Seven extra navy bases will start collaborating in a brand new family items cargo program this week, as U.S. Transportation Command continues ramping up home shipments within the new system that officers hope will enhance service member strikes.
The extra seven installations becoming a member of the brand new program will solely contain native strikes inside 50 miles — usually those that are transferring onto or off the base for varied causes.
That brings the overall to 38 installations collaborating, with extra bases in 22 states scheduled to return on-line by the top of the yr.
The contractor for the brand new program, HomeSafe Alliance, additionally started selecting up the primary shipments which can be transferring between states from a restricted variety of bases through the week of Sept. 23. These present interstate shipments are going from Norfolk, Virginia, to and from Seattle, Jacksonville, Florida, or San Diego. It additionally consists of shipments between San Diego and Seattle.
TRANSCOM will quickly begin ordering a restricted variety of interstate shipments transferring between Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Camp Pendleton, California as nicely.
The extra bases beginning native strikes Monday are Fort Eisenhower and Fort Moore, Georgia; Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley, Kansas;, Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Leonard Wooden, Missouri; and Grand Forks Air Power Base, North Dakota. If service members qualify to be included in strikes throughout the new system, they are going to routinely be positioned into it after they begin to schedule their family items transfer.
The brand new course of, designed to repair longstanding issues with service members’ strikes, basically outsources the administration of family items delivery, however retains TRANSCOM’s continued oversight. However as a substitute of dealing straight with the lots of of movers collaborating within the legacy system, TRANSCOM has contracted that perform to HomeSafe Alliance. It consolidates all of these strikes underneath a $6.2 billion International Family Items Contract, which might doubtlessly be price as much as $17.9 billion over 9 years.
TRANSCOM officers count on to completely implement the brand new system for home strikes by the spring. They’ll start the transition of worldwide strikes in September 2025.
The home section of the contract “goes nicely, with cargo requests being efficiently fulfilled,” Andy Dawson, director of the Protection Private Property Administration Workplace, advised reporters Sept. 24. TRANSCOM has gotten optimistic suggestions from the shoppers whose family items are being moved, in addition to the navy branches’ transportation workplaces, he mentioned.
Amongst different issues, the brand new system supplies a single level of contact for troops throughout their transfer, and the digital functionality to handle and observe their shipments. It locations accountability for the standard of strikes within the arms of HomeSafe.
As of Sept. 30, DOD has despatched orders for 244 shipments to HomeSafe, to incorporate 63 interstate cargo requests. Of the 181 native strikes on the 31 installations which have been collaborating in a gradual rollout since April, 141 have been accomplished. TRANSCOM officers didn’t have an estimate of the elevated variety of shipments this month with the extra seven bases.
TRANSCOM officers work with HomeSafe and native navy transportation workplaces to ensure places are prepared to change to the brand new system, doing a gradual rollout to keep away from threat to the system which strikes round 300,000 family items shipments a yr.
“The entire navy providers and the U.S. Coast Guard have had service members transfer underneath [the new contract], however primarily based on these preliminary places of the place we began, the Navy has been an incredible supporter of our transformation efforts,” Dawson mentioned. About 64% of these strikes have been sailors.
“We’ve a number of work forward of us, however we consider GHC will produce a greater relocation expertise for our service members and households,” Dawson mentioned.
TRANSCOM officers declined to supply details about the proportion of on-time pickups and deliveries of family items, citing “proprietary data.” Underneath the legacy system, movers are rated on buyer satisfaction surveys, on-time pickup and supply, and claims ratios.
Some movers within the present system have been urging lawmakers to pressure a pause within the contract and require the Authorities Accountability Workplace to conduct an audit. They cite questions on how the brand new system’s federal laws will have an effect on these concerned within the navy transferring business, presumably inflicting movers to go away the navy transferring enterprise, leading to much less capability to maneuver navy households.
One concern is the wage necessities underneath the federal Service Contract Act. The brand new family items contract takes under consideration “any wage willpower replace that’s made by the Division of Labor,” in response to TRANSCOM. As soon as a DOL wage willpower is made, HomeSafe can request compensation updates to the contract with the intention to enhance compensation for workers working underneath GHC in that wage class.
Dawson mentioned officers have been working with Division of Labor representatives to get extra readability for transferring firms on how the principles will have an effect on them.
It’s HomeSafe’s accountability to get the required capability within the transferring business to assist the family items program, Dawson mentioned. The contracts are between HomeSafe and the movers which can be turning into a part of the community, not TRANSCOM.
“As we proceed to maneuver ahead, I count on HomeSafe to have the capability wanted to assist our service members and households,” Dawson mentioned.
Karen has lined navy households, high quality of life and shopper points for Army Instances for greater than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media protection of navy households within the e book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Army Households.” She beforehand labored for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
