Creative approaches to moves bring service member benefits. (Full Service Moving Project).

New ideas are being applied to a traditional transportation process.

The result is benefiting a small sample of Department of Defense service members who are moving through the Full Service Moving Project.

Only a few months old, the program is transforming the process of moving military service members' personal property, said Cullen Hutchinson, Project Manager.

"People are coming in out of the blue and saying they've never had a move like this in their lives," said Hutchinson.

In the first 10 weeks of the pilot program, which started in January, more than 6,000 personal property shipments have been processed.

While it handles just a fraction of the 613,000 moves of the Military Traffic Management Command every year, the program's creative approach appears to benefit service members at every turn.

"Service members tell us they've never experienced so many people who cared about them," said Hutchinson.

The Full Service Moving Project is a test involving service members who are moving out of three distinct geographic areas: the National Capital Region and the U.S. Naval Academy; Minot, N.D.; and Georgia, with the exception of Warner Robins Air Force Base.

It is an effort sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Transportation Policy.

The Full Service Moving Project incorporates some of the best features of three previous pilot programs: the U.S. Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics' Hunter Army Air Field Pilot, the U.S. Navy's Sailor Assisted Move, and MTMC's Reengineering Pilot.

"This is a higher-quality move for the service member," said Hutchinson. "We've streamlined the process.

"We have outsourced the management of the personal property moves."

Normally, personal property moves are managed by installation Personal Property Shipping Offices, usually associated with an installation transportation office.

The attributes of the Full Service Moving Project include:

* A single point of contact to the service member for all aspects of the move.

* Full replacement cost for damaged or lost property.

* A toll-free phone number to contact the move manager.

* A binding cost estimate for any personal property exceeding entitlement. ("The service member knows this up front so he can make a decision to pay for the extra weight or have a yard sale--or give it away.")

* Two-hour pickup and delivery windows. (If a mover is late, a service member may file an "inconvenience claim" for a day's temporary duty expenses.)

* Varied relocation services to assist transition.

The big difference between the existing MTMC moving program and this effort is the movers and move management companies.

While the existing system allows all movers who meet basic standards and specific route pricing, the Full Service Moving Project awarded contracts to seven move managers to provide complete point-to-point management for all household goods shipments. Transportation agreements were also awarded to 189 carriers to perform the actual move.

Under guidance provided by the move manager, business is distributed to carriers based on their performance and cost.

To measure that performance, the program worked with the Gallup Organization to develop a customer satisfaction survey, which is completed within two weeks of each move.

The program is based on incentives, said Hutchinson.

When a complete set of performance data is collected, said Hutchinson, it will be applied by the move managers. Based on customer surveys, the best-performing moving companies will receive the greater part of the business. Average performing companies will receive a more modest number of moves. The lowest performing companies will receive no moves, and will be used only in times of a surge requirement.

"The competition for both price and service will drive the program," said Hutchinson.

An unexpected benefit of the program is the range of creativity used by the seven move managers, said Hutchinson.

"They all have their own particular spin on some features of the program. The service members are the ones who benefit."

As an example, he said, one move manager may offer a toll-free phone number for service members to maintain contact. A second move manager may offer a phone card that is good for free calls to the company until the process is complete.

The program includes a do-it-yourself option. As many as one in four service members have chosen to personally take charge of their own move.

"This is popular for many," said Hutchinson. "They may move themselves, or do their own contracting."

Within two years, U.S. Transportation Command has been tasked to review the results of all the pilots and select a concept from one or more of them to be applied to all the Military Traffic Management Command's service member moves. The pilot outcomes will be important, as will price--the Full Service Moving Project costs considerably more than MTMC's conventional military moves.

When that happens, Hutchinson will be as interested in the results as anyone. He recently accepted the position of MTMC's Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Passenger & Personal Property.

In his new position, Hutchinson may get to implement some parts, or all, of the Full Service Moving Project into MTMC's personal property process.

The successful Move Managers are as follows:

National Capitol Region: Cendant Mobility for the Pentagon, Henderson Hall, Anacostia Naval Station, Bolling Air Force Base, Fort Belvoir and Andrews Air Force Base; Interstate Relocation Service for Fort Meade, Naval Academy, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Coast Guard Headquarters, Coast Guard Engineering Logistics Center, Quantico Marine Corps Base, Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center and Sugar Grove Naval Security Group Activity.

Georgia: Cendant Mobility for Fort McPherson and Naval Supply Corps School; Associates Relocation Management Company for Fort Gordon; Allied Van Lines for Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Air Field; The Pasha Group for Marine Corps Logistics Base and Moody Air Force Base; and Parsifal Corporation for Fort Benning.

Minot Air Force Base, N.D.: Suddath Van Lines.

Additional information is available at the Full Service Moving Project Web site: www.dodfsmp.com.