PowerTrack expands to Alaskan freight shipments.

When a railroad train hauls freight car loads of coal from Healy, Alaska, to Fort Wainwright, it represents a new way of business for the Military Traffic Management Command.

The Alaska Railroad Corporation is paid for its 112-mile coal shipments to the Army installation in central Alaska within days--not in weeks, as in the past.

Since January, the payments have been made via PowerTrack, an automated software system operated by USBank. All military transportation providers in Alaska are now required to use PowerTrack to receive contracts. As a result, the use of the unpopular Government Bills of Lading for payment has plummeted.

The Alaska freight shipments represent the first extension of the software payments beyond the continental United States.

"We have had a very positive experience," said Tom Hicks, Project Director. "We're virtually 100 percent now."

PowerTrack has many positive attributes. The software is a standard commercial system that provides electronic speed and documentation. In addition, the software tabulates transportation data, including cargoes, volumes and costs.

Other PowerTrack users include: the U.S. Army's Fort Richardson, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Eielson Air Force Base, and the Alaska National Guard.

One of Alaska's biggest users of PowerTrack is Dave Buirge, Installation Transportation Officer, of the U.S. Army Alaska. On average, Buirge's office is responsible for hundreds of shipments a year--or an aggregate of 22,000 short tons.

The shipments vary from large vehicular movements for troop training exercises to ordinary freight items, such as tents and generators.

"PowerTrack gives us a lot of really good things," said Buirge. "There is great efficiency in the operation and metric collection."

The great majority of the Army shipments are made by truck. Most trucking companies readily complied with the PowerTrack requirement for compensation, said Buirge.

"The truckers are online," said Buirge.

"We compete with tracks for the (Alaska) pipeline"

An important part of the success of the PowerTrack transition was training, said Hicks.

The training was provided by a Global Freight Management training team augmented with a USBank employee to instruct PowerTrack. Future training will probably be provided by Web instruction and CDs.

The next extension of PowerTrack?

"Hawaii" said Hicks.

Future fine-tuning of the automated payment system that has virtually eliminated the slow, paper payments of the Government Bills of Lading will continue, said Hicks.

Currently, emphasis is being placed on extending PowerTrack use to break-bulk cargoes destined overseas from the continental United States.

The expansion of PowerTrack is a manifestation of Management Reform Memorandum #15, a Department of Defense initiative to expand the use of commercial transportation software systems and to eliminate government and military-unique systems.