A CALL FOR ACTION
Military Spouse Chronicles
Proposal for changing the military move process to be more user friendly for the military families, to hold companies accountable to create a higher standard for the companies to be held to ensure a smooth transition, with damages and loss minimalized.
OVERVIEW
Every year thousands of military service members and their families pack up and move on military orders. All of their memories, heirlooms, worldly processions, keepsakes, pro-gear, kids’ toys, and some useless stuff, otherwise known as household goods (HHGs) gets packed up by contracted companies, loaded onto a truck and driven across country.
If you are on the lucky side of things, your HHGs will arrive with a few scratches and maybe a broken bowl. However, most everyone ends up on the other side. Boxes will be unloaded smashed and torn, furniture will come off broken in multiple pieces, and other items will just go missing.
It will be brushed off as “don’t worry, you can just file a claim”, and while that might be true, there are things that money just can’t fix.
Money can’t replace the broken hutch inherited from my grandmother.
Money can’t fix the missing foot board from the custom-made bed.
Money can’t fix my discontinued, now smashed in to pieces wedding china.
And money can’t fix the box of my children’s baby memories that never arrived.
Families get told to leave the valuable items at home with someone else, or even pay for their own storage unit. While that is a good thought, it’s not always possible. Some service members just don’t have the family available to leave these things!
Every year, thousands of service members file claims with moving companies. Within the last 2 years the average claim has been around $10,000, with an average of only 50-60% of that being paid out.
Over the last 5 years, the PCS season has become more and more horrendous to deal with. The major moving companies being awarded the contracts, often sub contract out to smaller, local companies. Many of these companies do not understand how military bases work- usually sending drivers or crews who have a felony background, can’t access post, or a truck that has expired registration. There are even crew members showing up to a hope to pack or load who are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.
These companies also do a poor job in packing and handling of the HHGs. Many times, the crew will pack as quickly as possible to get to the next job to make more money. In doing so, things are usually packed improperly, allowing for damage to occur. When loaded into the truck or unloaded at the storage facility or destination, everything is usually just thrown around without a care. The negligence of their handling can often be seen when the household goods are delivered to their destination and boxes start coming off the truck smashed, or furniture in pieces.
When Service members and families speak up about how things are being handled, they are usually scolded, degraded, and told to just let them do their job. When they try to contact their move coordinator to complain is the time when the move coordinators do not answer or return calls. When they try to get a hold of their installation Quality Assurance Inspector, they are either too busy to help, begin advocating for the company instead of being a mediator and helping the family.
Over the last few days I have heard countless horror stories from service members and families on their experience during the recent years. There have been crates completely missing, irreplaceable items being destroyed, things showing up roach infested or covered in mold due to the trucks not being in sound shape or the conditions of the warehouse. Items that were marked as “do not pack” were packed, high value items have disappeared, trash sitting outside has been packed with towels, and several occasions where even pets were packed as well.
Our military service members and their families already sacrifice so much for this country. The deployments, holidays missed, birthdays not celebrated, their children’s firsts moments, training time, and sometimes even their life. A family shouldn’t be forced to do a Personally Procured Move (PPM) to ensure their household goods are properly taken care of when there is a service provided by the military. Even then, it is not always possible for a family to do a PPM.
The Objective
Hold moving companies more accountable for the services they provided by creating a new high standard that allows more peace of mind for our military service members and their families.
• Need #1: Better accountability of the moving companies on the crew members hired, trained, and the services provided from packing, loading, and unloading of HHGs from origin to destination. This includes holding companies and crews to higher standards, and having proper recourse actions when services, damages, and loss are not held to the standard.
• Need #2: Move Coordinators and Installation QA Inspectors who are easily accessible and able to help mediate between the company/crew and the family.
• Need #3: If needed, a new overhaul of the current system that allows families and military personnel better oversight of the process.
The Opportunity and Solution
Secretaries of the Armed Forces, and our elected representatives have an opportunity to better ensure the quality and care of services contracted from the government for our military service members and their families during PCS season.
• Solution #1 – Update and change current government contracts that hold the contracted moving companies more accountable for the customer services provided that includes proper repercussions for companies that fail to maintain a reasonable minimum amount of damage, loss, and wait times on delivery of household goods.
• Solution #2 – Have move coordinators and QA inspectors properly trained in how to be a mediator between the client (military family) and the crew/company. Provide proper training, hire more QA inspectors if needed, and hold move coordinators to the standard of being easily accessible and available for families to reach.
• Solution #3 – Many have expressed interest in wanting all crated moves that would help allow their HHGs to remain together, especially when moved to storage facilities, would have less handling of smaller items, and with the sealed crate system would give families the peace of mind that they were sealed in front of them, and shouldn’t be unsealed until arrival at final destination.
• Solution #4 – Less frequent moving.
CONCLUSION
Military families are tired of how things with the current moving system are being handled. The services provided from the contracted moving companies are subpar to what the government should expect from them. There is only so much that our military families can do, and without proper accountability, or fear of repercussions from their contracts they will continue to get away with the mishandling of our service members personal property. The claims process has been long and tedious with companies only paying pennies on the dollar for something that is supposed to be protected under the Full Replacement Value regulation, but again, military families have little to no recourse to push these companies to pay what is a fair value to fix or replace what is lost or damaged.
It is time that you step up, help make this change, and ease the stress and burden for our military families during the moving seasons each year.
The petition that was started to help force an address on this issue can be viewed here:
http://tinyurl.com/militarymovepetition
Thank you for your consideration,
Military Spouse Chronicles