It’s that time of year…when the military families around the world await that magical notification – the report of orders. Some families are expecting them. Some families are not. Either way, when the military tells you to move, the service member has no choice but to go. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to prepare for your move – know your joint travel regulations.
The Joint Travel Regulations (or JTR) are updated annually to reflect the policy changes in regards to the travel and transportations allowances (i.e.: reimbursement) when it comes to temporary duty (TDY) and permanent changes of station (PCS). While these regulations’ core remains the same, some key issues are discussed every year within the military spouse groups. It often feels like they are the first military family ever to move from their duty station when dealing with the moving office on the military base. Do yourself a favor – download the Joint Travel Regulations every year you PCS. Highlight key passages (specific sections discussed today are listed below) and know what applies to you. Just don’t try to print it, it’s huge!
Here are key notes to know and remember:
Reimbursement for Personally Procured Move (PPM), formerly known as Do-It-Yourself (DITY) moves
Section 051502 in Chapter 5 of the Joint Travel Regulations covers personally procured HHG transportation – aka PPM or DITY. The amendment made to the 2021 JTR is that the actual cost of the shipment is covered 100% of the maximum weight allowance. When you find your own movers, or move yourself, the government will reimburse up to 100% of your weight allowance utilizing the Monetary Allowance Method is used to determine the amount the Government would cover for a move if Government-procured moving transportation was provided. Check the entitlements page of move.mil to determine your moving allowance when getting quotes from moving companies or when purchasing supplies and renting trucks to make your own move.
Pro-Gear Weight Entitlements
Whether you are doing your own move or having Government-procured movers move you, there are pro-gear entitlements. These pro-gear weights are not included in the household goods weights and are not counted against the full weight allowance. This means if your total weight of household goods allowance is 10,000 pounds, the pro-gear is allowance of 2,000 pounds per service member is allowed separate from this.
The service member may claim up to 2,000 pounds of pro-gear. The spouse may claim up to 500 pounds of work-related pro-gear. The pro-gear must be separated from the household goods and marked as such on the moving inventory. This can be accomplished by telling the movers what pro-gear is and asking them to mark the weight on the inventory. Technically, the pro-gear is supposed to be weighed separately from household goods, but historically the moving company has guessed the weights and removed that weight from the total inventory.
Pro Gear is referred to as Professional Books, Papers, and Equipment (PB&E) in Chapter 5 of the JTR, specifically 054309. If you have questions about what counts as pro-gear, refer to your service’s travel office as each service uses the JTR as a baseline and provides specifications for what is covered. For example, furniture and printers are not typically allowances as pro-gear.
Shipping a vehicle for CONUS moves
Part E in Chapter 5 outlines shipment of a privately-owned vehicle, or POV, in the Continental United States (CONUS). Eligibility for shipment of a POV at government expense is authorized when orders are received for change in a ship’s home port or the service member is physically unable to drive or have sufficient time to drive to report to the new duty station.
The most common use of a POV shipment is by the service member during a move or PCS. A service member with eligible dependents (who are on the orders) can ship a POC for a CONUS PCS if all of the following conditions are met:
- The dependent is eligible for transportation at the Government expense and is relocating with the Service member – aka – the dependent is on the military orders to move.
- The Service member or the eligible dependent owns more than one POV that must be relocated.
- The Service member and all the eligible dependents travel at one time in one POV
To recap – if the Service member has eligible dependents on the orders, the Service member and/or dependent has more than one vehicle, and the eligible dependents on military orders are all traveling in one vehicle, you meet the conditions to ship a vehicle.
The reimbursement is based on the government calculated rate. The reimbursement is not for the entire cost of shipping the POV, and instead is the difference in the monetary allowance in lieu of transportation (MALT). This is a JTR travel entitlement that is handled through your service branch’s administrative office, not DMO. The reimbursement provided by the government is based on the monetary allowance provided by the government for driving two POVs to the new duty station. Refer to Table 5-63 within the Joint Travel Regulations for the breakdown.
If your authorization to ship a POV is provided, no allowances will be provided for commercial travel at government expense for the service member or dependent, government-provided transportation, reimbursement for TDY or MALT to drop off or pick up POV, Government-expensed POV storage, or transportation of a POV within CONUS if the service member was stationed overseas unless it was stored at the Government expense due to inability to transport POV outside of CONUS.
These are just three of the reimbursements and allowances provided by the JTR. The latter is typically well-known by your service branch’s transportation office. The former two points are not always known, so ensure that they are aware of the appropriate allowances and written in your orders. If your administrative office or moving office is unaware of these allowances, print off the specific pages and ask nicely to talk to someone in charge regarding them. You may be able to share the changes with the office and provide a smooth move for not only your family but others as well.
