Routing Guide
A routing guide is a document a retailer or distributor issues to its suppliers specifying exactly how shipments must be packed, labeled, and routed to its distribution centers: approved carriers, carton and pallet labeling standards, ASN timing, and delivery appointment windows. It's the operational rulebook a vendor is expected to follow on every shipment, and the one a retailer chargeback is enforcing when a shipment misses it.
What a routing guide actually specifies
The guide covers how a shipment physically moves from a vendor's dock to the retailer's, typically including:
- Carrier and mode selection — which carrier to use for a given shipment size, weight, or destination, and which carriers are on the retailer's approved panel.
- Carton and pallet labeling — label formats and placement, commonly GS1-128 barcode labels on cartons and SSCC-coded labels on pallets.
- ASN timing — how far ahead of physical arrival the advance ship notice has to be transmitted.
- Delivery appointment scheduling — how and when to book a dock appointment at the receiving DC.
- Packaging limits — carton weight and dimension caps, pallet configuration rules.
This is narrower than a full vendor compliance manual, which can also cover invoicing, packaging standards beyond shipping, and broader EDI mandates. The routing guide is specifically the transportation half of that larger rulebook.
How it connects to EDI and labeling standards
The routing guide is where a retailer's ASN timing rule and label format requirement get written down in enforceable detail. The electronic mechanisms — an EDI 850 placing the order, an ASN confirming what's shipping — only satisfy the retailer's receiving process if the physical shipment also matches what the guide specifies: the right label on the right carton, scannable and tied to that same ASN. A technically correct EDI transaction paired with a non-compliant label or a late ASN still fails the retailer's dock check.
Why it varies by retailer, and why that's the hard part
Every major retailer publishes its own routing guide, with its own label formats, approved carrier list, and appointment-scheduling system, and these get updated on the retailer's own schedule with limited advance notice. A supplier shipping into twenty retailers' DCs is effectively working off twenty separate, independently maintained rulebooks.
A retailer chargeback is frequently the first signal a vendor gets that something in a guide changed — a carrier that was approved last quarter, a label format that shifted. Staying current on multiple routing guides at once is largely a logistics and supplier onboarding burden rather than a product-data one, but the same EDI readiness it depends on is set up during that same onboarding process.
Frequently asked questions
Is a routing guide the same as a vendor compliance manual?
Related but narrower. A routing guide covers specifically how a shipment moves — carriers, labeling, appointment scheduling. A vendor compliance manual is the broader document a retailer issues, which can also cover packaging standards, invoicing requirements, and EDI mandates beyond transportation.
What happens if a vendor ships outside the routing guide's requirements?
The shipment is usually still received, but the retailer assesses a chargeback — a deduction from what's owed the vendor — tied to the specific violation: wrong carrier, a missing or malformed label, a late or missing ASN, or a missed delivery appointment.
Does a routing guide apply to drop-ship vendors?
Less directly for orders that ship straight to the end customer, since those never move through the retailer's DC. A drop-ship vendor that also ships any inventory into a retailer's warehouse, or that's held to the retailer's customer-facing delivery standards, is still bound by the parts of the guide that apply.
Do routing guides reference specific labeling standards?
Yes — most require GS1-128 barcode labels on cartons and SSCC-coded labels on pallets, tied to the shipment's ASN, so the retailer's receiving system can scan an incoming shipment and match it against the electronic notice already on file.