| Standard Point Location Code® (SPLC™) |
Standard Point Location Code® (SPLC™) were developed in the 1960s to facilitate computerization in the transportation industry. At that time, it was recognized that tariffs would eventually be computerized so there was a need to have a set of standards that would identify locations during the transportation process. Because of this, the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc. (NMFTA)™, the Association of American Railroads (AAR), and the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) worked together to come up with a way to identify locations. Their answer was the development of a six-digit number that would identify locations throughout North America, where each digit referenced a specific location. The smallest level of this six-digit number was called a point and referenced a specific city, town, village, community, or rail station.
SPLCs are used by the following industries:
Railroads
Most SPLC activities center around railroads since they were primarily established to facilitate location information for the railroad and trucking industries.
Motor Carriers
Most carriers do not use SPLC except for those from legacy systems or those who file rates with the Department of Defense (DOD). Those filing rates with the DOD submit their rate tenure with SPLC numbers on origins and destinations.
Shippers
Private shippers use SPLC in their internal systems to track the movement of their own goods.
How Codes were Assigned to a Location
The first coding took place in the United States. The original SPLC coding did not include Mexico, but these codes were added later. In addition, there are slight variations to the code based on country and time of creation.
United States and Canada
The first two digits identify a state or state equivalent. The third and fourth digits identify a county or county equivalent within that state. The last two digits indicate a place within that county within that state. Originally, the Canadian codes were allocated using census districts because the Canadian provinces don’t have county equivalence. To resolve this problem, it was decided to use census districts instead. Overtime, the census districts have been changed. NMFTA has not kept up with all changes.
Mexico
The first five digits indicate the county equivalent within that state. Similar to the United States and Canada, multiple ranges of numbers are reserved for specific counties because they have large numbers of points and locations.
General Assignment Policy
The general assignment policy started from northeast and moved southwest. Because of this, the majority of the codes are allocated across the countries by going from northeast to southwest; however, there are some exceptions:
Canada
In Canada, assignment started in the maritime provinces that are the farthest to the east, then moved to British Columbia, and then finally ended in the northwest territories. The newest territory, which was carved out of northwest territories, has the highest digits in the Canadian range of numbers.
United States
In the United States, assignment started in the northeast in New England and moved southwest towards California, then moved to Alaska, and then finally ended in Hawaii. Because of this, Alaska is out of sequence.
Code Expansion: From Six-Digits to Nine-Digits
In the 1970s, it was recognized that there was a need to expand the SPLC to have a more finite identification of points for trucking and railroads because there were locations below the city level that needed further definition. In 1977, the code was expanded to nine-digits, creating a sub-code.
The railroads did not update their systems to accommodate this expansion; therefore, they are still using six-digits.
See Standard Point Location Codes (SPLC) for more information.