RELOCATION.

Arven Freight Forwarding

Domestic and International freight forwarding, warehousing, moving and storage of household goods. Military approved household carrier. Bonded carrier, military approved warehouse.

Atlas Van Lines 

Motor carrier, forwarder and broker of household goods, special products, exhibits and general commodities. www.atlasvan-lines.com.

Interstate Relocation Service

Interstate Relocation Service, Inc. (IRSI) began its fourth year as a full-service relocation management company with a move to a new home located at 8712 Morrissette Drive in Springfield, Virginia.

While continuing to provide a traditional menu of relocation services to the private sector, Interstate also received two awards to participate in the U.S. Department of Defense's Full Service Moving Project (FSMP) pilot program for eight sites in the Military District of Washington, an initiative focused on improving the quality of life for transferring military service members.

Donald R. Tindall, retired U.S. Army Colonel, heads Interstate's new government services division, which started in the fourth quarter of 2000. Tindall, who formerly headed the Joint Personal Property Shipping Office (JPPSOWA), the largest military transportation office in the world, leads Interstate's FSMP staff.

Interstate's FSMP contract award, together with a growing list of corporate clients, has IRSI positioned to facilitate more than 10,000 moves in 2001. The additions to staff and larger location provide IRSI with the capabilities to continue to provide Top Hat service to its existing customers, as well as the resources to service new customers.

Interstate selects companies that combine experience and expertise in their particular disciplines as its business partners. By continually adding to this partnership group, Interstate ensures that its clients continue to benefit from quality service providers.

Although Interstate offers a full menu of standard relocation services, it also offers the resources to create new benefits to match an individual client corporation's needs. More traditional services include: relocation process management, policy development, home marketing assistance, home buyout programs, home finding, household goods transportation management, expense tracking, mortgagee assistance, rental assistance and international destination services.

For more than half a century, the Interstate team has been learning and building on its reputation for providing Top Hat service. The experience and attention to details led to Interstate being designated as ISO 9002 certified in August 2000.

American Moving and Storage Association

Industry-wide challenges require the focused response of a unified industry. The unified voice of the moving and storage industry is the American Moving and Storage Association.

Put succinctly, our mission is to "represent and enhance the domestic and international moving and storage industry." To carry out this mission, AMSA boasts a professional staff of 35 talented individuals, well versed in the dynamics and complexities of the moving and storage industry, and highly skilled in a variety of disciplines, ranging from lobbying congress to knowing how to get the most value out of the internet.

Our 2001 business plan includes a unique membership drive that resulted in the automatic membership signup of 1,400 agents. We are providing them with a six-month trial membership to introduce them to AMSA. We intend to convert a significant percentage to permanent membership by year's end. If this plan is successful, our membership could approach 4,000 or more, creating a strong and highly representative moving and storage constituency.

As a service to our members, AMSA performs rate filing on their behalf when needed to meet MTMC 's Domestic Interstate rate filing requirements, which has two cycles a year. In 2000, AMSA filed rates on behalf of nearly 200 carriers for each cycle. During the year, staff also filed rates with the General Services Administration for its member moving companies as well as some non-member movers. Currently we file for 190 carriers under the MTMC program, 157 carriers under the GSA household goods program, 20 carriers under the GSA freight program and 197 carriers under the GSA claim and shipment program. More than one million rates are filed each year under both programs.

The Full Service Moving Project (FSMP) was a major focus of AMSA in the government traffic arena. AMSA has been involved throughout the FSMP process and throughout 2000 in negotiating details of the project with DoD.

As a complement to our pricing and tariff services, AMSA delivers a variety of statistical and marketing information to our members and the public. This information not only is vital to our members, but also aids other policy stakeholders.

To further enhance future education and training efforts we will soon introduce our new Moving and Storage Institute. This will house a new education endowment fund and support many other ongoing educational activities.

Mayflower Transit, LLC 

Worldwide provider of total transportation services. Mayflower's more than 400 agents specialize in the transportation of household goods, electronics/high value products, trade show exhibits and general commodities. Our military network ensures a reengineered move no matter where you are relocated: It's the Mayflower Advantage. Innovation, quality performance, and a commitment to excellence make Mayflower the most recognized name in the moving industry.

National Van Lines

The following is National Van Lines' perspective on what we need to do to succeed in working with the DoD on the Personal Property program. We believe that an entirely new DoD Personal Property Program will be implemented in the near future. The advice we give to ourselves and to our agents and drivers can be summarized as follows: 1) First and foremost, focus on the customer and lose the entitlement attitude. This is not our program, and it is not our tonnage; we earn it when we focus on our customer, anticipate their needs, and meet them. 2) We must provide quality service. These pilot programs pay at commercial rate levels, which will allow us to field quality people who can perform their jobs with an overall "customer service" attitude. 3) Agents who succeed in the new Personal Property Program will provide hauling support. With a high proportion of military shipments moving in a short-haul radius, agents that can provide the equipment to support those shipments will be in great demand. 4) Embrace new tec hnology. We cannot expect the military to "dumb down" its program to support the lowest common denominator of the industry. Agents and carriers must adopt this new technology which we anticipate will be web-based programs that provide for the sharing of information through a centralized database.

It looks like a "new relationship" has been established between MTMC and the household goods moving industry. The most important factor in achieving this "new relationship" has been the new leadership at MTMC and a new attitude on the part of industry associations, the American Moving & Storage Association, and the Household Goods Forwarders Association of America. There appears to be a genuine spirit of compromise and cooperation on both sides. The industry is especially pleased to note MTMC's cooperation in shaping FSMP, support for extending the increase in accessorial services to pickup and delivery rates on SIT shipments, the adoption of an automatic fuel surcharge mechanism and continuing efforts to increase funding which would allow the adoption of commercial pricing.

North American Van Lines 

Established in 1933, North American Van Lines, Inc. is a world leader in relocation services and high value products transportation, distribution and logistics, with combined revenues exceeding $941,500,000. North American Van Lines services are organized into three main groups: Logistics, Relocation Services, and U.S., Canada, and International.

United Van Lines, LLC

At United Van Lines, state-of-the-art technology in an essential contributor to the success of the nation's largest mover of household goods and other specialized commodities. VanStar, United's satellite-supported communicatioins and vehicle location system, facilitates communication between van operators and United World Headquarters personnel, improves overall customer service, and permits last minute routing changes to avoid shipment delays. Through VanStar, each van's location is automatically tracked every hour. Customers can monitor the progress of their shipments via the Internet-based "RapidTrac" system, removing some of the anxiety often associated with relocation. United's newest technological innovation, "RightTrac", eliminates concerns about potential lost items through bar-code inventorying of items as they are loaded on the van and again at delivery.