Initiative boosts speed of MTMC ocean cargo. (Central Command gets focus).

Shipments by the Military Traffic Management Command to Europe are now arriving more than 10 days earlier.

The effort, known as the Strategic Distribution Management Initiative, is aimed at squeezing out lost movement time at shipping nodes. MTMC is working the initiative with the close cooperation of the Defense Distribution Center and ocean carriers.

What took 59 days is now taking 49 days, said Frank Galluzzo, Director.

"Our statistics show we're a few days faster than that right now--and I expect we can get it down to 30 days pretty soon," said Galluzzo. "That's our goal."

With success on the Northern Atlantic sailings, Galluzzo said the focus is now on the movement of cargoes to Central Command in Southwest Asia.

Currently, it takes 67 days to move supplies and spare parts from the United States to Persian Gulf countries, said Ruth Tetreault, coordinator of the Surface Committee's effort.

MTMC's goal is to cut two weeks from that time.

"We want to optimize sustainable, time-definite delivery to U.S. Central Command activities on the Persian Gulf," said Tetreault.

Heavy emphasis is being placed on all shipping nodes from Defense Depot Command's depots to the actual date a cargo sails, said Tetreault.

"Our target is for this portion of the trip is not to exceed 46 days," said Tetreault.

Part of the speed-up in delivery will require faster customs clearance, she said.

As a portion of the test, MTMC's Deployment Support Command, at Fort Eustis, Va., reviews booking requests for Saudi Arabia to screen restricted cargo. If the data submitted by the shipper indicates the booking contains a restricted item, the shipper will be asked to clarify the booking, or cancel it if necessary.

However, the ability of MTMC traffic managers to detect restricted items is limited to general Military Standard Transportation and Movement Procedures commodity data submitted with the booking request. Except for vehicular cargo, this data is not sufficient to adequately screen all types of restricted cargo.

A primary initiative in the effort is to send advance shipment documents to MTMC's 831st Transportation Battalion, Bahrain, Southwest Asia, so shipments can be pre-cleared before the vessel reaches the port. This way cargo can be offloaded and sent directly to the end user.

The shippers' supply data remains the primary source for screening restricted cargo, said Tetreault. MTMC is working with the Depot Command to tie together supply and transportation systems data into an integrated process, so port clearance personnel have all the information necessary to clear customs.

"If we can launch the customs documentation and have it available prior to the shipment arrival," said Tetreault, "the clearance process can be shortened and customers will get their orders more quickly."