A mover carries a box of household goods onto a truck at Dover Air Force Base, Del., in July 2021. (Nicole Leidholm/U.S. Air Force)
Georgia’s U.S. senators have launched an inquiry into reports of delayed pickups and deliveries of household goods for relocating military families under a new system intended to remedy such problems.
Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in a letter Wednesday urged the head of the U.S. Transportation Command to “fully exercise” oversight authority to ensure that the Global Household Goods Contract, or GHC, delivers “on its promise to improve service, communication, and accountability for military families.”
In some cases, the Army and Air Force have taken a step back and rebooked moves under the old legacy system, according to the letter.
Ossoff and Warnock asked the command to respond by March 31 to a series of questions about the phased-in implementation of GHC.
Under GHC, the Transportation Command is transferring oversight of the roughly 300,000 annual moves for the military and Coast Guard to HomeSafe Alliance, a joint venture between Tier One Relocation and KBR, formerly Kellogg Brown & Root.
The command awarded HomeSafe a $20 billion contract in late 2021 to implement GHC.
Under GHC, HomeSafe is replacing about 900 companies that until now managed military moves by contracting with movers and trucking, shipping and warehousing companies.
The overhaul is intended to streamline the relocation process by creating a single point of contact for service members.
Hundreds of military members, however, have complained of late pickups and deliveries and poor communication under GHC as the program began ramping up in earnest this year after trial runs in 2024.
“These issues have affected Georgians transferring to new duty stations, adding frustration and, at times, financial uncertainty to an already disruptive relocation process,” the letter states.
Late last month, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sent a similar letter to the Transportation Command head Gen. Randall Reed requesting immediate action over GHC “failures.”
Ossoff and Warnock noted in the letter that HomeSafe now needs three weeks to execute moves, “effectively rolling back its program to pilot status.”
HomeSafe in an email Thursday said it had recently asked the Defense Department to revert the GHC program to its “early and developmental stages.”
“Specifically, HomeSafe requested a lead time of at least 21 days to provide us enough time to book high-quality movers on the necessary dates,” the email states.
The Transportation Command did not respond to a specific question from Stars and Stripes regarding the status of the 21-day request.
During a virtual media roundtable in January, Andy Dawson, director of the command’s Defense Personal Property Management Office, touted GHC as a “tough program” because of its requirement that HomeSafe fulfill each and every relocation job that enters the pipeline on the date the service member requests it — even within 24 hours.
“HomeSafe is expected and required by the contract to support those moves,” Dawson said. “It was designed that way to support our service member needs.”
HomeSafe said in its email that it had made “significant progress in working through capacity challenges and strengthening our service provider network.”
“We sincerely apologize to every family affected by capacity-related delays, and we are dedicated to providing timely service going forward,” the email states. “HomeSafe is taking all the lessons learned and continually improving our systems and processes, including enhancing our customer care operations, updating our technology platform, reshaping our training program for service providers and hiring additional employees.”
The Transportation Command remains “committed to delivering an improved moving experience to our service members and their families,” command spokesman Scott Ross said in an email Thursday.
“We’ve noted contract performance issues and are taking measures to mitigate further impacts to Service members and their families,” he said.
