In order to be able to use TossEm! or Extra!32 for serve list generation, you must understand it’s routing file.  Since TossEm! is primarily a serve list generator, it is useless without a properly functioning routing file.  Although Extra!32 doesn’t require the use of the routing file, if you plan to use it to create serve lists, you will need to understand the routing file as well.  The routing file, itself, can be thought of as a serve list, except that rather than showing individual addresses to be delivered on each street, it shows ranges of addresses, instead.  In addition, it contains codes that determine what information is to appear on the serve list, as well as how it will appear.

            This document will thoroughly explain the use of the routing file, providing examples for each topic covered.  Use it in conjunction with either of the program's routing file screen in front of you in order to better increase your chances of learning it as quickly as possible.  The routing file is not hard to learn; but it does contain many concepts that need to be absorbed.  This tutorial will not explain how to use the routing file’s interface, i.e. the buttons to press, etc.  That is covered in the on-line help of each system. 

            You can’t start doing anything with the routing file until you understand what information it contains and how that information is used in creating a serve list.  Therefore, this next section will explain the fields or columns of the routing file and what part they play in creating a serve list. 

            Before we begin, you must understand two things about the routing file.  1) Each row (or record) in the routing file contains instructions on how to create one or more lines of information in a serve list.  2) There are only 2 types of routing file records, i.e. a Directional Record and a Street Record.  A Directional Record simply places text on the serve list.  This text can contain driving directions or notes of any kind.  A Street Record, on the other hand, places street names and addresses on the serve list.  Using only these two record types allows you to create computer generated serve lists that rival anything that you can do by hand. 

     It is impossible, sometimes, to explain some areas of the routing file without referring to things that you haven’t yet been shown.  Just follow along for now, absorbing just the concepts of each section as they are presented.  As you do, you should start seeing the big picture develop as each piece of the "puzzle" is revealed.  You’ll know that you’ve “got it” when all the parts become one cohesive whole.  

     The routing file contains a series of directional records and street records that tell how a route is to be delivered.  These records are displayed (by default) in serve (delivery) order.  Consider the following routing file record segment: 

     The first record is a directional record with a serve sequence number of 750.  The second record is a street record with a serve sequence number of 800.  Don’t worry about how to tell the two records apart at this point.  If a serve list were printed with just these two entries, it would read as follows: 

Left onto…

CHERRY LN

                                                                                21

     If we were to change the sequence numbers (SEQ#) of these two records, i.e. give the directional record a new sequence number of 825 and the street record a new sequence number of 700, then the two records would appear this way in the routing file:

     In this image, the street record now appears before the directional record.  If we were to print the serve list now, it would read as follows:

CHERRY LN

                                                                                 21

     Do you see what happened?  By changing the sequence number of any record in the routing file, we move it to a new position relative to all of the other routing file entries.  

     When the routing file is displaying its records in Sequence Order, all of its Sequence Numbers will appear in ascending order.  So, whenever you change the sequence number of a record, it will automatically be repositioned in the routing file so that the sort order is maintained.  Think of three index cards with the numbers 1,2, and 3 written on them respectively.  Now, change the #1 to 4.  Next, resort the cards in ascending order.  The card that used to have the #1 (in front) is now at the back.  Your new order is 2,3 and 4.  This is exactly what happens in the routing file when you change any record’s sequence number.  With this ability, you can move any routing record to any place in the routing file that you desire simply by changing its sequence number.  Therefore, by definition, a Sequence Number determines the position of a record within the routing file.

     This column is used exclusively for entering text into the serve list at the position desired within the routing file.  Each directional record holds only 40 characters; so if you have more to say than 40 characters will hold, then add one or more directional records immediately below the first.  Directional records are used to enter driving instructions and notes wherever needed on the serve list.  Consider this routing file segment example: 

     Here, three directional records are used to show two contact numbers and a direction.  If a serve list were printed with just these entries in the routing file, it would look like this: 

                                                   Dennis’ Cell: 410-555-5555

                                                   Reorders: 410-555-5555

                                                   From Warehouse to…           

                                                             APPLE ST

                                                                1              

                                                                                  2

     Directional Records have 4 properties associated with them.  They are ROUTE, REC TYPE, SHOW and PRINT.  Each of these properties is another field (or column) in the routing file and will be covered in detail later.  If desired, you can click on each property now to learn more.  Each of these properties affects a directional record in the following ways:

Route Property – The directional record’s content will only appear on a serve list that is printed for the route indicated in this column.  There is one exception to this rule: If the route code selected is the System’s Default Route Code of “00-0000”, then the directional record's text would also appear on all serve lists, regardless of the route printed.  Consider the following routing file segment:

     If a serve list (for any route) were to be printed using only the routing information shown, each list would show only the first two directional records because the Route Code column shows the route code 00-0000.  The 3^rd directional record would not appear because it “belongs” to route 02-0001.  If a serve list were to be printed for route 02-0001 however, then the first three directional records would show on the list. The first 2 because these would appear on all lists, and the 3rd because it is assigned to route 02-0001.

