Trip code format
| Facility Acronym | (Dash) | Date | Dash (optional) | Identifier (optional) |
| __ __ __ __ __ | - | YYYYMMDD | - | (A - Z) |
With the trip code, as with all codes, there are no spaces between numbers or letters.
Most of the time, facilities will only have one trip leaving per day, and for this reason, most of the trips you create will only consist of a facility's acronym and date. For example, the College Park Community Center has just one trip to Lake Artemesia on July 1, 2021, so the trip's code is CPKCC-20210701.
If a facility is offering multiple trips on the same date, the code has an additional dash and letter at the end to differentiate the trips' code. See optional dash and identifier letter below for more detail.
Facility acronym
Trip codes start with the facility's or office's acronym that's offering the trip. After the acronym there is a dash ( - ).
For example:
- SPLEX- is the acronym for Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex
- NAO- is the acronym for Northern Area Office
- ACHD- is the acronym for Arts & Cultural Heritage Division
Date
A trip code's date portion is the date a trip takes place, and its format is the four-digit year, two-digit month, and two-digit day (YYYYMMDD).
For example, if the trip occurred on September 2, 2019, the date in the trip code is 20190902.
Optional dash and identifier letter
If MULTIPLE TRIPS are leaving on the same date from the same location or facility, you'll need a way to tell them apart. For these situations, use the optional dash and identifier letter at the end of a trip code's date. The identifier helps differentiate trip codes that share the same facility acronym and date.
For example, two separate trips to a park offered by the Special Programs Division left on January 15, 2018. By adding -A and -B to the end of each, the trips had a unique trip code to quickly tell them apart. So, the two trip codes were:
- Trip 1: SPD-20180115-A
- Trip 2: SPD-20180115-B
| Facility Acronym | (Dash) | Date | Dash | Identifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | - | 20180115 | - | A |
| SPD | - | 20180115 | - | B |