MTMC’s DEADLINE FOR TRUCKERS TO CONNECT TO POWERTRACK NEARS

MTMCÆS DEADLINE FOR TRUCKERS TO CONNECT TO POWERTRACK NEARS    Truckers that provide transportation service to the U.S. military have about a month left to connect with Minneapolis-based USBank’s PowerTrack automated payment system.
   PowerTrack is the online software system used by the U.S. Military Traffic Management Command, the overland and ocean transportation logistics arm for the armed forces, to speed payments to more than 300 commercial carriers.
   “The program has produced great efficiencies and economies for us,” said Tom Hicks, implementation director at MTMC. “Now we want to expand its use throughout our motor carrier freight system.”
   PowerTrack allows MTMC to compensate carriers within three days, compared to 30 to 60 days under the paper-intensive payment process of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
   The adoption of PowerTrack by the agency is part of the Defense Department’s Management Reform Memorandum No. 15, which calls for the use of electronic systems to automate and standardize military processes with the commercial sector.
   The deadline for truckers to convert to PowerTrack is Sept. 30. About 90 percent of Defense Department cargo shipped by truck is paid through PowerTrack.
   “The mandatory sign-up date allows us to bring the remaining 10 percent of our motor carrier partner business under PowerTrack umbrella,” said Ken Stombaugh, assistant for travel and traffic management policy for the Office of the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Transportation Policy.
   Some payments are also being made through PowerTrack to air, ocean, barge, pipeline and rail transportation firms.
   “We are going to expand PowerTrack to these carriers by Nov. 30,” Hicks said. “We are already testing the implementation of the system now with many of these firms.”