POWERTRACK COVERS ALL OF MTMC’S DOMESTIC TRANSPORT BILLS

POWERTRACK COVERS ALL OF MTMC’S DOMESTIC TRANSPORT BILLS    In three years, the U.S. Military Traffic Management Command has successfully converted its entire domestic freight payment process from paper government bills of lading to a commercial system of electronic transactions.
   “This is an incredible achievement,” said Tom Hicks, coordinator of the MTMC program. “It pays the carriers promptly and provides us with a treasure trove of transportation data.”
   The military’s surface transportation logistics unit mandated the use of the PowerTrack payment system, developed by Minneapolis-based USBank, in the fall of 2000. Within months, most of the carriers switched to the system.
   In the last fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, PowerTrack paid $1.1 billion in MTMC transportation charges for 2.7 million transactions.
   There are 550 participating MTMC carriers. This includes about 430 trucking firms, 25 barge operators, 20 pipelines, 20 railroads, and 15 ocean carriers. Personal property movers are not on the system.
   For a sliding fee of 1 to 2 percent, contracted MTMC carriers are paid within several days for their transport services. USBank, in turn, is reimbursed by the Defense Finance & Accounting Service.
   “We’re often paid in less than three days … compared to the ‘paper environment,’ which often took upwards of 70 days,” said Jon Meyer, senior account manager for CSX Transportation.
   “The number of man-hours required to manage the military contract revenue has decreased significantly,” said Tony Nowotarski, director of government marketing for Maersk Sealand. “More importantly, the length of time it takes to receive payment has reduced dramatically from an average of 45 days to an average of 4.5 days.”