Jun 14, 2005
2D barcodes and Courier Delivery
by Fraser Ross
Question – Can I use 2D symbols for Courier services?
Answer – Those of us who have used Courier services regularly, know that there are a great variety of barcoding methods used by most of the Courier services such as FEDEX and UPS.
UPS for many years has used a 2D symbol called MaxiCode on their packages. You can recognize this by the circles in the middle and a matrix of hexagons around it.
FEDEX has used a linear barcode called Code128 on their packages. Code 128 is a compressed ‘interleaved’ barcode.
Many Courier services are looking into Datamatrix and PDF417 as their symbology of choice in the future. FEDEX, in fact, already uses PDF417 in the home delivery services.
COPI’s CodeZ software gives you the ability to place either datamatrix or PDF417 symbols on your shipping labels using called subroutines. The software is designed to output text files, making it very easy to include the text into your print files, and print to any printer, using the fonts supplied with the software.
You can read more about 2D symbologies by reading my archives by pressing here.
For more information on the exciting technology, please call Fraser Ross at 888-999-copi x ‘fr’.