Well, that sounds like our configuration. When I removed the second initialization per Microsoft advice, the issue resolved.

You need to wrap your COALESCE in a COVERT function. Something like this should work:

LEFT(CONVERT(VARCHAR(8), COALESCE ([tbl_IDS_Extract_Local-2].Contract_Live_Date,

[tbl_IDS_Extract_Local-2].BNL_Out_Date,

[tbl_IDS_Extract_Local-2].Booking_Date,

[tbl_IDS_Extract_Local-2].LV_Date), 112), 6)

Well, after spending some time on the phone with Microsoft the solution was discovered.

SSRS is installed across a cluster however SSRS isn't cluster aware. So in certain instances ...