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Customers at ease with cargo 'hub'

Courtesy Photo | A 1011th Quartermaster Company Soldier picks up a load of telephone poles Jan. 12 at...... read more read more

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

02.10.2006

Courtesy Story

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VICTORY BASE COMPLEX, Iraq - Taking a cue from modern commercial parcel carriers, the Centralized Receiving and Shipping Point (CRSPs) here, started in May 2005, mirrors the "hub" concept in its cargo handling.

Personnel from the Army Reserves 1011th Quartermaster Company, based out of Farmington, Mo., run the yard and are responsible for working in tandem with the sister CRSP in Camp Taji to push parts and vehicles throughout the 4th Sustainment Brigade area of operation.

Before CRSPs, cargo bound "for example from Camp Taji to Forward Operating Base Falcon, would require a special convoy.

A unit on Taji would choose vehicles and personnel, form the convoy and drive the cargo to Falcon. Meanwhile, if cargo on Falcon needed to go to Taji, a completely separate convoy would be needed.

The "hub" concept allows the brigade to form a steady flow of cargo into the CRSP from FOBs and camps throughout theater, and then utilize trucks already traveling to or near a cargo's final destination for delivery.

"Because we're doing regular runsâ?¦we don't have to create a convoy for each load of cargo," said Maj. Michael Melendez, 4th Sustainment Brigade transportation integration officer. "Trucks come in, make a drop off and then pick up another load before heading back."

"It decreases the number of convoys on the roads."While the idea of a centralized yard for cargo is not new, the notion of delivering cargo to the customer is.

"In times past the customers had to physically come to this central point to receive their cargo," said 2nd Lt. Herbert Reid, Victory Complex CRSP OIC. "With this new CRSP concept, we send out the cargoâ?¦to the customers."

Pushing out about 100 containers of cargo a week and receiving about the same, the 19 personnel from the CRSP section of the 1011th's Supply Support Activity Platoon run the yard 24 hours a day, Reid said.

The CRSP yard on Victory Complex uses a "first-in-first-out" system to minimize the amount of time cargo sits in the yard, he explained. The containers or palletes are put into lanes based off of what Forward Operating Base they are to be sent to.

The CRSPs yard system increases the efficiency of cargo movement in efforts to get product to the customer more easily.

Whereas a unit that needed cargo moved or delivered could expect to wait two weeks,the brigade hopes its efforts will trim that timeframe down to less than six days, Melendez said.