After another busy transfer season, the Permanent Change of Station (PCS) Assist Team is closing for the year on Sept. 15, 2024.
After this date, the PCS Assist Team call-center phone line and email will deactivate. Service members moving after the 15th should contact their local commands for assistance and use the resources that continue to be available to them, including Personnel and Administration shops and regional Transportation Offices.
During the season, the PCS Assist Team identified two recurring issues that members should be aware of for upcoming transfer seasons:
1) Missing weight tickets
This has become a significant cause of problems for Personally Procured Moves (PPM), often delaying reimbursement. The PPM checklist explicitly states that certified weight tickets are mandatory. But many members don’t realize there is a process to get what’s known as a “constructed weight, which will allow for reimbursement.
Here are the most common scenarios and what can be done in each case:
- Member subcontracts a moving company that then doesn’t obtain weight tickets. Approving Officials (AO) can help by leveraging Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) 051502-D, which allows for reimbursement via constructed weight in lieu of weight tickets. A word of caution, hiring a moving company on your own is very much a “buyer beware!” moment. Be careful as these companies are often not approved government contractors for a reason.
- Member rents a vehicle (e.g. U-Haul) and then doesn’t obtain weight tickets. AOs can help by leveraging JTR 051502-C, which allows for reimbursement of a rental vehicle, building once again, a constructed weight in lieu of weight tickets, allowing for reimbursement up to the Government’s cost.
- Member uses a Personally Owned Vehicle (POV) but doesn’t obtain weight tickets. Unfortunately, AOs cannot help in this case. JTR doesn’t support reimbursement without weight tickets. So, if you loaded up your Subaru but just forgot to get weight tickets, there’s nothing that can be done here. Remember your weight tickets folks!
The PCS Assist Team has guided members and administrators alike through the JTR supported constructed weight process.
2) PCS Dependent Travel Commercial Airfare
This year alone, the PCS Assist Team responded to 52 requests for assistance to rectify un-ticketed dependent airfare reservations. In these situations, dependents arrived at airports (or noticed that they were lacking tickets within three days of departure) with an un-ticketed airfare reservation.
What to do: Due to ETS limitations on PCS travel, SATO requires a work-around to ticket dependent airfare reservations. This work-around has been widely socialized via ETS login page guides. AOs must understand this work-around and execute it on behalf of the member. Otherwise, dependents’ airfare will not ticket, which has continued to be a problem this transfer season. All dependents utilizing commercial airfare for their PCS must follow the linked guide, specifically “CBA Dependent Business Process” for their reservations to ticket. Keep an eye out for future communications regarding dependent reservations and PCS travel.
PCS Assist, which operates out of the Pay and Personnel Center (PPC), was launched five years ago to help members with uniquely difficult relocations or moving challenges. This year, the six-member team handled more than 1,100 inquiries, and recouped $215,000 for members. They helped members with everything from delayed Household Goods moves and non-ideal pack-out dates, to temporary lodging expense counseling and ferry reservation alternatives.
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