RM4SCC is the name of the barcode

Barcode

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...

 symbology used by the Royal Mail

Royal Mail

Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...

 for its Cleanmail service. It enables UK postcodes

UK postcodes

The postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were introduced by the Royal Mail over a 15-year period from 11th October 1959 to 1974...

 as well as Delivery Point Suffixes (DPSs) to be easily read by a machine at high speed.

This barcode is known as CBC (Customer Bar Code) within Royal Mail. Royal TNT Post uses a slightly modified version called KIX which stands for Klant index (Customer index); it differs from CBC in that it doesn't use the start and end symbols, and the checksum, separates the house number and suffices with an X and is placed below the address.

There are strict guidelines governing usage of these barcodes, which allow for maximum readability by machines.

They can be used with Royal Mail's Cleanmail system, as an alternative to OCR readable fonts, to allow businesses to easily and cheaply send large quantities of letters.

As the example below shows, the barcode consists of a start character, the postcode, the Delivery Point Suffix (DPS), a checksum character, and a stop character.




Royal Mail will also be exploiting this symbology to drive RED TAG, the UK implementation of intelligent mail

Intelligent Mail Barcode

The Intelligent Mail Barcode is a 65-bar code for use on mail in the United States. The term “Intelligent Mail” refers to services offered by the United States Postal Service for domestic mail delivery. is intended to provide greater information and functionality than its predecessors POSTNET and...

 tracking technology
Each character is made up of 4 bars, 2 of which extend upward, and 2 of which extend downward.