EDI 214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message

What is an EDI 214?

The EDI 214 is the X12 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message. A carrier sends it to the shipper, the consignee or their agent to report the status of a shipment: dates, times, locations, the route and the reference numbers that identify the load. Each status is a two-letter code in the AT7 segment, such as AF for departed pick-up or D1 for completed unloading.

For a supplier that ships to retailers, the 214 is the inbound side of transport. The supplier tells the buyer what is on the truck with the 856 ship notice; the carrier tells the supplier where the truck is with the 214. A delivery reported in the 214 is the supplier's proof that the order arrived on the date the 850 asked for.

Where the 214 sits in the transport flow

The functional identifier of the group is QM. In the EDI document map the 214 sits with the 204, 990 and 210 on the carrier side, next to the warehouse documents 940 and 945. A supplier that ships through a 3PL often receives the 214 through that 3PL, after its 940 warehouse shipping order was picked and loaded.

The segments of a 214

AT7 status, reason and time codes

X12 004010 defines 42 shipment status codes, 86 reason codes and 9 appointment codes. These are the ones shipper guides use most.

The time rule is in the standard: when AT707 is absent, AT706 is the local time at the place of the status. A carrier that sends 0740 without a time code means 07:40 wherever the truck stood.

A sample 214, with delimiters

The shipment from the 856 sample: shipment ID SH0004821, bill of lading BOL7730042, PO 4500018236, one carton to Harbor Retail DC 07 in Columbus, Ohio. The carrier reports arrival and delivery in one message.

ST*214*0001~
B10*58813402*SH0004821*ABCD~
L11*BOL7730042*BM~
L11*4500018236*PO~
N1*SH*NORTHFIELD SUPPLY~
N1*CN*HARBOR RETAIL DC 07~
N3*1200 DOCK STREET~
N4*COLUMBUS*OH*43215*US~
LX*1~
AT7*X1*NS***20261006*0740*LT~
MS1*COLUMBUS*OH*US~
LX*2~
AT7*D1*NS***20261006*0910*LT~
MS1*COLUMBUS*OH*US~
AT8*G*L*18.4*1~
SE*16*0001~

Read it field by field. B10 carries the carrier's PRO number 58813402, the shipper's shipment ID SH0004821 from the 856, and the SCAC. Each LX opens one event: X1 at 07:40, D1 at 09:10, both with reason NS and time code LT. AT703 and AT704 stay empty because these are statuses, not appointments, so three asterisks run from AT702 to the date. Unloading took 09:10 minus 07:40, which is 1 hour 30 minutes. AT8 reports gross weight in pounds, 18.4, and 1 carton. Columbus is on Eastern Daylight Time in October, UTC minus 4, so 07:40 local is 11:40 UTC. There are 16 segments from ST to SE, so SE01 is 16.

The envelope around it

ISA*00*          *00*          *02*ABCD           *ZZ*NORTHFIELD     *261006*0915*U*00401*000000318*0*P*>~
GS*QM*ABCD*NORTHFIELD*20261006*0915*318*X*004010~
ST*214*0001~
SE*16*0001~
GE*1*318~
IEA*1*000000318~

The carrier is the sender, so ISA06 and GS02 hold its ID. Qualifier 02 in ISA05 marks the ID as a SCAC; the TMS guide below accepts 02 or ZZ, where retail guides use 01 for a DUNS number or ZZ. The control numbers are the carrier's own sequence. ISA13 has to equal IEA02, GS06 GE02, ST02 SE02, and SE01 has to be the real count of 16. GS01 is QM. ISA15 is P for production and T for test. A carrier that sends 40 status messages a day in separate files sends 40 interchanges with 40 control numbers; the TMS guide below answers each one with a 997 as ISA14 directs.

What shippers require from carriers

The rules for a 214 come from the shipper or its transportation system, not from the retailer. Two published carrier guides, checked on 3 October 2026, show how much they add to the standard.

The second guide also fixes the delimiters to *, ~ and > and expresses appointment windows as two AT7 segments, EP and LP for pickup or ED and LD for delivery. A carrier that sends one shipper's 214 layout to the other breaks the other's rules on the shipment ID and the L11 reference. Meritor's guide is public: Meritor EDI 214.

What goes wrong with 214 data

• Local time stored as server time. 07:40 LT in Columbus stored as 07:40 on a server in Central time is an hour late; stored as UTC, it is four hours early. Delivery performance is measured against the requested date, so a D1 at 23:30 local that becomes the next day in another zone moves the delivery to the wrong date. The note on dates and time zones covers the conversion.
• Unmatched shipments. A 214 with a PRO number and no shipment ID or PO cannot be linked to an order. The fix is a lookup table from PRO to bill of lading, filled when the carrier first reports it.
• Status out of order. Messages travel separately, so a D1 can arrive before the X1 for the same load. Status has to be set by AT705 and AT706, not by arrival order of the files.
• Estimated delivery read as a delivery. AG with a date in the future is an estimate. Mapping every AT705 to "delivered on" closes orders that are still on the road.
• Exceptions buried in reason codes. SD with reason AO, weather, and X1 with reason S1, delivery shortage, both need someone to act. With NS on most messages, the exceptions are the few lines that should raise an alert.

Handling the 214 in the ERP, TMS or webshop

The 214 updates the shipment that the order created. Where the order came from a webshop, the same status can go back to the customer: Shopify takes carrier events through fulfillmentEventCreate, with a status, a happenedAt timestamp and an estimatedDeliveryAt.

happenedAt takes a timestamp with a zone, so the conversion of AT706 with AT707 has to happen before the call. In an ERP the D1 is the moment to record proof of delivery on the shipment and, where terms run from delivery, the date the invoice terms start. See the Shopify FulfillmentEventStatus reference.

We build the 214 into an EDI integration as one of the inbound feeds: statuses matched to the shipment by ID, bill of lading or PO, times converted to one zone, delays and shortages raised in the dashboard, and the delivery passed on to the order flow and the webshop. Tell us which carriers send you 214s.