An air carrier flight crew was confused by ATC terminology related to ramp 'spots' at mem.

Attributes
ACN	902556
Time
Date	201008
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	MEM.Airport
State Reference	TN
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Boeing Company Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 102 Flight Crew Total 5500 Flight Crew Type 1367
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Incursion Taxiway

Narrative:

During taxi in to parking; we were instructed to enter our parking location via spot 6. On the ground chart; spots are listed as 6E and 6W. We assumed we were to enter spot 6E since it was the most direct route to our parking spot. Upon passing spot 6W; ground control contacted us to say we had missed spot 6. We were then directed to continue to spot 5W which is located near 6E entering the east and northeast ramps. We were also told to contact ground control on a land line after the flight concluded; which we did. Upon contacting them; we were told that they refer to spot 6W as spot 6 during taxi in and spots 6E and 6W only during taxi out. This can lead to confusion on the part of aircrews.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight crew was confused by ATC terminology related to ramp 'spots' at MEM.

Narrative: During taxi in to parking; we were instructed to enter our parking location via Spot 6. On the ground chart; spots are listed as 6E and 6W. We assumed we were to enter Spot 6E since it was the most direct route to our parking spot. Upon passing Spot 6W; Ground Control contacted us to say we had missed Spot 6. We were then directed to continue to Spot 5W which is located near 6E entering the east and northeast ramps. We were also told to contact Ground Control on a land line after the flight concluded; which we did. Upon contacting them; we were told that they refer to Spot 6W as Spot 6 during taxi in and Spots 6E and 6W only during taxi out. This can lead to confusion on the part of aircrews.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.