Record Type – This property is assigned automatically by the routing file and cannot be overridden. 

Show– This property typically isn’t edited.  You always want to show a directional record.

Print – This property typically isn’t edited.  You always want to print a directional record.

     Four columns are used to create a street address in a street record.  These work together in creating the street name that is to appear on a serve list.  The four columns are, in order, the directional prefix (COMPASS), if applicable, e.g. “N” for North; the street name (STREET); the street designator (EXT), e.g. “Ave”, “St”, etc. and the directional suffix (SUFFIX), e.g. “SW” for Southwest.  Each part of the entire street name must be entered into its appropriate column.  Likewise, each customer record also contains these 4 fields and records the street name information in the exact same way.

     The information contained in these four columns causes the actual name of the street (as it appears in the routing file) to appear on the serve list.  A street record contains many additional properties that affect its appearance on the serve list.  These properties are contained in other columns in the routing file as follows: LO #, HI #, PATTERN, ORDER, LOCATION, ZIP, ROUTE, SATRTE, SUNRTE, ADZONE, LO APT#, HI APT#, REC TYPE, SHOW, ADDR TYPE, OFF STREET, X OVER RTE, SVC WARN, LABEL REQ AND PRINT.  Why, that’s virtually every remaining column!  Of the two types of routing records, the street record has the most influence on what information a serve list contains.  That is why it has so many properties or options associated with it.  You may click on each property listed above in order to see more information on that property as needed.  Otherwise, just follow along and see how each property is used to affect the appearance of the serve list.

     This column is used only with street routing records and represents the lowest possible house number that can be delivered on the street in which it appears at that time in the route.  This property works in conjunction with the HI # property to define the range of homes that are to be delivered on the indicated street at this time in the route.  Consider the following routing file segment examples: 

     In the routing file segment shown above, only those house numbers that are greater or equal to 40 and are less than or equal to 50 will appear on the serve list.  Therefore, if you have any address that does not fall within the range shown, the address will not appear on the list (unless you either expand the existing range or enter another routing record to accommodate the other addresses).  Assume that you need to include the house number 30 on Pit Lane.  If you change the LO# from 40 to 30, then house number 30 will appear on the serve list.

     Let’s now assume that you also need to serve all addresses on Pit Lane. from 30 thru 39 but not at this point in the route.  If you changed the existing routing record’s LO# from 40 to 30, then all those addresses from 30-39 would be served along with the addresses from 40-50.  This is not what you want to do, however.  These addresses are to be served later in the route.  Therefore, the only option is to add another routing record that covers this new range of homes from 30 to 39.  See example below:

     In the above example, the carrier will deliver to all homes on Pit Lane from 40 thru 50, deliver some homes on Lime Way, then return to Pit Lane and serve all homes from 30 thru 39.  So, the bottom line is that you can create as many street routing records as you need in order to deliver specific ranges of homes at specific times on the route by simply manipulating the LO# and HI# properties of a street routing record.

Range Overlaps

     Now is the perfect time to introduce a concept known as Range Overlap.  Range overlap can only occur if you have 2 or more street routing records with the same street name and zip code that contain Lo# and Hi# house ranges that conflict with one another.  Consider the example routing file segment below:

     In the above example, all homes on Pit Lane are delivered between addresses 40 and 50.  When the carrier returns to Pit Lane, he will be delivering to all homes between 30 and 45.  The problem is that he already served addresses 40 thru 45 when he was on Pit Lane the first time.  This again, is range overlap.  If a serve list were printed for the segment shown, it would look like this (Red addresses are the overlaps):

                                                                  Right onto…

                                                                           PIT LN

                                                                     40       

                                                                     42

                                                                     44           

                                                                                               45

                                                                     46  

                                                                                               47

                                                                     48

                                                                     50

                                                                         Left onto…

                                                                         Right onto…

                                                                     30

                                                                     32

                                                                     40

                                                                     42

                                                                     44             

                                                                                                 45                  

     To correct a range overlap, you must make sure that only the desired homes are to be delivered at a specific point in the route and not somewhere else as well.  Therefore, in the above example, you must determine whether the addresses 41-45 are to be delivered while on Pit Lane the first time or when on Pit Lane the second time.  The first example above would be one of the possible solutions (2 images up).

