SDDC tests PowerTrack on household goods shipments

SDDC tests PowerTrack on household goods shipments    The U.S. military’s Surface Deployment and Distribution Command has started testing a U.S. Bank-developed automated transportation payment program, PowerTrack, on its household goods shipping program.
   According to SDDC spokesman John Randt, 15 household goods shipments booked from seven different sites were successfully processed through PowerTrack Monday. Future household good shipments will be managed under SDDC’s “Families First” program, which is scheduled for full implementation by October 2005.
   In 1998, the Defense Department began using PowerTrack to shift away from a long-entrenched paper government bill of lading process to one with a more commercial-like structure.
   In 2001, the Defense Department mandated the use of PowerTrack under Management Reform Memorandum No. 15, which requires the military to implement electronic systems to automate and standardize its transportation processes with the commercial sector.
   It used to take the military 30 to 90 days to pay its carriers for transportation services. PowerTrack has reduced many transaction times to three days or less.
   In 2003, SDDC (formerly the Military Traffic Management Command) processed about 4.2 million transactions, valued at about $1.97 billion, through PowerTrack. There are 880 participant SDDC carriers, including railroads, trucks, vessel and barge operators and pipelines, on the system.
   SDDC uses more than 900 moving firms nationwide to provide household goods transportation services both domestically and internationally.