In an effort to help military families avoid potential issues with their household goods shipments during the upcoming moving season, the services, U.S. Transportation Command and the new contractor in charge of managing those moves are taking steps to “mitigate” any further problems, officials said.
Following recent reports of issues with military moves, officials no longer expect to fully transition all domestic shipments into the new Global Household Goods Contract, or GHC, by the April/May timeframe, as previously planned. The spring marks the start of the peak moving season for military families.
“We’ve noted contract performance issues and are taking measures to mitigate further impacts to service members and their families,” said TRANSCOM spokesman Scott Ross.
Although TRANSCOM continues to award shipments to HomeSafe Alliance, it is adjusting the volume awarded to the company, according to Ross. Reducing the number of shipments is one option to manage the program’s rollout, and more details about other potential actions will be released soon, he said.
The new GHC system, which began rolling out in April 2024, aims to fix long-standing problems with missed pickup and delivery dates, broken and lost items and issues with claims. It consolidates management under a single contractor, HomeSafe Alliance, which is responsible for overseeing military families’ moves.
But the rollout has been plagued by moving delays for military families, according to lawmakers and advocates, prompting TRANSCOM and service branches to take steps to mitigate the impact.
On Feb. 28, the Army and Air Force issued notices to their personal property shipping offices that any service members’ shipments that have less than a 21-day lead time must be pulled back into the legacy system, which has been in place for more than a decade.
HomeSafe officials said they requested a lead time of at least 21 days “to provide us enough time to book high-quality movers on the necessary dates.”
“We’ve heard from a number of families who have been unable to schedule their moves through HomeSafe, and others who have had to wait weeks for delivery of their household goods,” said Eileen Huck, acting director of government relations for the National Military Family Association, a military advocacy nonprofit.
Huck said she was glad to see the Army’s and Air Force’s actions.
“I’m hopeful that will prevent problems and help moves go more smoothly,” she said.
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Meanwhile, concerns about the transition have also reached Capitol Hill.
“As the military community enters the permanent change of station peak season, it is essential that our service members and their families have the logistical support they need to meet the mission,” wrote Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a Feb. 26 letter to TRANSCOM commander Air Force Gen. Randall Reed.
Warner, citing reports from constituents and media indicating HomeSafe is struggling to execute moves predictably and on time, pressed for details on what TRANSCOM is doing to address the issues. It was unclear how many military families had contacted Warner’s office.
During the initial rollout period last year, service members reported “record-high customer satisfaction,” Reed told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. However, Reed acknowledged as business volume increased, challenges were “uncovered” and satisfaction declined.
The scope of the problems remains uncertain, however, as relatively few moves have been completed under the system.
Since the rollout began in April 2024, HomeSafe has completed about 2,200 moves, the company said. Neither TRANSCOM nor HomeSafe would provide data on the prevalence of problems.
“While the vast majority of our moves have been successful and timely, any delay is unacceptable to HomeSafe,” HomeSafe officials said in a statement.
Each year, DOD moves about 300,000 household goods shipments, including overseas shipments. Those shipments won’t be included in the new system until their phase-in begins later this fall.
In February, about 39% of domestic household goods shipment orders were processed through the new system, while the rest remained in the legacy system. TRANSCOM has phased 133 installations — 76% of domestic sites — into the new system.
Service members and their families experiencing shipment issues should contact their moving company, or HomeSafe Alliance, depending on which system they’ve been assigned to, or the household goods/transportation office at their local installation.
Struggling with capacity
The issue, according to TRANSCOM and HomeSafe, is capacity — the amount of civilian moving companies available to pack, load, truck, unload and unpack troops’ belongings. And some moving companies have balked at signing up with HomeSafe, citing lower rates of payment.
While HomeSafe has made “significant progress in working through capacity challenges and strengthening our service provider network” over the last month, it has struggled with logistical issues related to capacity that have caused delays in pickups or deliveries, HomeSafe told Military Times.
“We sincerely apologize to every family affected by capacity-related delays, and we are dedicated to providing timely service going forward,” the company said.
HomeSafe has been building up its network, signing agreements with individual companies to ensure they have the capacity to do the work of packing, loading, trucking, unloading and unpacking household goods. An unknown number of moving companies that worked directly with DOD in the legacy system have signed up with HomeSafe.
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Meanwhile, HomeSafe has uncovered alleged “suspected evidence of anticompetitive activity” by some moving companies against smaller trucking companies to keep them from performing HomeSafe moves, company officials told Military Times.
“These smaller service providers have reported they are fearful of doing business with HomeSafe because of these intimidation efforts. HomeSafe has deployed various methods to stop this anticompetitive behavior,” officials said, to include informing congressional committees and appealing to the Department of Justice.
Despite the master service agreement some companies have signed with HomeSafe, some of those companies may not be taking the business because their rates are generally lower than the legacy system, an estimated 20% to 30% less, TRANSCOM officials have said previously.
TRANSCOM officials confirmed it’s possible for a mover signed up with HomeSafe to turn down a HomeSafe shipment, yet turn around and pick up that same shipment in the legacy system. Neither TRANSCOM nor HomeSafe are tracking how often this happens.
“Understandably, some suppliers might be hesitant to transition to the GHC program if they’re able to secure more favorable rates by remaining under the legacy system,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., during the Senate hearing Wednesday. “So this creates an odd situation where two programs are unintentionally positioned against one another. And TRANSCOM can incur significantly higher costs in the legacy program.
“How are you managing this [transition] so that there’s not this perverse incentive to remain in the legacy program because the rates are higher?” he asked Reed.
The difference between the payments under the GHC and in the legacy system may be narrowed in May when the new rates are set for the legacy system, and there may be less of an incentive to stay in that system, Reed said.
Under the legacy system, TRANSCOM worked directly with more than 900 individual moving companies, making it difficult for the government to hold companies accountable. Those problems culminated in the summer of 2018, when moving companies didn’t have the capacity to handle the number of moves.
“While it has not been an easy task, and there have been issues, there should be no doubt we will see this through,” Reed told lawmakers.
The reason for the contract, he said, “is to correct past performance that wasn’t as strong as it should be, and to get after years of frustration from those of us who move, and also years of frustration from [lawmakers] to help us to try to fix it.”
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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