Vern Evans
The new system aimed at improving the shipments of service members’ household goods is gaining steam into 2025.
By the end of 2024, 94 installations — more than half of the installations in the continental United States — will have the go-ahead to move service members’ household goods under the Transportation Command’s new Global Household Goods contract, as the command works toward bringing all domestic shipments on board by the coming spring.
The process has been gradual to test the reliability of the new system, with large and small installations alike participating. Earlier this month, TRANSCOM added 20 installations to the new system, with two beginning in November — Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, and Naval Support Activity Saratoga Springs, New York — and another 18 coming online in December.
For moves outside the continental United States, troops and their families shouldn’t expect to see their belongings shipped under the new system until September 2025 at the earliest.
As of Dec. 4, the Defense Department had sent 777 task orders to the new contractor, HomeSafe Alliance, for troops’ shipment requests from the active installations in the new system, according to TRANSCOM. HomeSafe had completed 330 deliveries. HomeSafe and TRANSCOM began a gradual rollout of the new system with five installations in spring 2024 before ramping up more in the fall once the peak military moving season was over.
TRANSCOM’s effort to improve the moving experience for service members and their families began in 2018 after a particularly brutal moving season. It aims to solve longstanding problems, such as lost or damaged items, and an onerous claims system.
However, some members of the moving industry have said they’ve improved the moving experience for service members in recent years. They warn that HomeSafe is offering lower rates to moving companies under the new system, potentially adversely affecting the quality of service members’ personal property shipments, and even forcing some companies out of business.
TRANSCOM awarded the $6.2 billion contract — worth potentially up to $17.9 billion over nine years — to HomeSafe Alliance, a consortium of companies. Work began in early 2023 after contract protests ended.
Under the new system, HomeSafe will be fully responsible for shipments, from the time a moving company is assigned to packing, hauling and unloading, as well as handling any loss or damage claims.
As before, the work is done by moving companies. As these companies sign up to do business with HomeSafe, the new contract essentially privatizes the management of household goods shipments, but TRANSCOM will continue to oversee the enterprise.
In December, TRANSCOM was also scheduled to activate all shipping routes between the 94 active locations in the new system and set in place the process for those who want to make a Personally Procured Move, or PPM. Those are moves where the service member chooses to arrange all or part of the move, with reimbursement from the government. TRANSCOM will provide further PPM details once the change is fully implemented.
Service members should visit the Defense Personal Property System, or DPS, landing page when requesting a household goods shipment. If service members are in areas where HomeSafe Alliance has started making the moves, they will be automatically placed in the new system.
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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