     There are other possible ways to correct a range overlap condition.  Another is through the use of the PATTERN property.  Consider the following example:

     In the initial example of a range overlap, the Delivery Pattern property was assumed to be B (you didn’t see that, nor would you have know what the property was at that point).  The above segment shows the range overlap, as it did before, except now it includes the Pattern Property.  As you can see, this property is set to B, which means to deliver to both the Odd and Even house numbers on the street.  In the previous example, we corrected the overlap by changing the Lo# and Hi # ranges.  Now we will correct the problem using the Pattern property.  Let’s assume that the carrier, in fact, does deliver to all homes from 40-50 the first time he is on Pit Lane and does, in fact, deliver to all homes from 30-45 the second time he is on Pit Lane.  What we may not have known the first time is that when he is on Pit Lane the first time, he is only delivering to Even numbered houses and when he is on Pit Lane the second time, he is only delivering to Odd numbered houses.  Knowing this, we can therefore correct this range overlap problem as shown in the following example:

     By changing the Delivery Pattern flag from B to O (Odds only) in the first Pit Lane record and then changing the Delivery Pattern flag from B to E (Evens only) in the second Pit Lane record, we have effectively removed the range overlap because odd numbers can’t be even numbers and even numbers can’t be odd numbers.

     In rare cases, you may have a certain street name in your distribution area that appears in more than one zip code and also contains the same ranges of addresses.  In such cases, you actually will need to create street routing records that overlap with one another.  The only thing that will distinguish one from the other is the zip code.  If you have such a condition within your distribution area, you must turn on a Zip Code Enforcement option found within the Configuration Screen of the management system that you purchased.  If this option is not turned on, then you will not be able to use the Zip Code Property of the routing file to overcome a range overlap.  Consider the following routing file segment examples:

 

     In the examples above, the carrier delivers to two distinct streets with the same name of Apple Street.  Notice that the second image reads that the only address to be delivered is house number 12.  Also note that this number 12 would also be included in the first image’s house number range of 4-20.  If the system is not configured for Zip Code Enforcement, a printed serve list would look like this (assume that both of the house numbers 12 are active):

                                                    APPLE ST  (in zip code 21222)                                   

                                                          4

                                                          6

                                                         12  

                                                         12

                                                    APPLE ST   (in zip code 21221)

                                                         12

     Notice that in the first printing of the deliveries on Apple Street that the address number 12 (in red) in zip code 21221 also appears with this range of houses (in zip code 21222).  This is wrong!  It gives the carrier the impression that house number 12 gets 2 papers.  Without Zip Code Enforcement turned on, this type of range overlap is impossible to correct.  Turn this feature ON and the serve lists will automatically show the proper addresses in each zip code as shown below:

                                                   APPLE ST  (in zip code 21222)

                                                         4

                                                         6

                                                         12       

                                                   APPLE ST   (In zip code 21221)

                                                        12

     This column is only used with street routing records and represents which house number types (which side of the street, if you will), e.g. ODD, EVEN or BOTH (Odds and Evens) are to be displayed on the serve list at this point in the route.  Consider the following routing file segment examples: 

A)             

B)

C)  

     In image (A) only Even numbered houses will be displayed on the serve list between the addresses 40 and 50 on the street named Pit Lane.

     In image (B) only Odd numbered houses will be displayed on the serve list between the addresses 40 and 51 on the street named Pit Lane.

     In image (C) both Odd and Even numbered houses will be displayed on the serve list between the addresses 40 and 51 on the street named Pit Lane.

     This column is only used with street routing records and represents the delivery order, i.e. Ascending or Descending that is used while delivering to this street at this point in the route.  Consider the following routing file segment examples:

     In this routing file segment, all houses on Apple Street between 1 and 3 are delivered in ascending order.  If a serve list were printed with just these routing records, it would look like this:

                                                                      1

                                                                                       2

                                                                      3

     Now change the Order property from A to D (descending) as in the example segment below…

     …and the serve list will look like this:

 APPLE ST

3  

                   2

1

     This column is only used with street routing records and represents on which side of the street the Even numbered houses appear as the street is being delivered at this point in the route.  This property must contain a value even if there are no even numbered houses on the street.  For example, suppose you are delivering a street where only odd numbered houses are being delivered on the right side of the street.  On the left side of the street there is a park.  For the purposes of complying with this property’s required entry, you must indicate that the even numbered houses are on the left side (even though they do not exist!), because the odd numbered houses are on the right side.  Consider the following routing file segment examples:

     In this routing file segment, the Location Property is set to L (Evens on the Left).  This means that as the carrier drives down Apple Street, the even numbered houses will be delivered from his left side.  This is what the serve list would look like using just the information contained in the above routing file segment:

APPLE ST

                   1

2                                                          

                   3

     Notice that there are 2 columns in the serve list output above.  The column that contains the house number 2, an even numbered house, is in the left column and the column that contains the houses numbers 1 and 3, odd numbered houses, is on the right side.  The reason that such a property exists is to make the serve list easier to read and follow.  It aids the carrier by showing him from what side of the vehicle he will be making his deliveries.  Now let’s change this property to place the even numbered houses on the right side of Apple Street.  Below are the new routing file segment and the corresponding serve list text that would be generated from the routing file segment.

