MTMC pushes changes in service member moves.

Changes are coming in the way the Military Traffic Management Command administers the moves of the nation's military service members.

"We are changing the processes that fundamentally affect how service members move," said Col. Patty Hunt, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Passenger and Personal Property.

"These changes go to the core of the way we conduct business. These, combined with lessons learned from our pilot experience, will represent a major difference in the future program and the automation to support that program."

On an annual basis, MTMC supervises more than 600,000 service member moves.

Much of this change could come as early as spring--in time for the busy summer surge. Modifications will occur in two broad areas: faster deliveries, and higher qualification standards to move personal property.

MTMC is decreasing the time allowed for the delivery of service members' personal property in international moves, said Richard Morrow, traffic management specialist.

"We're analyzing all channels and codes of service in an effort to identify opportunities to reduce transit times," said Morrow.

"This will represent changes--both big and small--in the amount of time service members have to wait for their property to arrive at the next duty location," said Morrow, a Norfolk-based U.S. Navy employee. Morrow works at MTMC as part of the Transportation Professional Enhancement Program.

Across the board, the changes probably reflect a 15 percent, or higher, drop in time allowed for a mover to complete the personal property shipment, he said.

As an example, the current time allowed for the shipment of household goods for a service member at Fort Hood, Texas, who is being reassigned to Kaiserslautern, Germany, is 66 days. The proposed changes would cut that time by 18 percent, or 54 days.

In a related initiative, MTMC is increasing the standards required to qualify as a Department of Defense personal property carrier.

"MTMC is seeking higher carrier qualification standards," said Sylvia Walker, Traffic Management Specialist. "Each carrier must reapply under the new standard to remain an approved Department of Defense carrier."

The revised standards call for carriers to meet higher financial reporting and operating standards. These increased requirements will include a higher level of cargo liability insurance and maintenance of a performance bond for domestic moves.

These changes have been published in the Federal Register for public comment. The resulting changes will be in place by May.

These enhancements are not directly related to a quartet of moving pilots conducted in recent years, the results of which U.S. Transportation Command is in the process of tabulating.

In a related action, MTMC has resumed assistance visits to transportation offices and military installations across the country. Assistance visits had stopped after MTMC reorganizations in 1999.

"We are now doing assistance visits," said Dennis Barborak. "The new purpose of these visits is to evaluate the traffic management programs and policies at work in military transportation offices of all the services.

"We feel we can be a lot more effective in the role of assistance and instruction. It will be up to the transportation officers to take advantage of what we can offer.

"If training is needed," added Barborak, "it will be provided by the team that is making the visit. We can also schedule additional training."

Assistance visits will take place once every two years for all military personal property shipping offices," said Debbie Wells, Traffic Management Specialist.

"The reception has been overwhelming," said Wells, deployed to Fort Hamilton, in Brooklyn, N.Y., on her second assistance visit Nov. 13.

"They have a lot of questions," said Wells. "There are a number of issues that relate to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

Due to the unusual nature of the questions, Wells said she was researching the issues.

"They're really appreciative," said Wells. "We're giving them all the information we can."

Wells is working at Fort Hamilton with Frank Thomas and Barborak. Also assisting is Phil Sanfilippo, of MTMC's Regional Management Storage Office, Fort Monmouth, N.J.

On an earlier visit, Wells and a team assisted the personal property office at Dover Air Force Base, Dover, Del.