“System Error” during EIR encoding and printing
Attention: All concerned Yard personnel
It was brought to our attention that several EIRs dating all the way back to middle of last year are marked with a handwritten “System Error” and this has been used to justify the waiving of DM charges.
We are not preventing anybody from reporting system errors if there really are system errors. In fact we encourage you to report system errors that you encounter. We acknowledge the fact that from time to time we discover some system related problems and these should be rightfully labeled — and reported — as system errors.
But please report these system errors to our IT Department by email immediately (make sure I am copied) so we can also immediately address the issues. If there are really system errors these will not be corrected unless we are made aware of them.
From some of the EIR printouts we’ve seen with “system error” handwritten on them, we have reason to believe that the term “system error” may have been used as a convenient excuse for other errors that are not necessarily caused by the system (e.g. procedural error).
Yard managers and supervisors, please discuss this thoroughly with your service advisors and encoders. If we see a handwritten “system error” again and we establish that this was not reported to IT then we will have to assume that there really was no system error. Any DM charges waived as a result may have to be charged to the responsible service advisor and/or encoder.
For your reference and guidance.
Thank you.
RUS