Photo By Kambra Blackmon | NAVSUP FLC Bahrain's transportation service providers carried a heavy item to the...... read more read more
Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Bahrain discusses the important tip for moving during peak season. Research has shown that moving is one of the top life changing events in a person’s life. That’s why the way you plan and execute your move matters. Success, for the most part depends on a member’s active participation at origin and destination before pick-up, during the move and destination delivery. Communication with the Transportation Service Provider (TSP), local agents and Personal Property Shipping Office counselors is essential.
May 15 through July 31 presents unique challenges for the moving industry, service members and their families, especially moves made during the height of peak season (Jun 16 through July 4). During the busiest moving season, government moving service providers are stretched to capacity and often times are required to perform services with limited packing crews, trucks in short supply, and full storage facilities. However, each person can manage unforeseen changes in their moving plans by being informed, planning ahead, and remaining flexible.
Before You Move:
Moving is stressful enough, but knowing what to expect during the move can calm anxieties. Before you make your move application plans or contact the local PPSO, go to www.move.mil for updated information, customer information videos and articles, regarding shipping entitlements, claims, privately owned vehicles and much more.
Counseling is the most critical part of a successful move. Customers must ensure they have all the information needed for a successful move. Having valid and updated contact information (Bahrain phone numbers, personal e-mail (as primary), complete pickup address, etc.) in Defense Personal Property System (DPS) is crucial to a service member’s successful move. Customers should book early, remain flexible in arranging their pack out or pick up dates (except Fridays & local holidays) and try to schedule before or after the peak of the peak season. Initial pack out or pick up dates are your “desired” pack or pick up and is not confirmed until official orders are turned into the Personal Property Shipping Office (PPSO) or uploaded into DPS, and the moving company contacts service member to conduct the pre-move survey, finalize the pack and pick up dates and establish the Required Delivery Date (RDD). The PPSO will inform the member of the desired delivery date (DDD) on the shipment application, during counseling. Remember, the DDD is only an estimate and the “actual” RDD is printed on the Government Bill of Lading for the shipment. The moving company will provide the member with a copy of the bill of lading, either electronically or hardcopy, no later than the pickup date.
If serving an accompanied tour, encourage your spouse to participate in the (self) counseling and pre-move survey process. After all, in most instances the spouse at home will be the one coordinating when the moving company shows up. Together, a sponsor and spouse are more likely to communicate all their moving needs. Members and their spouses should know about all moving documents they must receive, review, sign, and why these documents are important for a successful move. Both spouse and sponsor should know what actions to take in case of difficulty during a move and know their personal responsibilities in releasing and accepting shipments to the moving company.
Moving weight allowances are determined by the member’s grade in accordance with applicable Joint Travel Regulation. Ultimately, members are responsible for keeping personal property items within their weight allowances. To avoid possible excess costs, take the time in advance of the move date to estimate your shipment weight. You will then have sufficient time to dispose of personal things you no longer use to reduce your potential excess costs. Should you decide to keep all your household goods and possibly ship above your weight allowance, you need to budget to pay the excess cost, which can be quite substantial.
To estimate the weight of household goods, start with the net weights of all shipments of your last move. Normally, your shipment documents from your previous move will indicate the total weight shipped to your current duty station. Be sure to include all shipments at government expense still in storage, if applicable, as well as weights for any personally procured moves. Add weights for all household items you acquired since you last moved, such as furniture, hobby equipment, tools, books, collectables and electronics.
Many Service members are familiar with the “1,000-pounds-per-room” estimate. Unfortunately, families often forget to include rooms such as storage sheds, large closets, yards, garages, carports, basements, and other hidden areas. This is why it is best to start your move estimates with all weights from your last move, and then adjust for what you recently acquired. Remember, an estimate is simply a “best guess” of what you intend on shipping. It is not an official weight, until the movers provide an official certificate to the PPSO and a Government Bill of Lading created. If weights are close to the maximum allowance after packing, request for an official reweigh through your DPS account or the servicing PPSO.
Another way to control your shipment weight is to estimate weight for the member’s
and Spouse’s Professional Books Papers and Equipment (PBP&E) or PRO-gear, if any. Service members and employees PRO-gear allowance is limited to 2000 pounds maximum (no waivers). An Employee’s PRO-gear is part of weight allowances for shipment purposes. Civilian spouses are not entitled a spousal pro-gear (S-PRO) shipment entitlement in accordance with the Joint Travel Regulation (JTR). PRO-Gear are articles of household goods in a member’s possession needed for the performance of official duties at the next or later destination.