                                                                             APPLE ST                              

                                                                           1                                                        

                                                                                                    2                                  

                                                                           3

     Now, I want to throw a monkey wrench into this concept.  The location property actually contains one additional value.  That value is C for a columnar display of the addresses rather than an odd-even format.  This property value would be used in circumstances where there is no specific even-odd side separation of the addresses.  Such an example would be the delivery to paper tubes.  Below are a routing file segment and its corresponding serve list output using the C Location Property:

                                                                     Right onto…

                  PIT LN

                        40

                        41

                        42

                        43

                        44

                        45

                        51

     This column is used with directional and street routing records and represents which route is responsible for delivering the paper Monday thru Friday.  It is also referred to as the primary route or the geographical route code, i.e. the actual route on which the addresses in the routing record actually exist.  It is this routing code that you see displayed in the Customer Record’s Route Field and in the Daily Routing Code field of a Service File Record.  Therefore, if you want to print a serve list for carrier route 02-0000, for example, only those routing records that contain the route code of 02-0000 will be used to create the serve list.  More importantly, it is this code than “binds” together a range of directional and street records which comprise and entire carrier route.  In the segment below, only those routing records that have the routing code of 02-0001 will be used to create a serve list for carrier 02-0001.   

     Note that the top two routing records will also be included on the serve list since the routing code is 00-0000, which as instructed earlier, means that any such coded records appear on all serve lists as well.  Also note that the routing record with the Sequence # of 500 will not appear on the serve list for route 02-0001 since its routing code is 01-0000, even though it is sandwiched between routing records with routing codes of 02-0001.  This record refers to a Cross-Over Route, which will be explained later.

     This column is only used with street routing records and represents which advertising zone is being delivered to at this point in the route.  It will be used by the serve list program to optionally display this AD Zone to the right of the street name on the serve list.  This property has no effect on what information appears on the serve lists or how it is displayed.

     This column is only used with street routing records and represents the lowest possible apartment number that can be delivered within the address range of the routing record at that time in the route.  Apartment numbers, as you know, are not always numbers.  This fact makes it difficult to display apartment numbers on a serve list in the desired order.  By default, the value of this field is blank and its counterpart, the HI APT# field’s value is ZZZZZZ.  This default range causes the router to print all apartment numbers, within the range of homes indicated in the routing record, in ascending order.  This is fine whenever you deliver to a street that may have some houses on it with a 1^st floor and 2^nd floor apartment.  This is not good when you are delivering to an apartment complex that may need special handling in the way it is delivered.  Therefore, this field, along with its counterpart, the HI APT# field can be manipulated to deliver to only a specified range of apartments within a building.  Consider the following routing file segment examples: 

            Orange Circle consists of two apartment buildings with building numbers of 100 and 200.  In this routing file segment, the carrier is instructed to deliver to all apartments within the range of {blank} to ZZZZZZ (which means all possible apartments).  The serve list output for the routing file segment would look like this: 

              Left onto…

           ORANGE CIR

                 100 A1

                 100 A2

             100 B1

                 100 B2

                 200 A1

                 200 A2

                 200 B1

             200 B2

     This output may be OK.  However, suppose that each building only has a first floor and a basement.  The basement level apartments start with the letter “A” and the 1^st floor apartment start with the letter “B”.  Let’s also assume that the first floor is delivered first in each building.  Under such an assumption, the prior serve list output is unacceptable.  To correct the problem, we will add some street routing records and modify the existing one as shown in the following routing file segment:

     What was done was to modify the existing one routing file record so that it only delivered to only one of the apartment buildings, i.e. building 100.  In addition, the Lo Apt# and Hi Apt# ranges were changed to reflect only those apartments that are to be delivered at this specific point in time; in this case, just the first floor.  Next, 3 additional routing file street records were added to serve the basement of building 100, the first floor of building 200 and the basement of building 200.  Now, when the serve list is printed using the above routing file segment, we get a much more desirable result:

           Left onto…

        ORANGE CIR

                 100 B1

                 100 B2

                  100 A1

                  100 A2

                  200 B1

                  200 B2

                  200 A1

                  200 A2

     It is very important to know that when the Lo Apt# and Hi Apt# fields are being used in this manner, that the Location Property use remains the same.  That is, this property still refers to the house (building) number’s position on the street.  It does not refer to the apartment numbers.  You quickly realize this when you try to answer the question: "Is 'B' an even or odd number?"  Likewise, the Pattern Property does not refer to the apartment numbers for the same reason.  The one property whose value may change is the Order Property.  It is possible to place the apartment numbers in an ascending or descending order.  Therefore, if we were to change the Order property of these four records from A to D (descending), the serve list output would look like this

                                                                         Left onto…

          ORANGE CIR

                  100 B2

                  100 B1

                  100 A2

                  100 A1

                  200 B2           

                   200 B1           

                   200 A2

                   200 A1

     The best practice, then, when dealing with apartment complexes, is to list each apartment building as its own street record in the routing file; so that you can manipulate its properties in order to display the apartments in the delivery order desired.

