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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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Foundations

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Standards

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Flagship messages

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Tools

X12 460 — Railroad Equipment Inquiry or Advice

The 460 transmits an inquiry or advice on the availability, status, or maintenance of rail equipment between the railroad and the car owner or shipper.

Purpose

The 460 documents an inquiry or advice on a car or fleet: where is the car, when is it available, what maintenance status, what mileage. It supports car management and per-diem billing.

It feeds ATIS (Association of American Railroads Train II System) and UMLER (Universal Machine Language Equipment Register). Acknowledged by 997. For a simple response, may be followed by a 460 response or a 466.

Envelope structure

The 460 travels within the three X12 envelope levels (ISA/IEA, GS/GE with functional group GR, and ST/SE). Didactic example in release 004010:

x12 example-460.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*CAROWNER      *ZZ*RAILROAD      *260515*1200*U*00401*000000460*0*P*>~
GS*GR*CAROWNER*RAILROAD*20260515*1200*1*X*004010~
ST*460*0001~
BGN*00*EQI-2026-0099*20260515~
N1*OW*ACME LEASING*24*EIN-ACME~
N1*RR*BNSF RAILWAY*24*EIN-BNSF~
LX*1~
N7*ACMX*987654~
REF*ZZ*INQUIRY-LOCATION-AND-MILEAGE~
SE*8*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000460~

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BGN.
  • Owner / Railroad — N1*OW, N1*RR.
  • Car — LX loop: N7 (initial + car number).
  • Request — REF*ZZ to specify the inquiry type or advice type.
  • Summary — SE.

Common pitfalls

  • Fleet vs car level: a 460 without a repeated LX per car is interpreted as a fleet inquiry — specify granularity.
  • Stale UMLER data: if UMLER data has not been synchronised, the 460 reply reflects a stale state; always push an UMLER update before a critical inquiry.
  • Inquiry vs advice: mixing both modes in one 460 (inquiry and advice combined) breaks parsing — pick one mode and stay with it.

Documentation

The code 460 and the name Railroad Equipment Inquiry or Advice are public and listed on x12.org/products/transaction-sets. The complete structure of loops, qualifiers and code lists is distributed by DISA via the proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3). ediverse.io covers only public concepts, the envelope and didactic examples.