Stressful station-to-station moves may soon be a thing of the past. This summer, the U.S. Transportation Command began utilizing its new Global Household Goods Contract (GHC), which aims to make the movement of household goods a better experience for service members and their families.
While several changes have been implemented, GHC’s updates include improved communication between service members and moving contractors, providing online mobile tools and establishing a trusted network of subcontract movers. The first families to utilize the program will be notified of their contract before moving and will be filling out surveys to suggest improvements as the program becomes more permanent.
Feedback from those initial moves will be documented with an automated customer satisfaction survey process to evaluate how the moves went and to improve GHC going forward, said Andy Dawson, Defense Personal Property Management Office Director at Transcom.
“We’ve spent a significant amount of time improving the customer satisfaction survey process and working with commercial industry to bring in best practices,” he said.
The existing program to move service members and their families has been around for almost two decades, Dawson said. But in recent years, DOD recognized it’s no longer serving customers the way it should. Last year, for instance, only about 77% of service members reported satisfaction with their household goods move.”
That number translates to several thousand service members who were not satisfied with their move. Dawson’s team is working to significantly reduce that number.
Update 9-26-2024: U.S. Transportation Command’s (USTRANSCOM) Defense Personal Property Management Office (DPMO) coordinated with the military services and U.S. Coast Guard to select 16 domestic installations that will begin awarding shipments under the Global Household Goods Contract (GHC) in September.
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