EDITED TO ADD THE US ARMY’S OFFICIAL GUIDANCE ON THE PETITION
When we were sitting on Kirst’s couch as movers were packing up her home for her first military move, coding a website to launch that would eventually become “Wives of the Armed Forces”, we knew one thing for certain – we wanted this space to be different. Different from the fear-mongering and drama that riddled the internet in every corner that mentioned the word “military”. Different from the rhetoric passed down from spouse to spouse as the room is filled with depressing “just you wait…” stories and other attempts to keep milsos in line with their hope for the future.
We knew this would require us to be intentional with every word we published and to slow down often to be sure we were getting it right. We felt strongly that if we were asking for your trust, we had to earn it by vetting our sources for information, recommendations, and resources.
Recently, a petition began circulating among military families, raising serious concerns about recent changes to the Permanent Change of Station (PCS) process. The petition claims that “instead of military families having the option to choose how they move, they are now beginning to be financially forced into the new Global Household Goods Contract (GHC) with HomeSafe Alliance (HSA)”.
While the petition raises valid concerns with rate changes, it also misrepresents key aspects of the new moving process.
We must know (and share with our fellow military families) the whole truth and understand the facts to avoid unnecessary confusion and fear. Specifically, clarifying who is responsible for setting the rates, who is doing the physical moves, what has changed with the PCS process, and why.
Who Is Handling Military Moves?
The petition suggests that military families are being “forced” into new contracts with fewer options and higher costs, implying that the new contract holder (HomeSafe Alliance; HSA) is directly responsible for these negative changes, and ignoring that the the DoD sets rates, provides reimbursement guidelines, and ensures the overall structure of the process, HSA simply operates within them.
So, what is HSA’s role? According to information from Military OneSource, HSA is a new contractor managing the brand new Global Household Goods Contract (GHC) and will eventually serve as the single point of contact for all military families handling the logistics of their moves, including agents, packers, and truckers.
Instead of relying on a mix of smaller, regional moving companies (recognizing that historically, this approach has been flawed and resulted in damaged/lost household goods, delayed moves, and more.), the military is trying to create a model that allows for more accountability in a meaningful way for performance failures (Military OneSource).
For those who still wish to take the self-move route (full DITY), the program remains in place, and families can still opt to handle their moves and will be directed to their local branch through the Defense Personal Property System (USTRANSCOM).
Who Is Setting the Rates and Why It Matters
One of the petition’s core claims is that “instead of incentivizing the ability for families to move themselves, the military is trying to financially force families into using a program they have spent $20 billion on that has already seen numerous issues…”.
This article in Stars and Stripes states “The Transportation Command said in an email Thursday that the petition is incorrect in saying that the rate being paid to service members for personally procured moves is based on what HomeSafe pays its subcontractors for similar moves”.
The goal of this new approach is not to restrict families’ options but to streamline the process by creating a more coordinated and reliable moving experience and holding moving companies accountable to performance standards.
“The legacy system has complexities that over time disproportionately benefited the moving industry at the expense of our military members. Many in the moving industry do not support the disruption to the status quo, especially when it can change business models and bring much needed reform and accountability to the program” (USTRANSCOM).
What About These Awful PCS Stories Online?
There have also been misleading stories posted around the internet implying that HSA is solely responsible for a large amount of bad PCS experiences (delayed moves, lost items, etc.) when in reality they have only moved 942 military families to date. As stated in Stars and Stripes, “the legacy Defense Personal Property Program, which still fulfills more than 99% of moves, is operating in parallel as the Global Household Goods Contract is phased in”, likely accounting for more of those negative experiences than HSA. This is not to say that the transfer to the GHC system has been perfect, HSA has acknowledged errors and has shared their continual efforts to grow their moving network to ensure they have the move crews needed to service all moves efficiently, which is becoming easier to do as movers are transferred from the old program to the new GHC program.
They have also been transparent about dramatically growing their team, specifically prioritizing hiring military veterans and active-duty military spouses who understand the stresses of the PCS process and can relate to customers.
Why Accurate Information Matters for Military Families
Raise your hand if you or someone you know has a PCS horror story that would shock any civilian you shared it with.
Yeah, same.
The PCS process, historically, has been riddled with issues, and all of our advocacy over the years has not gone unheard. The government heard the cries and has developed a new program to better hold moving companies accountable, so military families don’t have to be burdened further by an already emotionally overwhelming move.
The information not being shared online right now is that another company originally won the new GHC program contract, lost it, and is now suing the federal government about it.
And that company suing is directly connected to the party raising concerns over how the new program is rolling out.
We’ve learned that if something sounds too good to be true, it likely isn’t a full truth and if something sounds too bad to be true, it likely isn’t a full truth. So, when this information started circulating, it caused us to pause, and sure enough with a bit more digging, we started to uncover more of the full truth and lack of transparency on conflicts of interest with the issue.
