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Maintenance Team Guide — Overview

Draft

The text on this page is a working draft. Final wording is to be provided by the secretariat.

The UN/LOCODE maintenance team is the standing group of experts, National Focal Points and secretariat staff who review the changes proposed to the code list before they reach the published directory.

Role of the maintenance team​

The team exists to provide peer review of Data Maintenance Requests (DMRs) and to make decisions on UN/LOCODE requests. In practice that means:

  • Peer review. Every DMR — a new code, an amendment to an existing entry, or a removal — is read by people other than the requester. Reviewers check the request against Recommendation 16, confirm that the location is real and correctly named, that the function classifier and coordinates are right, and that the change does not duplicate or conflict with an entry that already exists.
  • Local and domain knowledge. Focal Points bring national knowledge of place names, subdivisions and transport infrastructure that cannot be verified from a desk in Geneva. Industry members bring knowledge of how the codes are used downstream.
  • Decisions. The team's discussion produces a recommendation on each DMR. The convenor (chair) records the formal decision — see Chair's Decision and Next Steps.
  • Consistency of the standard. Reviewers guard against drift. A code that is convenient for one requester but inconsistent with Rec 16 corrupts the list for every downstream user, so alignment with the Recommendation always takes precedence over convenience.

What the team does not decide​

Two things are never set by a reviewer or a requester:

  • The three-letter location code itself. A DMR may carry a suggested code, but the secretariat assigns the final code element.
  • The status code. Status is assigned by the maintenance team through the official review process and is left blank on submission.

Where the work happens​

WhereWhat happens there
DMR listEvery open and closed request, filterable by state
DMR detail pageRead the request, vote, suggest amendments, follow discussion
Maintenance meetingLive review and decisions — see Maintenance Meeting
Recommendation 16The binding rules, including Annex I on maintenance policy

Before you start​

Reading is open to everyone. To vote, comment or submit, you need an authenticated account — see Access and Registration.