I’ve got a lot to say, they are “Teachable Moments.” So learn from other’s mistakes, I’ve submitted them in two parts. So Keep reading…
I am a retired US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) with over 30-years on active duty. I have pretty much seen it all; not everything, but enough to offer some advice…
I want to commend Heather Walsh on a wonderful article. Now, the question is how many of you will follow her advice or will you trust the “Barracks Lawyer” or the “‘ol Sarge whose been around forever…”?
Take it from this ‘ol Chief, you’ll be hung out to dry if you follow someone else’s advice. Get The JTR, download it to your computer, laptop, or tablet, and review it. It’s huge, but you do not have to read everything, but do the text searches for items specific to your situation. The government is just not going to agree that your spouse’s grandmother’s antique china is priceless and irreplaceable if damaged during shipping…
I’m going to tell you some War Stories from my past and let them be a warning to you, history repeats…
But first, you need to know there are two types of War Stories.
There are those that really happened, the teller has firsthand facts, it either happened to him/her or they saw it happen… And the teller will start their story off with “This really happened…”
Then there are those where the teller heard about something through the grapevine, gossip, a bull session, or is just plain making it up just to sound important… There tellers will start their story off with “This ain’t no shit…”
When I was stationed at NATO, HQ Air South, Naples, Italy, this really happened…
Many of the folks stationed overseas took advantage of the shopping and bought lots of collectables. Some of the popular items to collect were Hummel Figurines from Germany, Lladro Figurines from Spain, and Capodimonte Figurines from Italy. Some of the folks were mailing back items all the time for their relatives to collect of even to sell. Back then Customs really ignored personal mail. And if you did not get ridiculous, no one had to pay customs duties… And then there were those who bought every individual piece they could find and shipped them back in their house hold shipments. Back then, Custom Agents usually paid a quick visit to everyone who was having their HHG packed to make sure all was OK. Back then, you could ship your entire HHG weight limit in Hummels, or whatever, as long as it did not look like you were running a business (profiteering…). One individual and his wife ran a small business mailing back collectables to the states and someone back home either stored them or sold them. But, again, they were small timing it, just a few pieces in the mail… Now they were PCSing back to the states and they decide to stock up on Hummels or whatever and bought cases of the them directly from the factory. But when Customs stopped by and found dozen of factory boxed items, Customs refused to allow them to be shipped in the house hold goods. He raised a stink, the commander chewed him out and he did not get them shipped in his household goods. He tried to sell them on post, but who needed them in the bulk he had? He untimely had to pay to have them shipped back himself and they had a ton of Custom Duties to pay…
This case, the Moral is: Do not try to cheat the system, it has a way of getting back at you…
This next story is my personal story and it also occurred when I was stationed at NATO, HQ Air South, Naples, Italy, and this really happened…
When I received my orders to Italy, I went to the Transportation Office to get advice about shipping my firearms. I had numerous handguns and rifles. They pulled out a regulation, possibly the JTR, not sure, it was in the mid ’70’s and that’s a looooong time ago. The copies of the reg they gave me showed a list of weapons that could not be shipped. All were war weapons, Springfields, M1 Garands, Mausers, AK-47s and various other weapons used in some war. At no time did the regulation mention “war-time calibers,” like 7mm, 45 caliber, 30-06, 9mm, etc… My weapons included a Remington Model 700 in 7mm Magnum, a Winchester Model 70 in 30-06, a Ruger Old Army Black Powder, Single Action Revolver in 45 Caliber, and a Colt Commander Pistol in 9mm and several more. When I arrived in Italy, I was briefed that all firearms have to be registered with the Italian Carabinieri; their office was on Post. I brought a list of weapons, receipts of ownership, and HHG inventory list to the Carabinieri office and in short order, a senior officer from their office and I were in my Commander’s Office. It turned out that I had imported numerous illegal weapons… The caliber of the bullet fired by these weapons also made them illegal to import. All of these weapon were seized by the Carabinieri and there was no recourse but to yield to the confiscation of them. The Commander, the IG, the Jag all were of no help. I had broken the law and the law only allowed for confiscation, I could not even send them back to the states. They were gone, even the Ruger Old Army Black Powder Pistol that fired a round lead ball, it was 45 caliber and that was all that mattered. The only weapons not taken were two 22 caliber pistols, a 22 caliber rifle, and my 12 gauge shotgun. Two years later, I was in the NATO Sporting Goods store, they also sold weapons there and I found a Smith and Wesson, Model 29, 8-3/8 inch barrel, in 44 magnum (yeah, a Dirty Harry special…). I immediately bought it and submitted the paperwork to the Carabinieri office. Guess what, I was denied permission to buy the weapon, because I had imported too many handguns into the country. You were allowed four handguns, and I only had the two 22s left, but the Carabinieri still counted the Ruger Old Army and the Colt Commander Pistol, even though I was never going to see those weapons again. So I was not allowed to buy the S&W 29… In spite of all this, I still cherish my assignment to Italy as my best…
So, the moral here is… Well I don’t quite know. I went to the right people, they checked the regulation, I did what I was suppose to do. Perhaps, in hindsight, I should also have sent my sponsor the list and had him check from his side in Italy. But who would have thought? So, I guess the moral is even if you do everything right, you can still be wrong…
This was the first of Two Installments. I hope you found them entertaining and informative. Learn from others mistakes… Keep Reading…
This is the second of the two installments. I hope I have not bored you and that you’ll keep reading. These stories are a whole lot entertaining than reading the JTR, but no less beneficial.
