Provide quality service 2. Provide best value moving services to the government. MTMC’s proposal also detailed DOD’s movement and storage requirements, shipment origins (all areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida) and destinations (13 regions in the contiguous 48 states and 5 regions in Europe), categories of shipments (household goods and unaccompanied baggage) that would and would not be handled under the pilot test, minimum contractor personnel requirements, specific tasks that were to be performed, length of the contract (1 year plus an unspecified number of option years), the way offerors should specify price for each traffic channel (expressed as a discount percentage using the commercial rate tariff for domestic shipments and a fixed dollar and cents per hundredweight rate for international shipments), the accessorial services DOD would be requiring, contractor’s liability and loss and damage claims procedures (full value protection based on certain minimum declared valuations subject to an overall cap), contractor’s required quality assurance procedures (use of a customer survey), certain performance standards for shipment pickup and delivery, and the invoicing and payment process. Assessment of Proposals: Equal Extent

Both proposals are likely to equally achieve 4 of the 10 goals of the program. Assessment of Proposals: Greater and Lesser Extent

MTMC’s proposal meets 5 of the 10 goals for reengineering the personal property program to a greater extent than the industry plan. The goals are providing quality service (goal 1), providing best value (goal 10), simplifying the system (goal 7), adopting corporate business practices (goal 5), and ensuring capacity to meet DOD’s needs (goal 8). Therefore, we believe MTMC’s proposal would achieve the goal of quality service and best value to a greater extent than the industry proposal. Award would be made only to responsible offerors whose offers conformed to the solicitation and represented the best overall value to the government, price and other evaluation criteria considered. Consequently, MTMC would not have opportunity to assess a prospective contractor’s plan to improve the quality prior to contract award and would limit MTMC’s ability to assess the trade-offs between price and technical factors. This could lead to more stability and provide leverage leading to cost efficiencies for both the carriers and DOD. Industry’s proposal specifically excludes relocation company participation unless such companies are licensed carriers or forwarders. Matter for Congressional Consideration

We support moving forward with the pilot test of a reengineered personal property program because it will provide the necessary data to ultimately design an improved system. In addition, it is important that performance standards be developed and data gathered in a way that enables measurable results of the program, particularly as they relate to quality of service and small business participation. If the Congress still has concerns about the impact on small business, piloting both proposals is an option. However, doing this would likely place an additional administrative and costly burden on MTMC and could delay implementation of the program. Thus, they believe that MTMC’s proposal represents a joint DOD/industry proposal. Overall, we continue to believe that MTMC’s proposal provides a greater opportunity than the industry proposal to achieve the program goals and that the pilot should not be delayed any further. Background on the Military Traffic Management Command’s Pilot Test Initiative to Reengineer DOD’s Personal Property Program

	Department of Defense’s Reengineering Initiative

On June 21, 1994, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Transportation Command, directed the Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC), the Army component of the U.S. Transportation Command and program manager for the Department of Defense (DOD) Personal Property Shipment and Storage Program, to reengineer the personal property program.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Military Traffic Management Command's (MTMC) and the moving industry's proposals for reengineering the Department of Defense's (DOD) personal property program, focusing on the extent to which each proposal met DOD/industry goals for a reengineered personal property program.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) GAO's assessment shows that MTMC's proposal meets the goals for reengineering the personal property program to a greater extent than the industry plan; (2) both proposals are likely to equally achieve several of the 10 goals of the program, but overall, MTMC's proposal appears more likely to achieve the program goals to a greater extent; (3) MTMC's approach to providing quality service would give DOD the opportunity to assess a prospective contractor's plan to improve the quality of the service prior to contract awards; (4) this would enable MTMC to determine best value to the government by assessing the trade-off between price and technical factors; that is, award would be made only to responsible offerors whose proposals represent the best overall value to the government in terms of: (a) the offeror's proposed approach to performing the work; (b) past performance; (c) subcontracting plan; and (d) price, which would be one evaluation criterion and would not provide the primary basis for award; (5) GAO believes determining best value is an essential element of providing higher quality service to servicemembers; (6) the industry's proposal, which provides for selecting contractors initially on price, then quality after the carrier or forwarder has already handled DOD traffic, does not provide for assessment of quality up front using the criteria MTMC has proposed to use; (7) MTMC's approach to simplifying the system and adopting corporate business practices would enable DOD to dramatically reduce the number of contractors it must use, which would simplify contractor selection and could lead to more stability and provide leverage leading to cost efficiencies for both contractors and DOD; (8) the industry's proposal, though it changes the existing program to some extent, still retains a process in which DOD has to distribute traffic to many different carriers and forwarders; (9) overall, GAO believes that MTMC's proposal provides a greater opportunity than the industry proposal to achieve the program goals; (10) GAO supports moving forward with the pilot test without further delay, since a pilot test is essential to gathering the necessary data to ultimately design the reengineered personal property program; (11) in addition, it is important that performance standards be developed and data gathered in such a way to ensure measurable results of the pilot, particularly as it relates to quality of service and small business participation; and (12) if the Congress still has concerns about the impact on small business, piloting both proposals is an option; however, doing this would likely place an additional administrative and costly burden on MTMC and could delay implementation of the program.