Vehicles: Law Authorizing Shipment of Service Members' Vehicles Needs Revision
Abstract
Under current law, Department of Defense (DOD) service members are entitled to the movement of a privately owned vehicle (POV) at government expense when they are required to make a permanent change of station or when the home port of the vessel to which they are assigned is changed. The *Joint Military Travel Regulations restrict this entitlement to members ordered to make a permanent change of station to, from, or between places outside the United States. Except in the case of home port changes, the regulations do not provide for the transportation of POVS at government expense within the continental United States (CONUS). Although members are entitled to monetary allowances when driving their POVS to new duty stations in CONUS, such allowances are only in lieu of commercial transportation for the member and/or his family. As you requested, we reviewed the shipment of service members POVS to determine if current legislative requirements adversely affect the efficient and economical movement of these vehicles. We found that the existing law imposes two restrictions that result in excess costs to the government and other problems. These restrictions are (1) the major portion of POV shipments must be on ocean vessels and (2) the shipment of POVS is only authorized between customary ports. We estimate that during fiscal year 1985 these restrictions resulted in DOD incurring over $3.1 million m additional transportation costs, The restrictions also increased costs for mileage reimbursement to members and delayed the shipment and delivery of vehicles by up to 4 months. In addition, DOD paid about $10.2 million in travel time for service members stationed in Germany to deliver or pick up their POVS or about $4.8 million more than if members were permitted to deliver or pick up their vehicles at a location closer to their duty stations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- AD1174824
Entities
People
- Frank C. Conahan
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office