We have a situation where batches of data are being loaded into a table using sqlldr all day long. sqlldr uses direct load for speed. At the same time we have a routine that deletes old records from the table. I believe that sqlldr needs to take an exclusive table lock...is that correct? Which would explain why I sometimes get Oracle 54 errors from sqlldr when the delete process is running? Is my analysis of this error correct? Any ideas on resolution? I presume conventional load does not take an exclusive table lock? Oracle version is 9.2 -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l