Some examples of PBP&E are: reference materials; equipment peculiar to technicians; mechanics; specialized clothing such as diving suits, astronauts’ suits, flying suits and helmets, band uniforms, chaplains' vestments, and other specialized apparel not normal or usual uniform or clothing in the member’s possession needed for the performance of official duties. The weight of Military Professional Gear is not counted against member’s weight allowance but to be validated, sponsor must: a) Declare PRO-gear during counseling; b) Separate Pro Gear during packing by the movers, and c) Ensure movers weigh PRO-gear separately and clearly mark boxes as PRO-gear on the shipment inventory, before signing shipping documents.
Military spousal Pro-Gear (S-PRO) is limited to a maximum of 500 lbs. S-PRO gear are those items for the spouse’s professional employment, such as ombudsman, lawyer, doctor, nurse, teacher, chef or community support activities at the next destination. Spouse Pro Gear does not include commercial products for sale/resale used in conducting business; sports equipment or offices; household or shop furniture and fixtures such as desks, cabinets, and racks etc. Spouse items must be approved by local PPSO prior to items being packed. Approving authority is the Transportation Officer.
For Alcoholic Beverages, customers must sign the Government Procured Alcoholic Beverage Shipment Counseling Acknowledgement Sheet. They should provide the inventory list of the Wine/Alcohol Description. Depending on the states, taxes and duties must be paid by the member. Research must be done by the members related to the shipment
Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS): We highly encourage the customers to fill out the CSS form once shipment is picked up. This form provides feedback to PPSO about Transportation Service Provider’s performance and services rendered to the member.
Hardcopies of all documents signed by the members including the Consignment Guide, Moving Responsibilities (Customers and TSPs), HHG Moving Tips, General Entitlement Facts on Pro-Gear, Navy HHG Customer Contacts Card and other reference that is applicable to the customer’s move are provided to the members.
Face to Face Counseling: Bahrain has initiated a process improvement on the outbound shipment application called Hybrid Counseling. It is another tool that was developed to process applications for members who encounter problems on self-counseling at DPS/move.mil. Appointments can be made for members to be counseled. Customer Service personnel handles the appointment calendar and member is assigned to a counselor. One of the purpose of Face to Face Counseling is to immediately assist members on the problems related on their moves. It will also reduce the time spent by members and for the rework done by counselors on the shipment applications. Members are provided a Pre-Counseling Worksheet (Manual or Electronic) which been designed to capture all pertinent information to process the shipment application submitted.
Privately Owned Vehicle (POV):
Be sure to get the proper counseling on POV shipment before going to the Vehicle Processing Center (VPC). Some destinations have restrictions on POVs or certain POV features. Consult your “It’s Your Move” shipping responsibilities brochure for more information or visit the POV shipping contractor, International Auto Logistics (IAL) website at www.pcsmypov.com. If your POV is not delivered on the required delivery date, talk to a Personal Property Shipping Office counselor or visit IALs website for POV tracking, claims information and claims processing on missed required delivery date of POV shipments.
For exporting POV, PPSO will issue POV Export letters. Please ensure the VIN matches the VIN on the car and not just the local registration card. The letters are then submitted to the Bharani Traffic Directorate for the de-registration and to receive export tags. Members may either choose to process by themselves or hire an agent. There is a fee of approx. BD 46 and payment of all traffic fines before export tags are issued. It is imperative that members schedule to ship the POV immediately after export tags are issued as they do expire. If tags expire before actual export, member will have to renew the tags.
All members must submit safety recall information to the VPC. Please ensure strict compliance with all POV shipping instructions to ensure All customers will receive a detailed brief from our office when beginning the process.
PPSO also delivers service to members who opted to transfer ownership of U.S. Vehicles provided that requirements are met. This only applies to U.S. Specification Vehicles.
Creating Your Move Application:
If you plan to move soon and have your official Permanent Change of Station orders, do not wait, get started now. DPS online is available 24/7 for you to initiate your moving application. Just go to the DPS website at http://www.move.mil/index.cfm . A user identification and password is required for self-counseling access. DPS has been extremely innovative in that it allows member to manage their move from origin pickup to destination delivery. Additional features of DPS are online claims functionality, frequently asked questions, and the Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSS). Traditional appointments can still be coordinated with your local Personal Property Shipping Office. Make your move, a stress free move this summer. Additional resources can be found at the official Navy’s Household Goods & Personal Property website at http://navsup.navy.mil/household .
NAVSUP FLC Bahrain is one of eight FLCs under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP's mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsup and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.
| Date Taken: | 05.15.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 05.21.2019 05:31 |
| Story ID: | 323210 |
| Location: | BH |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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