Delivering the goods while reducing hefty expense

Photo By Kelly White | Senior Airman Brandie Benoit, with the 72nd Logistics Readiness Squadron, watches as a moving truck is re-weighed at a local weigh station. Inspectors with the Personal Property and Passenger Movement Section have saved over $800,000 by having moving companies re-weigh their vehicles and cargo and comparing it to the initial recorded weight. (Air Force photo by Kelly White)  

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, UNITED STATES

08.05.2016

Courtesy Story

72nd Air Base Wing

When service members get orders to move to a new duty station in another state, or across the globe, Uncle Sam pays for it, but it’s up to them to make sure their household goods, cars and other personal “stuff” get there, too.
If their move is into or out of nine Central Oklahoma counties, they’re likely to meet or talk to Tinker Air Force Base’s Jay Falkner, Ronald Jackson and Marsha Whitmire.
The 72nd Logistics Readiness Squadron employees are the quality assurance team of the Personal Property and Passenger Movement Section in Bldg. 469.
Their jobs involve customer service first. They’re also troubleshooters, umpires in disagreements between property owners and moving companies, quality inspectors and, lastly, a welcome friendly face during stressful moves.
“I’ve been to a member’s home where the wife – I felt so bad for her – she’s got two little kids, and she’s standing in the kitchen and she’s just drained,” said Mr. Falkner, quality assurance specialist/inspector. “I walk by and say, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ She kind of perked up a little bit and said, ‘Yeah, I get it. It’s just really hard.’
“It makes us feel good that we do help our members,” Mr. Falkner added.
Mr. Falkner and Mr. Jackson are quality assurance specialists and inspectors who work in tandem with Ms. Whitmire, the section’s expert quality assurance administrator.
Mr. Falkner and Mr. Jackson drive to homes, apartments and other locations to inspect moves in progress.
In fiscal year 2015, the trio handled 1,774 household shipments of military members leaving or arriving in central Oklahoma. While they can’t personally be at every move, they are the designated troubleshooters and local contacts for every one of them.
They also handle re-weighs of truck shipments to compare a weight, for example, that was recorded in Germany to its weight arriving in Oklahoma, among other duties. Since the weight of shipments is a major factor in cost, the method has saved the government money by finding that a shipment weighs less when it arrived than when it was recorded initially.
“By proving weight never there, we’re reducing costs,” Section Chief Christopher Fellows said. Overall cost-saving measures since fiscal year 2013 have saved the government $844,454.
“We’ve taken that information and passed it on to regional office, which covers over 30 bases,” Mr. Fellows said. “They benchmarked what we had done here and through recent implementations elsewhere saved over $650,000 in just a few months.”
The Department of Defense contracts with private companies for national and international personal property moves. A key part of the two men’s jobs involves making sure the companies are meeting their contractual obligations and delivering good service.
While visiting a move in progress, they’ll go over a long checklist with the people moving to ensure important aspects have been addressed.
Ms. Whitmire also fields calls as part of her job putting together inspection information that Mr. Falkner and Mr. Jackson collect. The PPPO reports the information to the regional Joint Personal Property Shipping Office at Joint Base San Antonio, which contracts with the companies.
Bad moves do happen. A moving truck recently arrived looking as if a couple of teenagers haphazardly tossed the member’s belongings in the back.
The quality assurance section doesn’t hesitate to send official letters of warning to companies that do a bad job. Too many of those bad reports can lead to suspension.
“The system is responsive,” said Jerome Smith, lead traffic management specialist. “If you’re not meeting the industry standard, you will be weeded out.”
The inspectors also ensure that military members aren’t asking movers for services that are not part of the movers’ contracts. Crating certain items is routine, but some property owners will want items crated that don’t need to be with modern non-crating options. Unnecessary crating also costs more for the government.
“Sometimes we have to talk to the members and say, ‘No, this is contractual,” Mr. Falkner said. “This is all they’re going to do and you have to understand.’”
For military members “on the move,” the office provides checklists, inventory lists, brochures, do’s and don’ts and plenty of other tips on Department of Defense websites, such as Move.mil.
So what is the PPPO team’s single biggest piece of advice for people moving? Despite the DOD paying for it, it’s still your move.
“Take ownership of it,” Mr. Fellows said. “This is your stuff, take care of it. Keep an eye on it and make a complete inventory. If you feel overwhelmed, call time out and give us a call and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t working for me.’
“Our mission is to provide customer service and to have a passion for customer service,” Mr. Fellows said. “And the quality assurance folks are out there in the field making sure that happens.”

• Date Taken: 08.05.2016
• Date Posted: 09.01.2016 12:11
• Story ID: 207541
• Location: OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, US