Busy moving season expected

By Reginald Rogers
Paraglide

With the Base Closure and Realignment Commission moves set to be completed by the end of this fiscal year, transportation officials are expecting a busier-than-usual moving season this year.

To make the moving process easier, the Fort Bragg Transportation Office has taken several steps to help Soldiers and Family members remain ahead of the game. One of these steps is the creation of a computer lab to ensure that all paperwork can be done in-house by Soldiers and Family members who are scheduled to move.

“We have a defense personal property shipping computer lab that is set up from 7:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. This was to get ready for those 5,000 plus personnel coming and going and that is working,” explained Tim Shea, transportation chief.

He explained that the concept started out as a good idea that turned into a best business practice and it is successful as the lab averages about 120 customers per day.

“It’s really open for everyone, but BRAC really kicked it off,” Shea said. “(It works with) Defense Personal Property System and is an automated system. It had some challenges. In working with Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, they really like the idea that we set up the computer lab, especially considering the complexity and the size of Fort Bragg personnel-wise. Fort Bragg is the most populated installation in the Army.”

Shea said his directorate is also moving a lot of civilians, a task that has not been done in recent years.

According to Laura Hill, the outbound personal property lead, moving civilians is not much different from moving military, but there are different entitlements.

“There are not really any extra steps, just difference of entitlements,” she said. “As far as procedures go, it’s not that different. We’re going to counsel them and we’re going to get them set up in the system and we’re going to get them booked for the carrier. They may be authorized a little more or a little less weight than military members.”

Shea said it’s very important for military members to work with their losing civilian personnel office to ensure that their entitlements match their needs.

The transportation leadership said they are planning for the worse, but hoping for the best, in their anticipation of the massive moves scheduled to take place this summer.

“With the volume of civilians that are coming, there are going to be some hiccups along the way because they’re really not knowledgeable about how their processing is going and who’s coming and who’s staying,” explained Mary Jordan, who heads quality assurance at transportation. “So they’re sending some things now and they’re not realizing that their entitlements are not that long.”

Shea and his team explained that to ease their burdens, all personnel who are scheduled to move, should not delay going to the transportation office once they receive their orders.

“If they receive their orders today, I want to see them tomorrow, absolutely,” Hill said.

On average, Fort Bragg normally processes 60,000 Soldiers annually, including about 30,000 during the peak season between May and September. With the additional BRAC moves this year, that number increases by 1,900 from 7th SFG and 1,200 from Pope Air Force Base. Inbound moves from FORSCOM and USARC are additional.

“What the personal property shipping offices have done to prepare for this is, last year on April 29, we held a PPSO symposium. Out of that symposium, we have an area of 50 counties in North Carolina that we normally deal with on a daily basis,” explained Shea. “The highlight of that was the BRAC moves and 7th (Special Forces) Group in particular because we’re pushing the entire group down to Eglin Air Force Base.

“We had 66 transportation agents and area support providers attend that event, during which, we talked about Forces Command and U.S. Army Reserve Command coming in and 7th Group and Pope Air Force Base going out.”

Shea said after the symposium, they held a series of town hall meetings at Fort McPherson, Ga. for FORSCOM and a few smaller sessions with the 7th SFG, along with family readiness group meetings.

“We’re working intimately with 7th SFG because it’s not just a personnel move, it’s their equipment moving also, so we have line haul, rail and an airpiece at the end of that,” he explained.

Shea added that right now, it’s 5,300 personnel who will be arriving and departing through the Fort Bragg PPSO during normal peak season, but he added that this year, the post has been tasked to provide additional personnel to assist with the BRAC moves.

“Right now there are seven people, with personal property,” Shea said. “On the out(bound) loads, it’s an additional eight people to ensure that we can still handle the deployments and redeployments, while we’re doing the BRAC so that there is no impact to the BRAC movements.”

Fort Bragg is not the only post expected to feel the weight of the BRAC moves as other Army post are also expected to be affected. Because of this, the Department of Defense developed a program called the Defense Personal Property Program, or DP3. SDDC manages DP3 with a focus on meeting the needs of armed forces members, DoD civilian employees and their Families by promoting a higher quality of service.  

Additionally, members are provided 24-hour access to personal property shipment information throughout the entire moving process by logging on to www.move.mil.

“Move.mil is a one-stop shop. It’s a content-rich web site to help members through the entire move process. It has instructional videos and hyperlinks for information, and it has been updated since it was introduced in 2008,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Derek Oliver, SDDC director of Personal Property, in an ARNEWS interview last month.

For more information on transportation movements, or to reach the transportation offices, call 396-2903/5795 for outbound property and 396-0331/0332 for inbound property.

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