20261112*0940*LT~
MS1*COLUMBUS*OH*US~
MS2*QLTX*530118*TL~

LX01 numbers the group. Inside it, each AT7 loop is one status or appointment, followed by MS1 (where: city, state, country, or latitude and longitude) and MS2 (what: the equipment owner's SCAC in MS201, the trailer number in MS202, and the equipment type in MS203). An LX can hold up to ten AT7 loops, so read every AT7, not just the first.

L11: References

L11*LD6021-88412*LO~
L11*4500781234*PO~

L11 ties the status to your records: BM bill of lading, PO purchase order, LO load planning number, QN stop sequence number, and so on. Ask your carriers to send the reference your own system keys on.

AT8: Weight and Handling Units

AT8*G*L*5710*316~

AT801 weight qualifier, AT802 unit, AT803 weight, and AT804 and AT805 the loose and unitized handling units. A delivered event with fewer handling units than the bill of lading is a short shipment to investigate before the receiving window closes.

214 vs 213, 212, 856 and 315

The 214 tracks the truck; the 856 describes the contents. Together they give end-to-end visibility from the dock to delivery.

Where the 214 Sits in the Freight Flow

1. 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender: the shipper offers the load
2. 990 Response to a Load Tender: the carrier accepts
3. 211 Bill of Lading or a 215 pick-up manifest: the freight is documented at pickup
4. 214 Shipment Status Message: the carrier reports each milestone as the load moves
5. 210 Motor Carrier Freight Invoice: the carrier bills the completed move

Use the 214 delivery event to check the 210: the delivery date on the invoice should match it.

Common 214 Errors and How to Prevent Them

214 Implementation Checklist

• Confirm each carrier's 214 guide, X12 release (usually 004010) and GS01 = QM
• Get the list of status, reason and appointment codes each carrier sends, and how it defines them
• Agree which references come back in B10 and L11
• Confirm whether the carrier sends one event per 214 or several
• Confirm time zone handling in AT707
• Map interline codes (J1, R1) and interline carriers in MS3
• Define which statuses close a shipment and which raise an alert
• Test pickup, terminal, out for delivery, delivered, delayed and appointment messages

Our EDI document types reference shows how the transportation sets sit next to the order, ship notice and invoice documents, and the SCAC code glossary entry explains how carriers are identified.

Where OrderSync Fits

A 214 tells you where a shipment is. Whether it is the right shipment, going to the right place with the right POs, was decided earlier, when the purchase order was entered. Orders that arrive as PDFs, emails or spreadsheets and get keyed by hand carry their mistakes all the way to the delivery.

OrderSync reads inbound orders in any format, from EDI 850s and 875s to PDFs, emails and spreadsheets, matches customers, items and units to your catalog, and outputs clean ERP data or valid X12, so what ships starts from accurate orders. Paste any 214 into the free EDI inspector to see the loops parsed with a plain-English timeline, or book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions