Department of Defense, Carriers At Odds Over Moving Contracts

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The Department of Defense and the moving industry are feuding over how best to ship the household goods of service members.

The military is the moving and storage industry’s largest customer. It represents 18% of the moving business, spreading more than $1.2 billion in contracts among 1,200 companies to complete 650,000 moves for military personnel.

The Pentagon says the system is deficient and has been casting about for ways to address complaints about broken and lost goods. Carriers aren’t happy with some of the solutions being considered.

he issue boiled over at a recent congressional hearing.

When it comes to contracting for movement of household goods, the military is “at least a generation out of step with modern corporate America,” said Roger Kallick, deputy under secretary of defense for logistics, at a March 17 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Military Readiness.

Kallick said 25% of military moves result in claims for damaged or lost goods of more than $100 million annually.

“DOD can no longer support such a costly and inefficient process that places such an unnecessary burden on our military members and their families,” Kallick said.

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