EDI 404 Rail Carrier Shipment Information Guide

The EDI 404 is how a shipper tells a railroad "this car is loaded, here is where it goes." A truck shipper offers a load with a 204 load tender and the carrier sends a truck. Rail works differently. The car is already on the shipper's siding, the shipper loads it, and the 404 is the bill of lading that releases the car to the railroad, names the route and declares what is inside. The railroad builds its waybill from the 404, and everything it bills later comes from that waybill.

This guide covers what the 404 carries, how rail shipping differs from truck and ocean, every segment you will map, a live carload sample on a two-railroad route, how the 404 relates to the 417 waybill and the 410 freight invoice, and the errors that hold cars on the siding.

What Is an EDI 404?

An EDI 404 is the Rail Carrier Shipment Information transaction set defined by ASC X12, used to transmit rail-carrier-specific bill of lading information to a railroad. The X12 description of the set calls it the initial tender of a shipment between a consignor and a rail carrier. It travels in functional group SR (the GS01 value).

Authoritative references for 404 work:

• Stedi's X12 004010 reference for the 404 lists every segment, loop and element in release 004010
• CN's 404 implementation guides show a real railroad's requirements, including the transborder data US Customs and Border Protection requires on rail shipments entering the United States
• Railinc's Standard Transportation Commodity Code (STCC) resource describes the seven-digit commodity codes railroads use to describe and rate freight
• The NMFTA issues the Standard Carrier Alpha Codes (SCACs) used for railroads in the route
• Each railroad publishes its own 404 guide, which sets the version, the references it requires, how it spells stations, and how it handles corrections

Who sends it? The shipper, or a 3PL, transload operator or logistics provider shipping on its behalf.

Who receives it? The origin railroad. On an interline move it is the first railroad in the route that receives the 404; it then passes the waybill to the other carriers.

When is it sent? When the car or container is loaded and ready to be pulled, or ahead of time with a scheduled release. The M3 segment says which.

Why does it matter? The railroad cannot move or bill a loaded car without shipping instructions. A late 404 leaves a loaded car sitting on your track. A wrong station, route, weight or commodity code becomes a wrong waybill, a misrouted car, or a freight bill you have to dispute.

How Rail Shipping Differs From Truck and Ocean

If you already ship by truck or ocean, most of the 404's vocabulary will look familiar. The shape of the move does not.

Two rail ideas matter most when you map a 404. First, a rail car is identified by its reporting mark (the equipment initial, two to four letters) and number, and that pair is the key railroads use to match your 404 to the physical car. Second, a shipment can pass between railroads at interchange junctions, and the 404 must name every railroad in order, or tell the origin railroad to choose the route.

The Rail Document Flow

A typical carload move between two railroads runs like this:

1. Car placed. The railroad places an empty car on the shipper's siding, or the shipper picks up an intermodal container.
2. Car loaded. The shipper loads, seals and weighs it.
3. Shipper sends the 404. It names the car, seal, weight, stations, parties, route and commodity, and releases the car for movement.
4. Railroad creates the waybill. The origin railroad turns the 404 into its waybill, with its own waybill number and date.
5. Waybill passed along the route. The origin railroad sends a 417 Rail Carrier Waybill Interchange to the connecting railroads, and some railroads send it to customers too.
6. Car moves. It is pulled, interchanged at the junction and delivered to the consignee's track or a team track.
7. Railroad bills. The party paying the freight receives a 410 Rail Carrier Freight Details and Invoice, or a 210 if the railroad offers it, and returns a 997.

Railroads differ on how they accept shipping instructions. Most also take them through a customer web portal, and some shippers send rail bills of lading on an 858 Shipment Information instead of a 404. Ask each railroad which it supports before you build a map.

Interactive Example: Prepaid Carload on a Two-Railroad Route

A gypsum wallboard plant in Fort Dodge, Iowa ships one loaded car to a building supply distributor in Joliet, Illinois. The origin railroad (SCAC QPRR) hands the car to a connecting railroad (QSWR) at Des Moines. Freight is prepaid, so the shipper pays.

BX sets rail mode, prepaid terms, the origin railroad, pounds, and a single bill of lading. BNX declares shipper-certified scale weight and single shipment billing. M3 releases the car now. N9 carries the bill of lading number with its date and the customer's PO. N7 names the car (reporting mark QPLX, number 450127) with its net lading weight, and M7 its seal. F9 and D9 give the origin and destination stations. The N1 loops name the shipper with a contact, the consignee and the payer of freight. Two R2 segments give the route and junction, and L5/L0 describe 336 bundles of wallboard with the STCC. All names, SCACs, reporting marks and numbers are fictional.

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

404 Structure at a Glance

The table follows X12 release 004010 and lists the segments most 404s use. The standard has many more: motor vehicle control (VC) for finished vehicles, intermodal chassis and movement detail (IC, IM), empty car disposition (E1 loop), transit (T1 loop), export (X1), customs (X7, XH) and a full hazardous materials loop (LS/LH1/LE).

