I’m writing this article in early June, and I’m already tired—and I’m just Association staff; not someone like you who is engaged with the actual coordination and physical movement of shipments for the Department of Defense (DoD) and General Services Administration (GSA). The peak of peak season isn’t supposed to hit for a few more weeks, and it feels like the industry has been engaged at that peak of the peak level since early May.

On one hand, it appears there is more work to be had than can be handled this summer; that should make movers happy to have the business, compared to the 2020 “Stop Movement” order that reduced DoD moves by around 40,000 shipments last year. On the other hand, challenges getting wood and wood products, coupled with labor and driver shortages, are hampering operations across the globe. Additionally, ports are congested, railyards are full, trucking prices are high and transit times are being put to the test. Add in DoD rules for 2021 that punish movers for late deliveries and reduce the flexibility for deliveries from storage-in-transit (SIT); as well as missed reweigh fees, and it all adds up to a stressful season. Last Spring/early Summer, everyone was hungry for shipments. This year, it appears we have more than we can handle.

We started hearing about shipment turn-backs and capacity issues in May this year, when normally we wouldn’t start hearing those complaints from the DoD until late June. But you have to wonder whether this is just a function of a return to a more normal DoD moving season after a year of COVID coupled with network congestion; or if the DoD’s own rules have a significant role to play?

The rule changes over the last two years in the DoD program have been significant. As an Association, we’ve made multiple arguments to DoD and the Services that the pace of change, and the nature of those changes, are making it difficult for movers to operate in the DoD realm. The punitive focus on transportation service providers (TSPs), combined with the financial punishments and “fines” for late deliveries, have created an environment where TSPs and agents in their networks are less and less willing to lean forward and take a chance to grab another shipment to help increase capacity, because the impact of failure is directly financial, and can result in suspensions with an even bigger financial hit.

Inconvenience claims, reweigh fees, rules for delivery from SIT and suspensions for a whole host of other issues that don’t seem to directly impact customer experience, have made movers and TSPs cautious to take on additional workload. Now add labor, wood prices and availability, and network strains across the enterprise—all of these factors have led to our current situation.

Last fall, in a meeting with senior DoD Personal Property leadership, IAM was told that the moving industry had a “sky is falling” mentality—that DoD was not interested in our concerns, and was frankly done hearing about them. They were moving forward with their rules. Many of the business rule concerns raised by industry over the past two or more moving seasons appear to be coming to fruition. We hear consistently that movers are holding back capacity that could be used at origin, to be sure there are crews and equipment available to deliver shipments from storage on short notice to avoid inconvenience claims, financial penalties and letters of suspension. Network-wide, it’s all having an impact on capacity. I don’t know if the sky has fallen yet, but it seems to be quite a bit lower at the moment.

Should the industry operate in a way that ensures they can deliver shipments in peak season from storage in a timely fashion? I think it should. But with one voice, DoD will say if you can’t handle a shipment, don’t accept it; and simultaneously beg industry to squeeze out every last ounce of capacity that anyone can find. That squeeze of capacity often leads to something going wrong somewhere down the road—and results in DoD and customer frustration at a performance failure. That, in turn, takes us back to what industry has requested for years—to smooth the demand of shipments over a larger time period, allowing industry to focus on fewer shipments per week over a longer time frame.

Last year, under COVID, with about 40,000 fewer shipments in the pipeline, the customer satisfaction survey results said the satisfaction rate was 96%. That’s a higher rate than even DoD had hoped for. You could argue, even with all the challenges of COVID, that the satisfaction was higher because there were fewer shipments over the traditional peak season time period. Movers had fewer shipments to manage per week and could spend more time on each shipment, resulting in what is really an incredible satisfaction rate for a service industry that operates by putting strangers in the customer’s house, touching all their things, and moving them across the country or globe—one of the most stressful life events people have.

I’m continually impressed by the work and positive attitude I come across each day with the movers I interact with. It’s a busy time, and it’s been busy for a while now. You are probably having trouble finding enough labor; you’ve probably been “upside down” on some moves; and you probably have more work than you can handle. But the industry steps up every summer; performs incredible feats of logistics; saves the day for countless customers that we never hear about; works crazy hours and then gets up and does it all again.

I know that if I’m already tired in early June just dealing with issues, you’re far more exhausted dealing with customers and personal property shipping offices, and getting shipments picked up and delivered on a daily basis. But, you find a way to do it again tomorrow. I appreciate that “can-do” attitude in a tough business. What you do is often a thankless, but essential function for our DoD and other essential government employees. As a former military member and government employee, I appreciate your efforts. Keep your heads up, and the Association will continue to support you in the best way we know how.