This column is used with directional and street routing records and determines if the information contained in the routing record will appear on the serve list.  Please note that its effect on each of the two different routing records is different!  By default, this value is always ON (checked).  In a Directional Record, if this value is turned OFF, then the entire contents of the routing record will not appear on the serve list.  Typically, you would never really do this to a directional record since the maintenance of such a practice would soon become a real hassle. 

The main purpose for this property is to determine whether or not you want the street name of the street routing record to appear on the serve list.  There are good reasons at times for not wanting the street name to appear on the list; but rather just the house numbers of the street name.  Consider the following routing file segment examples:

 

    In this example, the carrier is delivering to a court.  Court deliveries always require two street routing records to properly display the addresses on the court.  See Creating Court Routing Records for more information.  The above image shows a properly coded routing file segment.  When the serve list is printed using this routing file segment, the output will look like this:                                                                                              

                                                                   Left onto…

            LEMON CT

                     60

                     62

                     64

                     68

                     69

                     67

                     63

                     61

     Notice that the Show Property is only checked (On) for the first of the two Lemon Court street routing records.  Now, if we also check (turn On) the Show property of the second Lemon Court routing record, our serve list output would look like this:

                                                                        Left onto…

          LEMON CT

                   60

                   62

                   64

                   68

           LEMON CT

                   69

                   67

                   63

                   61

     See the difference?  The words “Lemon Ct”, i.e. the street name as it appears in the 2^nd routing file record, now appear on the serve list as well.  Although this does no harm, would you hand write your serve lists this way?  You already know that you are on Lemon Court, so why repeat it?  Therefore, a general rule of thumb is to always turn off (uncheck) the Show Property on all street records that have the same street name as the first street record when the same street name is used more than once in a series of consecutive street records.

This column is used by street routing records only and determines what types of addresses are being delivered at this point in the route for the street name and range of homes, which the routing record contains.  This is a very important property to understand.  There are three possible selections for this property.  They are Numeric, Alpha and Fractional.  Each is defined next.

Numeric – this address type refers to house numbers that contain no fractions or letters after them, e.g.100, 1234, 54678, etc.

Alpha – this address type refers to house numbers that are followed by letters, e.g. 100A, 1234B, 54678C, etc.

Fractional – this address type refers to house numbers that are followed by fractions, typically the half character, e.g. 1001/2, 1234½, etc.

     Each street routing record has an Address Type value of N for Numeric automatically entered by default.  This means that for the range of houses included in that routing file record, only numeric addresses will be included on the serve list when it is printed.  Likewise, for a street record that is coded as A for Alpha, only addresses that contain a letter after the house number will be included on the serve list for the range of houses listed in the street routing record.  For Fractional address types, those coded as F, only house numbers that end with the fractional half character (created by holding down the ALT key while entering the number 171 on the numeric keypad of the keyboard) will be included in the serve list for the range of homes listed in the street routing record.  Consider the following examples:

 

     For the purpose of this example, assume that the active addresses on Apple Street are 1, 2, 3, 4, 4½, and 5.  Printing a serve list using the above routing file segment produces the following output:

                                                                  From Warehouse to…

   APPLE ST

1                   

                   2

3

                   4

5

Notice that the 4½ address does not appear because it is a Fractional Address Type and the routing file record’s Address Type Property is set to Numeric.  If we were to change the Address Type of the above routing file’s street record from N to F (Fractional) and reprint the serve list, we would see the following output:

                                                         From Warehouse to...

                                                              APPLE ST

                                                                              4½

Notice that none of the Numeric address types appear on the serve list output since we changed the address type to F. 

     We have a problem.  How do we get both the Numeric address types and the Fractional address types to appear together in the proper delivery sequence?  Consider the next routing file segment example:

     The solution is to modify the original Apple Street routing record by changing its Hi # property from 5 to 4.  This change will cause all numeric house numbers to appear on the serve list from 1 to 4.  Next, we add another Apple Street routing record to accommodate the 4½ house number.  See Sequence # 400 in the above image.  Note that the Lo # and Hi # properties of this record are numeric values.  These two properties always contain numeric data.  It is the Address Type column whose value is F that determines the fact that only fractional addresses of the range indicated will be considered for printing on a serve list.  Finally, a third street routing record for Apple Street is added to accommodate the numeric address of house number 5.  Note that the Address Type property is set to N.  Now, if we print the serve list using the routing file segment above, we get the following output:

   APPLE ST

    1

                    2

    3

                    4

                4 ½

                5

The exact same procedure would be used for Alpha Address Types except you would use the code A instead of F.

