Top brass at the Department of Defense is weighing in on the way the military moves its members after an Action News Jax investigation.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has directed the U.S. Transportation Command to implement sweeping changes amid the busy moving season.
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Hegseth issued a list of changes, starting with slashing the number of moves the new program through HomeSafe Alliance receives, saying, “We know it’s not working and it’s only getting worse.”
Action News Jax has been covering the military moving nightmares for months, talking to military families who wait weeks, even months, to receive their goods, movers who can’t afford to work at HomeSafe’s rates, and more.
INVESTIGATES: After the military switches to a new company, moving issues continue
“The stress does not end from start to finish,” one Navy sailor told us.
Experiences like those with are the reason Hegseth said he is changing the plan. All moves will now be split between the new program with HomeSafe at the helm and the old system with multiple vendors, like Jacksonville-based Stefan Cordeiro of Stewart Moving and Storage
Memorandum directing immediate modifications to the personal property program
“Everybody has been spewing their concerns for at least the last two years now,” Cordiero, whose business took a major hit with the new program, said.
Now, the DOD is taking action. Earlier this month, it relieved the program’s director of his duties. Hegseth also just ordered TRANSCOM to come up with new, more competitive rates for moving companies, increasing the amount military families are reimbursed if they move themselves, and developing a task force to review the entire moving process and see how it can be improved, as well as tracking weekly progress.
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In response to the memo HomeSafe Alliance sent us this statement:
“HomeSafe Alliance is grateful for Defense Secretary Hegseth’s attention to the Global Household Goods Contract and the directives he has issued, which will greatly improve moving experiences for military service members and their families. DoD raising our rates to account for significant inflation from the last four years would substantially benefit our ability to facilitate world-class moving services for our nation’s heroes. We look forward to working with the PCS Task Force to demonstrate how our program modernizes and digitizes the move process and resolves decades-long issues with military relocations.”
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