Depot

Larger newspapers often use depots as part of their distribution process. Depots are warehouses where newspapers for a large number of routes are dropped off and arranged. Carriers then come to the depot and pick up the papers for their routes.

Depots are basically large drop locations. Since a large number of routes have papers dropped there, however, it is useful if the bundle tops are sorted in a depot drop order. Account invoices may also be sorted in depot drop order.

To use Circulation’s Depot functionality:

• Depots must be defined.

• Depots can then be assigned to routes as part of route setup. Along with the depot assignment, a route is assigned a depot drop order. Depot and depot drop orders have no direct connection to truck and truck drop orders.

• Depot must be set as the sort option for bundle tops and/or account invoices, as defined in Business Rules. Business Rules also determine the label for depots on bundle tops and invoices (for example, they might be called “warehouses” at your newspaper).

If depot sorting is used, the depots will sort in alpha-numeric order. Within each depot, routes will sort in depot drop order. For example, assume the following depots contain these routes:

Depot	Route	Drop Order
A34	D1566	10
	A0988	20
	C1444	30
A07	A0029	20
	99899	50
	C883	100
90	R111	30

The sort order for bundle tops or account invoices would be: R111, A0029, 99899, C883, D1566, A0988, C1444.

Depots themselves are set up here. To define a depot:

1. Select Distribution | Geographic | Depot to display the Depot screen.

   
2. Click the Add icon and complete the following fields.

   Field	Type	What to enter
   DEPOT	open (8)	Enter an ID for this depot. You may want to number your depots so that they sort in the correct depot order.
   DESCRIPTION	open (30)	Enter a description of this depot.

3. Click OK to save the depot in the database or Add Another to save the existing record and add another depot.