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America's Best Deserve America's Best

It's time for a closer look at how the new Global Household Goods Contract will impact military families and American businesses.

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About Movers for America

Movers for America is a coalition of moving professionals and independent owner-operators dedicated to supporting our active-duty military families as they relocate across the country and around the world. We support a viable, competitive industry and an outstanding moving experience for our military families.

Movers for America Supports:

  • Maintaining a competitive program that incentivizes and ensures a high-quality move process for Service Members and their families during Permanent Change of Station (PCS) relocations.

  • Congress and relevant regulatory agencies to critically review the Global Household Goods Contract (GHC), considering industry feedback and concerns regarding its impact on service members and the moving and storage industry, with an emphasis on the impact on small businesses and independent contractors that serve as the backbone to the industry.

  • A strategic pause on the GHC implementation until its viability is assessed in the current economic climate, including mover and driver participation, as required by H.Rept 118-529 "Report of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives on H.R. 8070, together with Additional Views."

Movers for America Wants:

    • A strategic pause on further implementation of the GHC while the requirements in H.Rept 118-529 "Report of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives on H.R. 8070, together with Additional Views." are being completed (April 1, 2025). 
    • U.S. TRANSCOM to continue to work with industry in the meantime to ensure military families receive high-quality and efficient moving services under the Defense Personal Property Program's current competitively driven form.

 

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The Issue

This year and every year, 300,000 dedicated military families will move across the country and around the world. These moves strain their resources, their emotions, and their time. They deserve a seamless, secure, and hassle-free experience. In a move reminiscent of the disastrous privatization of military housing, the Department of Defense is outsourcing military household moves to a single inexperienced private entity through the new Global Household Contract (GHC) – which will leave our military families woefully underserved. 

The Defense Department’s Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) coordinates the domestic and international movements of our troops, including their personal household items. Under a troubled new contract that has suffered multiple delays from poor planning and faulty technology, TRANSCOM has tasked a private entity – one that’s never handled a military move – with coordinating all PCS (permanent change of station) moves.

The new business model and fee structure are so unrealistic that countless respected and road-tested professional moving companies with experience in military relocations refuse to sign on – because they’ll lose money in their efforts to support our troops.  

After awarding the contract to the least experienced bidder rather than to the best providers, it’s clear that TRANSCOM has lost its way – prioritizing the cheapest option over reliable, experienced quality moving services.

Our active-duty military and their families sacrifice so much for our country – they shouldn’t have to sacrifice an efficient, quality system for moving their personal belongings when relocating to a new mission posting. A closer analysis of the potential impacts on military families, moving professionals, and American competitiveness is urgently needed.

Driving the Issue

TRANSCOM points to low satisfaction rates as the need for a new system. But data tell a different story.

WHAT TRANSCOM IS SAYING WHAT MILITARY FAMILIES ARE SAYING
(independent scientific survey of nearly 950 military families)		 WHAT TRANSCOM'S OWN PUBLIC DASHBOARD IS SAYING
  • The satisfaction rate among troops and their families was 78% in 2023.
  • So far in 2024, the satisfaction rate has risen to 83%.
  • Nearly 90% say their recent military relocations met or exceeded expectations.
  • About 85% are concerned about GHC's potential negative impacts on military families.
  • 89% of military families were satisfied with the current system during the 2023 peak season (June through August).
  • So far in 2024, the satisfaction rate has risen to 93%.

TRANSCOM’s new contract is NOT REASONABLE for trusted and road-tested professional moving companies – that’s why so many have refused to sign on.

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TRANSCOM’s new PCS contract is in DIRECT CONTRAST to President Biden’s executive order promoting American competition and the DOD’s own analysis of the need for competition in the defense sector: “Competition within the DIB [Defense Industrial Base] is critical to national and economic security.”

A Disservice to our Service Men and Women

TRANSCOM’s proposed transition to a privatized system for PCS moves is the epitome of government waste – throwing good money after bad with no benefit to our service men and women or to the taxpayers. While our military families feel the pinch directly, the new system will also hurt American businesses, provide inadequate resources, and increase our vulnerability to national security risks.

Increases Burdens and Costs for our Military Families

TRANSCOM promised improvements and greater efficiencies, yet has delivered the opposite so far for the approximately 300,000 service members and their families who move each year. 

Faulty technology, inexperienced leadership, and a lack of participating moving companies could force military families to handle their own moves, organizing everything themselves and fronting the costs. Unvetted and untested moving services could result in significant relocation delays that unnecessarily keep family members apart or slow school enrollment for children, adding stress for military spouses forced to take control of a service that should be handled for them. 

Creates a Tax-Wasting Boondoggle

The project is way behind schedule – and TRANSCOM just invested an extra $60 million to “buy” another year-long delay. There were about 150,000 domestic PCS moves during 2023, and if the private entity overseeing all PCS moves conducts just 1% of all domestic moves over the year, TRANSCOM will unnecessarily spend an additional $40,000 per move in taxpayer funds. To put this in perspective, this is four to five times the average cost of a move today.

The current Defense Personal Property System encourages competition among safe, quality moving companies, with the goal of ensuring that our military members’ personal items arrive on base, on time, and intact. As the saying goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In this case, it ain’t broke, so don’t break it.

Hurts American Businesses and Lacks Resources

TRANSCOM’s new contract is a competition killer – and like many other problematic DOD contracts, it shapes market trends to create an industry monopoly, with excessive barriers to entry and a cascade of consequences. Bureaucratic complexity and rates that are too low to support viable competition will drive freedom-loving independent owner-operators out of business. 

To date, many established and experienced moving companies have refused to sign up with TRANSCOM’s new privatized system because the rates are too low to break even – In fact, many are already diversifying their business mix and moving away from servicing military moves as they plan for the future. While the inexperienced and untested contractor in control of the program will make a profit, American businesses, truckers, and independent contractors will be hurt or driven out of business, with the inevitable consequence of penalizing the men and women serving our country.

Increases Risks to National Security

Hostile foreign governments have long targeted highly sensitive information about our military operations, troop movements, and military personnel and their families. Outsourcing this military relocation program to just a single private company relying on undetermined subcontractors could make U.S. military movements and service families’ private information that much more vulnerable to data breaches and cyberattacks.

TRANSCOM's new PCS system for military families is

DELIVERING LESS TO OUR BEST

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