Question: “ISO Tanks are assigned a six-digit serial numbers by an international body. Can we label a tank with a different serial number? The six-digit serial number remains on the tank. For example, we have a tank with a serial number 117003. We labeled the tank as AH-1. This is how the tank is identified on a BOL. Is this authorized? Can we do this legally?”
Tank Guru: Absolutely, provided you are talking about transportation domestically. If the tank were traveling internationally and going on a container ship, you would want to refer to it by the container number (the six digits you refer to above, preceded by the 4 alpha characters and then followed by the check-digit). For more information on that numbering system, please see this link: https://www.bic-code.org/bic-codes/
But if the tank stays on a chassis and you’re just referring to trucking the tank container from A to B, then you can call it whatever you want on the BOL. Hope that helps. Great question!
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