The petition’s portrayal of the situation misrepresents the whole truth about recent PCS changes, leading to an abundance of misplaced harassment online to a team of military spouses, veterans, and military brats working tirelessly to try to improve the PCS process because they have firsthand experience with how awful it has historically been. And when we say harassment, we mean just that, death threats and other threats of violence…not just negative reviews.
HSA is designed to help families by providing a centralized, reliable point of contact for their moves, reducing delays, and ensuring a more streamlined and efficient process. As mentioned above (and confirmed by the government), HSA has nothing to do with the rates most everyone who signed the petition is concerned about.
The unnecessary fear created is concerning and ultimately distracting from military families communicating their concerns to see real change.
If you have experienced a problem with your move, and have confirmed through your paperwork that HSA was your moving manager, you can use DoD’s Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) to file a formal complaint that will, hopefully, result in lasting change.
If you’d like to make your voice heard on the dramatic drop in reimbursement rates, we recommend contacting your local legislators to express your concerns about how this has and will impact your military family directly.
The overhaul of a legacy model that has been nothing short of a nightmare for military families in the past is going to take time and properly directed advocacy to improve. Discernment is key and spreading fear is not the way we are going to see improvement. If you are feeling fearful about an upcoming PCS based on the misleading information being passed around online, please know that there are several reputable resources available to you that can help, we have shared a few of our favorites below:
Military families deserve to know the facts about the changes that impact their relocation experience. By focusing on accurate, unbiased information, families can feel more confident about the moves ahead and trust that what is evolving in the process will ultimately serve their best interests if we do our due diligence of vetting information, asking questions, and directing feedback where it can do the most good.
Disclaimers:
We have not been paid by any of the involved parties.
We do not represent the DoD or any government entity, we speak independently and are sharing our own opinions based on sourced information linked above.
Megan Harless, petition creator, did not reply to Wives Armed Forces’ request for comment to address her professional affiliation with the rival moving company mentioned above.
I appreciate the research that went into this. What exactly is the connection between the party that is suing over the lost contract and the party that is raising the petition?
Unfortunately, we can’t speak to that as the petition creator did not reply to our request for comment to address her professional affiliation with the rival moving company suing over the lost contract.
When will you be disclosing your relationship with HomeSafe Alliance and the Military Spouse Panel that your teams sits on?
There’s nothing to disclose or we would have included it in our disclaimers above.
While you’re correct that HomeSafe doesn’t set the rates for PPMs, those rates are BASED on the constructive costs that the government WOULD have to pay if you were to use their contracted companies to move.
So if there is only one company, wouldn’t the rates then be based on how much the government is paying HomeSafe to move you?
The PPM rates under GHC right now are being paid out at 100% of the government constructed cost (GCC). The government sets that percentage rate. That GCC is what the government pays to HSA to perform a move. What service members get paid for PPMs is the same amount HomeSafe gets paid. The government isn’t consulting HSA to confirm what the PPM reimbursement amount should be.
Finally! I’m glad some people are taking a breather before the take to social media. It has been a wild week and influencers are definitely fear mongering.
A very wild week, and we have been flooded with messages from people sharing your same sentiment! We’ve never regretted slowing down and looking into an issue fully before speaking to it.
Is it true you both sit on the HSA Spouse Panel? Maybe you should lead with that. HSA is a disaster, PPM rates are in the gutter and this gaslighting is outrageous.
No, we haven’t sat on a spouse’s panel for HSA, nor have we been paid in any way by them (which we did disclose in the disclaimer above).
I’m very disappointed in yall. The issue is that we are forced to choose between two dumpster fires: HSA who is not showing up on move days, when they do show, the delivery is two months late OR a PPM where most mil families it won’t even cover expenses.
Sorry to hear you’re disappointed. As mentioned above, HSA acknowledged issues and we outlined their efforts to correct them (hoping to continue to provide more information on that in the upcoming days/weeks) and the PPM rate concerns were being misdirected to HSA instead of Congress, so getting those complaints/concerns to legislators will hopefully lead to change so military families aren’t in financial strain this PCS season.
A lot of this article written is bogus! I can’t believe you’re actually sharing this and stating false information. You say only under 1000 moves have been completed by homesafe. Maybe that’s because they keep failing to move the soldiers. They can’t get anyone to do the move foe the price and are failing to let the soldiers know leaving them financially burdened to force a last minute ppm move because they couldn’t follow through. Not to mention they are the reason for the low ppm rates. And aren’t you biased in this because you ait on a spouses panel for HSA?
You are certainly entitled to form your own opinion on what you read above and the sources we linked out to. As confirmed, HSA has completed 942 moves to date. More information you might find helpful: they have received almost 5,600 move task orders from the government (moves they are assigned to complete) going up to November.
