March 6, 2020
DOD Aims to Make Moves Easier With New Contract for Household Goods
Story by C. Todd Lopez , DOD News Photos by MCSA Triniti Lersch, NAS Sigonella Public Affairs Office he U.S. Transportation Command awarded the contract lets industry know what the demand is for household goods to American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group Inc. on movement, and that allows for investment. April 30. The first move under the new contract won’t take “They can hire and invest in very highly trained employees place until February, Transcom’s director of acquisition said to come into service member homes to handle pack out or at a news conference today. delivery,” he said. “The contract is an important component of improving As far as accountability is concerned, he said, the service members’ experiences during the relocation process, department has more than 300 personal property offices and fundamentally restructures DOD’s relationship with at installations and another 42 shipping offices around the the household goods industry in order to improve access to, world that will have formally-appointed contracting officers and management of, quality capacity to meet peak demand and quality assurance evaluators. and enable the department to fix the accountability and “We’re going to be working off of a centralized quality responsibility lacking in today’s program,” Ken Brennan assurance surveillance plan to ensure we have accurate, said. rigorous oversight over the contract,” Marsh said. The New Jersey-based business was chosen for the contract For families who have issues with their move, he said, because the proposal the company submitted provided the there will be new avenues to rectify problems. best service for the best value for service members, Defense “I would say most of the issues that we have in our current Department civilians and their families, Brennan said, adding program revolve around communication,” he said. “We’re that the carrier group beat out six other competing proposals. going to be able to bring tools to the table that we simply Rick Marsh, the director of the defense personal property can’t deliver today under the current program, to be able program at Transcom, said the new contract will bring great to put families in touch with representatives from industry benefit to service members and their families. faster — to make the claims process much cleaner, much Right now, he said, there’s no single contractor the DOD simpler, and for them to be, to have it settled and to be made uses to move household goods. As a result, he said, no portion whole ... much faster than they are today.” of the industry is motivated to spend money to enhance the Currently, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many service they provide to service members and their families. service members are unable to relocate as they might have “There is no rationale to invest in quality suppliers and expected during the summer months, while others will be invest in your network,” Marsh said. “You can’t forecast the allowed to move if granted an exception, Marsh said. For work that you’re going to perform. Our current model leads those who are allowed to move under such an exception, to using day laborers and other folks that maybe aren’t as efforts will be made to protect both families and movers well-trained as moving professionals should be.” "Household Goods" cont’d on Page 10 By centralizing the work in one company, he said, DOD
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