     This column is used by street routing records only and determines if the address to which the routing record refers is an off-street delivery address.  This particular flag is only used for a street routing record whose Lo # and Hi # house properties contain the same value.  It is not to be used for a range of addresses. 

     Consider the following scenario.  You are delivering to addresses on Apple Street.  At the end of that street you will deliver to the driveway of a house whose address is actually on Banana Street, a different street name.  (The driveway is on Apple Street)  The Banana Street address, therefore, by definition is an off-street delivery address since it is served while the carrier is not on the street to which it belongs.  Consider the following routing file segment that deals with this very scenario: 

     In the above routing file image, look at the record with the sequence number of 550.  Take note of its Off Street Property column, which is checked (turned On).  This is how an off-street address is to be handled in the routing file.  It is a single house range with the Off Street Property turned on.  Notice also that this routing file record has its Show property turned off.  This is standard practice for an off-street routing file record.  If we print the serve list for this routing file segment, we receive the following output: 

                                                                    From Warehouse to…

                                                                             APPLE ST

                                                                                                 1

                                                                          2

                                                                                                 3

                                                                          4

                                                                          4½

                                                                                                 5

     Notice that the serve list shows the 11 Banana St address as 11 BANANA ST.  Where did the text ‘BANANA ST’ come from?  This text was automatically entered for you by virtue of the fact that the Off Street Address Property was turned on.  This would happen with any street record whose Off Street Property is turned on.  Remember that the Show Property is turned off.  Let’s turn it (the Show Property) on and see what happens to the serve list:

                                                                     From Warehouse to…

                                                                              APPLE ST

                                                                                                1

                                                                             2

                                                                                                 3

                                                                             4

                                                                             4½

                                                                                                  5

                                                                             BANANA ST

                                                                                                11 BANANA ST

     With the Show Property turned on, the street name for Banana Street now appears on the list as if you are on Banana Street, which you are not.  That is why the Show property is turned off; so that the list doesn’t indicate that you are on a street that you have not yet entered.

     Now, let’s turn off the Off Street Property and the Show Property; then print the serve list.  The output would now look like this:

                                                                               APPLE ST

                                                                                                     1

                                                                              2

                                                                                                     3

                                                                              4

                                                                              4½

                                                                                                      5

                                                                                                      11

     As you can see, although the house number 11 appears on the serve list, we have no way of knowing that the house number belongs to Banana Street.  That is why the Off Street property is so important.  It flags the address so that one knows the street name of the house displayed.

     This column is used by street routing records only and determines whether or not the street record is a duplicate of an existing street routing record, whole or in part, but delivered by a different route.  Consider the following routing file segment example: 

In the image above, look at the record whose sequence number is 350.  This record causes the serve list to show all active addresses on Apple Street from 1 thru 4 that are delivered by route 02-0001.  Now look at the record whose sequence number is 500.  This record causes the serve list to print all address from 1 to 10 on Apple Street when it is delivered by route 01-0000.  Under normal circumstances, these two records would be in conflict with one another causing a range overlap.  The reason they don't conflict in this case is that the record with sequence number 500 is flagged as a Cross Over Route with the X OVER RTE Property turned on.  A cross over route is a route that is allowed to cross over into another route on the same street with the same house ranges (whole or in part) so that it, as well as the other route, is allowed to make deliveries to the same street.  Consider this scenario:  Route 02-0001, because of time constraints, cannot deliver the Washington Times to any addresses on Apple Street because he cannot wait for the delivery of these papers to the pick up location and still expect to finish his route on time.  Route 01-0000, on the other hand, is able to make the Washington Times deliveries to Apple Street and finish his entire route on time.  Therefore, the routing file contains 2 street records.  One handles all deliveries made by route 02-0001 and the other handles all deliveries made by route 01-0000.  So long as the route codes for each router are different and the Cross Over Route flag property is set on, there is no conflict between the two routing records.

     In order to properly deliver to a court, you need to use two street routing records.  One of these records will be used to deliver to one side of the court and the other will be used to deliver to the opposite side of the court.  Consider the routing file segment example below: 

            In this example, the even numbered houses are served first from the left side in ascending order; then the odd numbered houses are served from the left side in descending order.  The printed serve list output would look like this:

                                                                                Left onto…

                   LEMON CT

                             60

                             62

                             64

                             68

                             69

                             67

                             63

                             61

            Notice that the Pattern, Order and Location properties of the 2^nd street record are the exact opposite of the first record.  Also take note that the Show property of the second record is turned off so that the street name isn’t printed on the serve list a second time.

