Jason Delgado
Florida’s more than 65,000 active duty service members are twiddling their thumbs as the Department of Defense works again to name a single company to arrange global moving services for U.S. troops.
U.S. Transportation Command — a military division that oversees transportation services — named HomeSafe Alliance LLC in November as winner of the $6 billion contract bid.
The coveted contract, among other pursuits, aims to reinvent the way the DOD relocates troops by designating a sole moving company for service members. The DOD currently uses more than 900 companies to service the roughly 300,000 annual duty station changes among troops.
Other vendors, however, are appealing the decision, marking the latest objection in the year’s long bidding process.
In this iteration, American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group filed a formal protest against the decision to select HomeSafe Alliance as bid winner.
That appeal, though, comes after HomeSafe Alliance (the current winner) challenged the DOD’s April 2020 decision to award the contract to American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group.
“After a comprehensive review process during which the prior awardee’s significant problems came to light, we are disappointed that protests may delay getting to the work of supporting our service members and their families,” said Al Thompson, CEO of HomeSafe Alliance. “USTRANSCOM clearly completed a very thorough and professional evaluation in determining HomeSafe’s solution is superior.”
American Roll-on Roll Off, however, disputes that HomeSafe is superior. In fact, it and others, including Connected Global Solutions, have openly expressed concerns.
Among other criticisms, they argue HomeSafe Alliance lacks the staffing and experience necessary to carry out the contract.
What’s more, the company is designed by KBR and Tier One — two separate companies — to compete for the contract. Those companies, notably, have experienced a fair share of issues. Tier One shows a numbers complaints filed to the Better Business Bureau and KBR was mired years ago in a human trafficking lawsuit. An appeals court dismissed the civil claim in 2014.
“The government’s decision to choose a new company formed for the bid with a very limited staff and no household goods related moving assets is difficult to understand,” American Roll-On told Stars and Stripes.
A lack of efficiency with relocating troops and their personal items is an ongoing issue in the military. For their part, HomeSafe markets their tech-based solutions as a way to make moving easier for troops. According to their website, service members can track their shipment around the clock using an app.
“With cutting-edge technology and proven logistics expertise, we’re transforming the moving process by continuously evaluating, refining, and improving our tools and techniques,” the group says on their website.
Florida is home to 21 military instillations.
2 comments
DIANNA DAVIS
December 29, 2021 at 10:03 am
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John Knickerbocler
December 29, 2021 at 7:48 pm
As a long-time port agent servicing the airlift at Travis AFB, we have dire concern over the proposed changes to the
Military Freight Forwarding system currently in place.
“DoD’s desired end state is to increase industry quality capacity to meet peak season demand, better align accountability
and improve customer service and transparency.”
The Global Household Goods Contract (GHC) seems to be trying to address a problem by replacing a functioning
system, not taking into account the problem is rooted in the “peak season.”
Having one contractor is not going to solve that problem, and in fact, may exacerbate it. The problems this program is
trying to address can be solved by eliminating the “peak season” where 80% of the years’ volume of 400,000
shipments is moved within a 3-4 month period. No single company, no matter how much money the taxpayers throw
at them, is going to perform any better under those conditions than the current system of many independent freight
forwarders and subcontractors.
There is also the very large issue of the Air Force’s role in airlifting thousands of personal effect shipments every year
– this new contract will apparently eliminate that function, thereby eliminating a source of training of personnel with
each flight, as well as increasing the cost of moving those shipments.
Once this contract is finalized, there will be no return to the current functioning system as those performing these
services will be gone. As the pandemic has proven, the available workforce in the transportation industry is
insufficient – we have been trying to hire another truck driver for the last 18 months to no avail – and HomeSafe’s
promise to alleviate worker shortage somehow with technology is unrealistic. Knowing you need 100 workers on
Tuesday and 20 on Thursday is not going to help you actually find those workers. However, if companies have a
steady flow of shipments throughout the year, keeping skilled staff becomes doable and even necessary. As a matter
of fact, that’s exactly what we’ve done at JAK Transfer LLC for the past 34 years. We know the busiest season requires
skilled staff, so we keep them on year-round (even during the pandemic – we gave them paid time off rather than risk
losing them to another employer).
We would also like to note that the original contract awarded to ARC was rescinded due to misconduct by its parent
company. HomeSafe’s parent, KBR, has a lengthy record of misconduct itself:
https://www.contractormisconduct.org/contractors/29. Surely this is as relevant now as it was with the original
award.
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