If your company is involved in military moves, you have no doubt closely followed the troubled launch of the Global Household Goods contract.
After executing several hundred moves this month, to underwhelming customer satisfaction, Homesafe Alliance received a formal warning from TRANSCOM. This was a rapid, but predictable, result as we have observed from the sidelines.
Specifically, as noted by TRANSCOM, the notice was predominantly related to far too many missed pickups due to an insufficient number of movers participating in the program.
ATA’s Moving & Storage Conference and our membership have been outspoken about the numerous significant shortcomings of the GHC. Without clear, definitive guidance from the Department of Labor on how to operate within the Service Contract Act, the risk is too great for many movers to participate.
Changing a proven, decades-old business model under the guise of unsatisfactory performance rates has been flawed since the beginning. The early data already make that apparent. The reports of service members and their families suffering from missed pick-ups, broken items, and delay after delay have been frustrating to read about. Furthermore, since we are in the slower period of the moving cycle, these disruptions have the potential to get worse before they get better.
This escalating problem has caught the public’s attention. For your convenience, we have documented the timeline here:
- January 17. HSA inadvertently shared a spreadsheet listing all interstate shipment task orders. An analysis of the list revealed that 29.8% of the 614 shipments that were scheduled by January 17 were picked up late from residences. Of the 360 shipments that were delivered, 40.8% were delivered by the required delivery date.
- January 21. Upon receipt of unfavorable reviews from impacted families, HSA shut down and removed all reviews from their social media pages.
- January 24. Stars and Stripes published an article about military families experiencing real consequences of the GHC rollout, including lower reimbursement rates for a PPM.
- January 27. Military.com published an article about GHC’s challenges, including accounts from four unsatisfied military families.
- January 28. WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC, ran a segment featuring Piedmont Moving & Storage and Pam Stanley, the Executive Director of the NC Movers Association, warning of impending disaster for service members during peak season.
- January 30. The National Military Families Association published their initial findings.
- January 30. TRANSCOM issued a ‘show-cause’ order to HSA demanding justification for the widespread dissatisfaction amongst the military community.
- January 31. Stars and Stripes published an article “Late pickups, deliveries plague startup of DOD’s streamlined program for military moves”
Next week, ATA’s Executive Committee will be meeting in Washington to map out how the industry can work with the new Congress and Administration. Participating in those meetings will be MSC Officers and other key members. Following these meetings, we will take our message to Capitol Hill and meet with key lawmakers and committee staff to share these updates and urge them to continue to focus their attention on this vital issue, before it is too late.