Consider this serve list snippet:

                                                                         CHERRY LN

                                                                          26

                                                                                               25

                                                                                               27

                                                                          28

     If you look closely, you will see that there is more than one delivery order in this sequence of addresses.  Houses 26 and 25 are delivered in descending order; but houses from 25 to 28 are delivered in ascending order.  How do you handle such a problem in the routing file?  Simply create as many street routing records as you need to accurately reflect the delivery order of the addresses on the street.  Consider the following routing file segment as one possible solution for the serve list snippet shown:

     In this solution, two street routing records are created.  The first will be used to display addresses 25 and 26 in descending order and the second will be used to display the addresses 27 and 28 in ascending order.  Note that because we are entering two records with the same street name, we turn off the Show property of the second record so that the street name is not printed two times on the serve list.

Consider this serve list snippet:

                                                                   Right onto….

                                                                             LIME WAY

                                                                             23 CHERRY LN

                                                                             30

                                                                              32

                                                                              34

     In this example, the carrier turns right onto Lime Way.  As soon as he does, the very first house he delivers is not an address on Lime Way; but rather an address on an adjacent street named Cherry Lane.  This is an off-street address, which is served into the driveway of 23 Cherry Lane that opens onto Lime Way.  See the Off Street Property section for a review of the handling of off-street addresses, if necessary.  After 23 Cherry is served, then the Lime Way addresses are served.  This scenario is handled in the routing file as shown in the routing file segment shown below:

     The key to creating the serve list text, as it appears in the snippet above, is to show the name of the street called Lime Way without actually printing any of the addresses on Lime Way until after 23 Cherry Lane is printed.  To accomplish this, a street record for Lime Way is created that shows a range of homes to be delivered from 0 to 0.  Since there are no such addresses, the street name will appear on the serve list; but no addresses will appear beneath it.  Notice that the Show property is turned on because even though we won’t be displaying any addresses at this point in the serve list, we still want the street name to appear on the serve list.  The next street record handles the off-street delivery of the address 23 Cherry Lane.  Notice that the Off Street flag is set on so that the street name CHERRY LN appears to the right of the house number.  Also note that the Show property is turned off so that the street name does not appear as it would if we were actually on Cherry Lane.  Finally, a third street record is created which actually handles the display of the addresses to be delivered on Lime Way.  Notice that the Show flag for this routing record is turned off so that we don’t show the street name, Lime Way again, since it was already printed once with the creation of the first street routing record for Lime Way.

Consider this serve list snippet:                                                                                               

                                                                Left onto…

                                                                    APPLE ST

                                                                    1

                                                                                      2

                                                                     3

                                                                                      11 BANANA ST

                                                                  Right onto…

                                                                        BANANA ST

                                                                     10

                                                                     12                   

                                                                                        13

                                                                                         15

     In this snippet, the address 11 Banana St is served while the carrier is on Apple St.  11 Banana St is therefore an Off- Street delivery address.  After making this delivery, the carrier turns onto Banana St to deliver to all addresses from 10 thru 15.  Consider next, the following routing file segment which is not set up to handle this scenario properly:

     If we look at the Banana Street routing record with sequence number 600, we see that the list is to show every address between 10 and 15.  The problem is that we already delivered to address 11 Banana St while we were on Apple St (see sequence number 550).  If we leave this record as it is, we have a range overlap, which is unacceptable.  We do not want the address 11 Banana St to appear twice on the serve list.  To correct this problem, we will have to modify the existing Banana Street record (sequence # 600) and add another street routing record so that we can, in fact, still deliver to every address from 10 thru 15; but omit address number 11.  The following routing file segment shows the correct handling of this problem:

     What we did was to modify the first Banana St record (sequence # 600) by changing its HI # range value from 15 to 10.  (At this point in time, only address number 10 can be printed on Banana Street).  Now we need to be able to print the remaining addresses, i.e. 12 thru 15 on Banana Street.  To do so, we added another street routing record for Banana Street (sequence # 605).  We made the Lo # Range value 12 and the Hi # Range value 15.  This causes the street routing record to print all addresses between 12 and 15.  Notice that the Show property for the second Banana Street record is turned off, so that we don’t print the Banana Street name a second time.  These two street records work in harmony to print all addresses on Banana Street with the exception of address number 11.  We have solved the problem.