As mentioned above, the article in Stars and Stripes states “The Transportation Command said in an email Thursday that the petition is incorrect in saying that the rate being paid to service members for personally procured moves is based on what HomeSafe pays its subcontractors for similar moves”.
HSA doesn’t determine the rates, the government does. And no, we haven’t sat on a spouse’s panel for HSA, nor have we been paid in any way by them, so we do not believe there is a bias because we owe them nothing. We asked each party involved to speak to their perspective of what is happening, giving everyone mentioned a fair opportunity to have their voice/perspective shared above. Whether they chose to take it or not, was entirely up to them.
If HomeSafe has nothing to do with PPM incentives then why did they drop so low? If HomeSafe has nothing to do with setting rates (which goes against their Performace Work Statement) then is Transcom just making them up out of nowhere?
Make it make sense.
This article gaslighted families that have had packers no show on them, trucks not show up and RDDs missed by weeks. HomeSafe has completed less than 1000 moves. It is January, not peak season; if HomSafe is struggling in Jan then how are they going to handle July? All military families should be watching HomeSafe closely. I hope this summer is not the train wreck we all see coming -I hope HomeSafe fulfills their contract and provides military families great subcontractors and excellent customer service.
Unfortunately, to our knowledge, USTRANSCOM has not shared specific details outlining why the rates were dropped. We did reference a source above to what USTRANSCOM has shared:
“The legacy system has complexities that over time disproportionately benefited the moving industry at the expense of our military members. Many in the moving industry do not support the disruption to the status quo, especially when it can change business models and bring much needed reform and accountability to the program” (USTRANSCOM).
From what we’ve absorbed in our reading and conversations, COVID played a large part in rate increases and our assumption is the government is attempting (whether right or wrong) to correct those rates back to what they would consider feasible for the services provided without the added uncertainty/concern for COVID.
To answer your other concerns, we will also refer back to the information above on what HSA is doing to prepare to take on more moves and are hoping to continue to monitor/track those efforts. We also hope this summer will bring great customer service and PCS experiences for military families, and plan to continue to keep our eyes and ears open to what is happening.
Unfortunately, to our knowledge, USTRANSCOM has not shared specific details outlining why the rates were dropped. We did reference a source above to what USTRANSCOM has shared:
“The legacy system has complexities that over time disproportionately benefited the moving industry at the expense of our military members. Many in the moving industry do not support the disruption to the status quo, especially when it can change business models and bring much needed reform and accountability to the program” (USTRANSCOM).
From what we’ve absorbed in our reading and conversations, COVID played a large part in rate increases and our assumption is the government is attempting (whether right or wrong) to correct those rates back to what they would consider feasible for the services provided without the added uncertainty/concern for COVID.
To answer your other concerns, we will also refer back to the information above on what HSA is doing to prepare to take on more moves and are hoping to continue to monitor/track those efforts. We also hope this summer will bring great customer service and PCS experiences for military families, and plan to continue to keep our eyes and ears open to what is happening.
Megan has been a tireless advocate in this space. I appreciate her advocacy. I am unclear why a military spouse would be against the petition she created. If you talk to people, the feedback on HomeSafe Alliance has been overwhelmingly negative. But none of that made your blog. This feels like retaliation against Megan for speaking out and encouraging lawmakers to look into this process. All military families should want a positive moving experience. You’ve been asked on your Instagram, before you limited comments, what your connection is to HomeSafe Alliance. While you mention you did not get paid, what’s your relationship to them? And can you elaborate on what Megan’s relationship is to other companies? You speak of transparency but you haven’t been transparent.
It was never said we are against the petition’s goal to advocate for improving this situation for military families, we simply realized in reading it that there was information that was inaccurate/misleading which in turn was causing fear and misdirected action by milsos. We immediately reached out for comment/clarity because we appreciate and respect the experience and knowledge Megan has surrounding the PCS process. She opted not to reply, which is out of our control entirely.
As for Megan’s relationship to the other companies, we cannot speak to that as she opted not to reply to the questions we sent over seeking clarity on her relationship with the other moving company and two other entities.
We didn’t limit comments on Instagram, which is proven by more comments continuing to trickle in. If Instagram is preventing you from commenting, it’s like a technical issue either caused by the volume of comments on the post or account settings.
Regarding our relationship with HSA, as already mentioned on Instagram, in March 2024 we were asked to solicit our community for participation in a voluntary, non-paid focus group to help improve the PCS process. We shared a link to a form where interested milsos could submit their information. That is the extent of our relationship with them. Around this same time, we also offered Megan and another milso the opportunity to write and publish blog posts on our site covering a variety of PCS topics. Megan and the other milso never submitted blog posts they were interested in writing which is why they were never published.