Railroads often run later releases. CN's current 404 guides, for example, use release 008050. The core segments in this guide keep their meaning across releases, but check GS08 and the railroad's guide before you reuse a map.

Key Segments Explained

BX: General Shipment Information

BX*00*R*PP**QPRR*L*B*N~

Later BX elements cover customs documentation handling and confidential billing. Send them only when the railroad's guide asks for them.

BNX: Rail Shipment Information

BNX*S**S~

The weight code matters at billing time. If you declare shipper scale weights, you are telling the railroad to rate on your weights. If the railroad weighs the car, its weight wins.

M3: Release

M3*R*20261106*1430~

M3 is the switch that lets the railroad pull the car. A 404 sent with B gives the railroad billing data only, and the car stays put until it is released.

N9: Reference Identification

N9*BM*NGP-BL-60418**20261106*1430~
N9*PO*LBS-778120~

Most railroads require at least one N9*BM. CN's guide notes that the bill of lading number is carried onto its freight invoice and remittance documents, so it is the number your accounts payable team will match on later. Send your PO numbers here too if you want to see them on the 410.

N7 and M7: Equipment and Seals

N7*QPLX*450127*168000*N*******RR~
M7*NG0418827~

The reporting mark and number are how the railroad ties your 404 to the car it is about to pull. A single transposed digit means the railroad holds a car with no bill, and a bill with no car.

F9 and D9: Origin and Destination Stations

F9**FORT DODGE*IA~
D9**JOLIET*IL~

Rail stations are not street addresses. Railroads expect the station name spelled the way their station list spells it, and some want the FSAC or SPLC as well. Get the spellings from each railroad and store them as master data, rather than typing them per shipment.

N1 Loop: Shipper, Consignee and Payer

N1*SH*NORTHGATE GYPSUM PRODUCTS~
PER*IC*DANA REYES*TE*515-555-0142*EM*SHIPPING@NORTHGATEGYPSUM.EXAMPLE~
N1*CN*LAKELINE BUILDING SUPPLY~
N1*PF*NORTHGATE GYPSUM PRODUCTS~

N101 gives each party's role: SH shipper, CN consignee, PF party to receive freight bill. Cross-border guides add customs parties, such as XU for a US customs broker in CN's transborder guide. Railroads often ask for a PER contact on the shipper so they can call about a bill that will not process.

R2: Route Information

R2*QPRR*S*DES MOINES~
R2*QSWR*1~

Send one R2 per railroad, in order. CN's guide requires the junction on every R2 except the last. If you want the origin railroad to choose the route, its guide will say how to ask.

LX, L5 and L0: Lading

LX*1~
L5*1*GYPSUM WALLBOARD*3275440*T~
L0*1***168000*N***336*BDL~

The STCC drives the rate. Railinc maintains the code list, and each railroad's price authority (tariff or contract) is tied to STCCs. A code that does not match your contract rates the car at a different price, so take the STCC from your rail contract and keep it on the item master. Hazardous materials have their own STCCs and also need the hazardous materials loop (LS, LH1 to LH4, LE).

404 vs 858, 204, 211 and 417

The 404 has no accept-or-decline step. A truck carrier can refuse a 204 with a 990, but a car on a railroad's network is already in the railroad's hands once it is released. Problems come back as rejected bills, holds and calls, not as a declined tender.

Common 404 Errors and How to Prevent Them

404 Implementation Checklist

Before your first live 404 with a railroad:

• Get the railroad's 404 guide and confirm the X12 version in GS08 and the ISA qualifiers it expects
• Confirm the references it requires in N9, starting with the bill of lading number and date
• Load its station spellings, FSACs and SPLCs for every origin and destination you use
• Map the STCC for every product you ship by rail, from your rail contract
• Agree on weight basis (BNX01) and billing type (BNX03)
• Decide how you send corrections and cancellations, and test them
• Store reporting mark, number, seal and bill of lading number against the order so the 410 can be matched later
• If you ship hazardous materials or cross a border, test those 404s separately
• Confirm the 997 the railroad will return for each 404
• Test an original, a correction, a cancellation, a multi-car bill and an interline route

For how rail sets fit next to retail documents, see our EDI document types reference. For the paper document the 404 replaces, see the bill of lading glossary entry.

Where OrderSync Fits

A carload ships because a customer ordered it. The PO in your 404's N9, the consignee in N1 and the quantity in L0 all come from that order, whether it arrived as an EDI 850, a PDF, an email or a spreadsheet.

OrderSync reads inbound orders in any format, matches customers, items and units to your catalog, and outputs clean ERP data or valid X12. Paste any 404 into the free EDI inspector to see it parsed segment by segment with a plain-English summary and any structural errors explained, or book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions