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What This System Does

When railcars arrive at your facility, they’re marked as “INBOUND” in the system. Sometimes these inbound records are created but the physical railcar never actually arrives - maybe the shipment was cancelled, rerouted, or there was a data entry error.
Without cleanup, these “ghost” railcars would stay in your system forever, cluttering reports and making it harder to see your actual inventory.
This automated cleanup system identifies and removes these ghost records based on how long they’ve been inactive.

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How We Determine What’s “Stale”

A piece of equipment is considered stale when it has been sitting in an INBOUND state with no recent activity. Activity includes:

Waybill Updates

When billing paperwork is updated

Consist Assignments

When the equipment is added to a train or consist
If a railcar hasn’t had either of these activities for a certain number of days, it’s probably not actually at your facility.

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Configurable Settings

These settings can be adjusted in Settings > Profile > Rail to control how the cleanup works.

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System Control

Enable/Disable Cleanup

Setting name: Enable Stale Inventory CleanupWhat it controls: Turns the entire stale inventory cleanup system on or off.
When disabled, stale equipment will remain in the system indefinitely. This may clutter your inventory reports.
Options:
  • ✅ Enabled - System runs on schedule
  • 🛑 Disabled - System is paused

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Default Settings

These defaults apply to all carriers unless you set up carrier-specific overrides below.
Setting name: default_stale_daysWhat it controls: How many days of inactivity before equipment is considered stale.
If set to 30 days, any equipment that hasn’t been updated or added to a train in the last 30 days will be flagged for deletion.
Business consideration:
  • ⬆️ Higher number = More conservative, fewer deletions, but more clutter
  • ⬇️ Lower number = More aggressive cleanup, but risk of deleting legitimate equipment
Setting name: default_daily_velocityWhat it controls: The maximum number of stale equipment that can be automatically deleted per carrier in a single day.
If set to 50, and 200 pieces of equipment are flagged as stale for Union Pacific, only 50 will be deleted today. The remaining 150 will trigger alerts for manual review.
This is a safety mechanism. If there’s a system error or data issue that incorrectly flags many items as stale, this limit prevents mass deletion disasters.
Business consideration:
  • ⬆️ Higher number = Faster cleanup, but higher risk if something goes wrong
  • ⬇️ Lower number = Safer, but cleanup takes longer for large volumes

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Carrier-Specific Overrides

Override default settings for individual carriers. Only configure carriers that need different settings.
Setting name: Stale Inventory Cleanup OverridesWhat it controls: Custom settings for your carrier that override the defaults.How it works: When you configure these settings, they apply to your current carrier (identified by your carrier code). Each carrier can have their own custom thresholds and limits that override the system defaults.You can optionally set:
  • Custom stale threshold (in days) - overrides default_stale_days
  • Custom daily deletion limit - overrides default_daily_velocity
Why this exists: Different carriers have different operating patterns:
  • 🚂 Short-line railroads might need longer grace periods (45+ days)
  • 🏭 High-volume Class II carriers might want faster cleanup (15 days)
  • 🔒 Carriers with complex operations might need lower velocity limits for safety
If you don’t set carrier-specific overrides, the default settings will be used for your carrier.

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Safety Mechanisms

The system has multiple safeguards to prevent accidental data loss.
Only a limited number of deletions happen per day, per carrier.Any deletions beyond this threshold are:
  • ✋ Not performed - equipment stays in system
  • 📝 Logged - warnings written to system logs
  • 📊 Tracked - metrics recorded for investigation
Equipment in active transload operations will NEVER be deleted, regardless of age.
What’s a transload? Transferring cargo from one railcar to another (or to a truck). These operations can take time, so equipment must remain in the system even if it looks inactive.
Only INBOUND equipment is eligible for cleanup.Protected states:
  • 🚂 OUTBOUND - leaving your facility
  • 🟢 ONLINE - in active use
  • 🗑️ Already deleted

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What Actually Gets Deleted

For a piece of equipment to be deleted, ALL of these conditions must be true:
1

Status is INBOUND

Equipment must be in an inbound state
2

No Recent Activity

No activity (waybill updates or consist assignments) for longer than the stale threshold
3

Not Deleted

Equipment is not already marked as deleted
4

No Active Transload

Not part of an active transload operation
5

Within Velocity Limit

Carrier hasn’t exceeded its daily deletion limit
If any of these conditions is false, the equipment stays in the system.

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Monitoring & Alerts

The system tracks key metrics for monitoring:

Deletions

Tracks how many items were successfully deleted per carrier per run.

Over-Velocity Items

Tracks how many items were flagged as stale but NOT deleted because they exceeded the daily velocity limit.
If you see high over-velocity numbers: This could indicate:
  • 📋 A legitimate backlog that needs attention
  • ⚠️ A data quality issue causing false positives
  • 🔧 System problems incorrectly flagging equipment

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Example Scenario

  • Scenario
  • What Happens
  • Next Steps
Settings:
  • 📅 Default stale threshold: 30 days
  • 🎯 Default daily velocity: 50 deletions
Situation: Union Pacific has 200 railcars that haven’t been updated in 35 days.

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Recommendations for Configuration

  • Conservative (Safer)
  • Aggressive (Advanced)
Configuration:
default_stale_days: 45
default_daily_velocity: 25
Best for:
  • Getting started with the system
  • Organizations with less confidence in data quality
  • Risk-averse environments
Pros:
  • ✅ Minimizes risk of accidental deletions
  • ✅ More time to catch data entry errors
Cons:
  • ⚠️ Slower cleanup of stale records
  • ⚠️ More clutter in reports

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Questions to Consider When Configuring

  • ⚡ Fast (1-5 days) → Lower stale_days acceptable
  • 🐌 Slow (2-4 weeks) → Higher stale_days needed
  • ✅ Very accurate → Can use higher velocity
  • ⚠️ Occasional errors → Keep velocity conservative
  • 🧹 Prefer clean reports → Lower stale_days, higher velocity
  • 🛡️ Very risk-averse → Higher stale_days, lower velocity
  • ✅ Yes → Set up carrier-specific overrides
  • ❌ No → Use defaults for everyone

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Getting Help

If you notice unexpected behavior, follow these steps:
1

Check Metrics

Review system metrics for unusual patterns
2

Review Logs

Check system logs for warnings about over-velocity
3

Verify Settings

Confirm your configuration values in Settings > Profile > Rail
4

Contact Support

Reach out to the development team with specific carrier codes and date ranges
Quick Summary: The Stale Inventory Cleanup system automatically removes “ghost” railcar records that have been inactive for too long, with built-in safety mechanisms to prevent accidental data loss. Configure it in Settings > Profile > Rail based on your operation’s needs.