More stories that really happened!
Later, back in the ’80, while I was assigned to Griffiss AFB, NY, this really happened…
A married Staff Sergeant (E-5) in my unit was PCSing and decided to do a DITY move. He and his wife really had little more than a sofa, bed, a chair, and not much more… He was authorized 9,000 pounds and he estimated that his stuff came to less than 1,000 pounds. Then he and his buds brain stormed (probably with the advice of the ‘ol Sarge) and he decides to rent a large U-haul truck and put his car in the back and get paid for the shipping weight of his car. Back then, the U-Haul trucks had humps in the back where the wheel-wells were. To get his car loaded, he built wooden ramps to drive his car over the wheel-well humps. He drove to a loading dock, backed the truck up and drove his car up onto the ramp. He then starts driving his car into the truck and his front wheels easily roll over the wooden ramps he built. What he did not consider was that as his front wheels passed over the hump and rolled back to the floor of the truck, his car high-sided on the humps and his front wheels just hung dangling over the front of the humps. Now he was stuck, no matter how fast he spun his rear tires in drive or reverse, he was hung up with the rear of his car outside the truck. He then drives off, with his car hanging off the back of U-Haul looking for help. He does not get far, the local police pull him over, they will not let him drive the truck like that, they contact the base security police, the SPs notify the First Sergeant, the unit Commander, and a whole bunch of other folk. It soon becomes evident that he is trying to cheat the DITY system and defraud the Air Force… It did not go well for him. He received an Article 15, lost a stripe, and lost the PCS move… How do I know all this, I and the whole squadron had to sit through a very long presentation by this individual (part of his punishment) and then it was followed by a briefing given by a Lawyer from the JAG’s Office. Our Commander was furious; he was humiliated, and constantly reminded about this by his peers. And that was probably the longest Commander’s Call I ever had to sit through…
So, the Moral here is, don’t try to cheat the weight limit, what is there to gain, a few hundred bucks but there is so much to loose too…
This last story occurred in the mid ’90’s, while I was assigned to Goodfellow AFB, TX, and it really happened…
One of my senior NCO was retiring and he was setting up his final HHG packing and he had to coordinate carefully with transportation because he had a dependent that required special handicap equipment and on top of that, he had a ton of “pro-gear.” His intent was to do a two-part move that involved more than two parts. He wanted to do a partial DITY move with some of the handicap equipment that would be required while they looked for a permanent home and the rest of his HHGs would be put into long-term storage until they found that home. As I understood it, there are special rules and weight allowances for special medical equipment that did not count against his weight allowance… But as I said, there were more than “two parts.” He also had a tone of “pro-gear.” As Computer Programmers/Systems Analysis/Network Administrators we’ve collected a lot of computers, networking equipment, and books… And he was no exception… However, he went way farther, he also taught at a local college and offered computer classes in his home. His “pro-gear” consisted of at least ten desktop computers, computer desks, and all the associated networking equipment. It seems that over his last few PCS moves he had managed to always get these items classified as “Professional Equipment.” But during this last assignment, he really increased the volume of his equipment so he could teach those classes in his home. But Transportation was not going to let him claim more than one desktop computer, a laptop, and his books as pro-gear. The rest would count against his normal HHG. Oh, he raised a stink and tried several options; he claimed he was “grandfathered” since he had shipped so much in the past. I loved the explanation the chief of transportation gave him for that one. The Chief apologized for not correctly weighing his pro-gear in the past and told my SNCO not to worry because they would not be trying to collect the shipping charges from him for the excess weight he shipped in the past… Next, my SNCO threw out the “disability card” and tried to bury transportation under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) claiming a whole bunch of “gobbledygook,” but that did not fly since all the medical equipment was not counting against his weight limit. In the end, after his HHG were weighed and the medical gear and his limited “pro-gear” were subtracted from the total, he went over his limit by several thousand pounds. I do not know if he ever had to pay for the excess shipment or not, it has been my experience that when someone cries “financial hardship” they usually win… We are a very forgiving service…
As Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) in the movie, “Magnum Force” says to his lieutenant, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
So the moral is: read the JTR and know your limits…
Keep your ear to the ground and your nose to the wind. As always — Aim High!
Chief