Military’s new household goods contractor plans tech infusion to ‘transform’ moving process – Federal News Network
U.S. Transportation Command has long thought that the best way to improve the military’s household goods moving system is to put the entire sprawling apparatus under the management of a …….
U.S. Transportation Command has long thought that the best way to improve the military’s household goods moving system is to put the entire sprawling apparatus under the management of a single contracted managed service provider.
But from the perspective of the latest company to win the new Global Household Goods contract (GHC), the cures for what ails the moving system lie at least as much in the adoption of modern technology as they do in centralization.
HomeSafe Alliance won the estimated $6.2 billion contract earlier this month after having lost an earlier competition that was later overturned by a bid protest. Assuming the latest award survives any possible further legal challenges, the company could take charge of the moving system by late calendar year 2022.
In an interview for Federal News Network’s On DoD, Al Thompson, HomeSafe’s CEO, said the company believes a wide range of problems — from an insufficient supply of moving trucks, drivers and packers during the peak summer months to a cumbersome damage claims process — can be solved by bringing the moving system into the 21st Century.
“We’re going to deliver a very modern technology solution that will be much more customer-focused, with constant communication with the military service member, the DoD civilian, the customer,” he said. “At the same time, we’ll also provide a new capability to the more than 2,500 movers. Because many of them are small businesses, they are not able to invest in an information technology solution that helps them most efficiently and effectively manage their business. We’re going to provide that.”
According to a DoD inspector general review released last year, 41% of military household goods shipments arrived late, and 21% had at least some damage. The problem is most acute during the peak summer months — May through August — when the military services, the moving industry’s single largest customer, schedule the bulk of their permanent change of station orders.
Thompson said HomeSafe believes one reason the system’s capacity is so strained during those peak months is that existing fleets of long-distance moving trucks are utilized inefficiently, since the military currently contracts for moves one-by-one, without a global view of which shipments might be departing from and headed to the same metro area. The plan is to start using AI algorithms to more efficiently plan pickups and deliveries and route moving vans across the country.
“For example, between a military concentration area of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and San Diego, there’s a tremendous volume of household goods shipments. But if you were to go out on the interstates and track these moving …….