     If you have understood the concepts presented in this tutorial, then you have everything you need to produce super detailed, accurate serve lists in both TossEm! and Extra!32.  Each system comes with a sample database that contains a complete routing file for the addresses contained within the sample database.  This sample routing file and database were created from a sample route diagram, which appears below.  In addition to the diagram, supporting documents are also provided so that you can further explore the relationship between the routing file and the serve list. 

ROUTE FROM WHICH THE SAMPLE DATABASE WAS DERIVED

SAMPLE HANDWRITTEN SERVE LIST TO SERVE THIS SAMPLE ROUTE

(The goal is to recreate this serve list in the program)

ROUTE 01

Toppings every day next week!                                          48 (R1C3)

                                                                                        50 (R2C3)

Dennis’ Cell: 410-555-5555                              U-Turn    

Reorders: 410-555-5555                           Left onto…

                                                                                LIME WAY

Bundle Drop to…                                                                       35

                APPLE ST                                                                33

                                1                                                              31

2 (vac till 12/30)                                     Right onto…

                                3                                              CHERRY LANE

4½                                                           26

                                11 BANANA                                             25

Right onto…                                                     28

                BANANA ST                            Left onto…

10                                                                     LEMON CT

12                                                            60 Porch

                                13                                    62

                                15 (2 papers)                    64   

Left onto…                                                                                67

                CHERRY LANE                                                        65

                                21                            Left onto…

22                                                                    ORANGE CIRCLE

Right onto…                                                     100 A1

                LIME WAY                                       100 A2

                                23 CHERRY                     100 B1

                                30                                    100 B2

                        32                                    200 A2    

Right onto…                                                     200 B1

                PIT LANE                                         200 B2

                40 (R1C1)                                        Continue around circle and exit

                42 (R2C1)                                        Left onto…

                45 (R1C2)                                                LEMON CT

                46 (R2C2)                                                               63   

                                                                                                61

This next section relates each line of the sample serve list to the corresponding routing file in the sample database so that you can see how each record in the routing file created the serve list entry.  Associations are made via the routing record’s serve sequence number.       

ROUTER – SERVE LIST ASSOCIATIONS

ROUTE 01

Toppings every day next week!                                  48 (R1C3) (SSQ 950)

                                                                                50 (R2C3) (SSQ 950)

Dennis’ Cell: 410-555-5555 (SSQ 50)             U-Turn (SSQ 1000) 

Reorders: 410-555-5555 (SSQ 100)                  Left onto… (SSQ 1050)

                                                                                LIME WAY (SSQ 1100)

Bundle Drop to…       (SSQ 150)                                                        35 (SSQ 1100)

                APPLE ST (SSQ 200)                                                        33 (SSQ 1100)

                                1      (SSQ 200)                                                31 (SSQ 1100)

2 (vac till 12/30)     (SSQ 200)                               Right onto… (SSQ 1150)

                                3 (SSQ 200)                                     CHERRY LANE (SSQ 1200)

4½ (SSQ 250)                                                  26 (SSQ 1200)

                                11 BANANA (SSQ 400)                                        25 (SSQ 1200)

Right onto… (SSQ 450)                                               28 (SSQ 1250)

                BANANA ST (SSQ 500)                     Left onto… (SSQ 1300)

10 (SSQ 500)                                                          LEMON CT (SSQ 1350)

12 (SSQ 500)                                                   60 Porch (SSQ 1350)

                                13 (SSQ 550)                           62 (SSQ 1350)

                                15 (2 papers) (SSQ 550)           64 (SSQ 1350)

Left onto…        (SSQ 600)                                                                67 (SSQ 1400)

                CHERRY LANE (SSQ 650)                                                     65 (SSQ 1400)

                                21 (SSQ 650)                   Left onto… (SSQ 1450)

22 (SSQ 650)                                                           ORANGE CIRCLE (SSQ 1500)

Right onto… (SSQ 700)                                               100 A1 (SSQ 1500)

                LIME WAY       (SSQ 750)                       100 A2 (SSQ 1500)

                                23 CHERRY (SSQ 800)            100 B1 (SSQ 1500)

                                30 (SSQ 850)                           100 B2 (SSQ 1500)

                        32 (SSQ 850)                           200 A2 (SSQ 1550)  

Right onto… (SSQ 900)                                            200 B1 (SSQ 1550)

                PIT LANE         (SSQ 950)                        200 B2 (SSQ 1550)

                40 (R1C1)        (SSQ 950)                        Continue around circle and exit (SSQ 1600)

                42 (R2C1)        (SSQ50)                          Left onto… (SSQ 1650)

                45 (R1C2)        (SSQ 950)                                       LEMON CT (SSQ 1700)

                46 (R2C2)       (SSQ 950)                                                63 (SSQ 1700)

                                                                                                61 (SSQ 1700)

PRINTED ROUTER – SERVE LIST ASSOCIATIONS