Your orders & the location you’re going to will determine what your moving entitlements are. Scheduling your TMO/Personal Property briefing should be your #1 priority once you have orders in hand. The main types of moves that concern PCS’ing members are:
- Commercial Carrier (HHG): Pack/Pick-up dates can take 2-12 weeks depending on the season. In this case, Uncle Sam hires a commercial company to pack your belongings & ship them to your destination or place them in storage. Pro tip: keep jewelry and firearms away during this time unless you’re shipping them. In which case, make sure you see which box they get packed into AND make sure it’s annotated on the High Value Form. Firearms will require pre-approval from TMO.
- Unaccompanied Baggage (UB): For overseas moves, the Gov’t allows you to ship some items by air for things you need right away (i.e. cookware, baby items, bedding, bicycle, etc.). It takes about 45 days from pickup to delivery so it’s a good idea to ship your UB early.
- Do-It-Yoursef (DITY): Whether you’re doing a full or partial DITY move, the Gov’t will reimburse you up to 95% of what it would have cost them to pay a commercial carrier. Depending on where you’re moving to/from and how much weight you move, you can earn anything from a couple hundred bucks to several thousand dollars. Even if the bulk of your items are shipped by commercial carrier, the luggage you haul in your car is typically worth the hassle to complete your initial DITY briefing. Note: DITY moves must be pre-approved PRIOR to your move—retroactive payments aren’t authorized. Joe’s resident 2T071 once processed a full DITY move from Hawaii to South Dakota. The member’s total expenses were $5,022 & he was reimbursed approximately $18,000. That move took some time and planning, which included procuring a shipping container, transportation of the container from residence to HI port, vessel transport, and CA port to final destination transport. Don’t expect this level of return on a CONUS to CONUS move.
- Temporary Storage: You are allotted 90 days temporary storage for all PCS moves. In the event you aren’t ready to move into your new home, your HHGs will automatically go into temporary storage status until you are ready. TMO can approve up to an additional 90 days of free temporary storage, at their discretion, should you need it. If requesting an extension, be sure you allow plenty of time for TMO to process your request–remember the adage, “a failure to plan on your part, does not constitute an emergency on mine.”
- Non-Temporary Storage (NTS): NTS is typically reserved for members traveling overseas. Anything that you do not want to take with you to your new location will be placed into NTS for the duration of the assignment on your orders. Note: If you extend or PCS to another OCONUS location, YOU must notify the TMO/HHG office so they can extend your NTS entitlement. Failure to do this may result in your NTS storage going into default since the Gov’t will stop paying your storage bill. Eventually, the storage facility owners will auction off your belongings.
- POV/Vehicle Storage/Shipping: Depending on your destination and what your orders state, you may be authorized to ship/store 1 vehicle. If authorized, you’ll be allowed to choose once or the other, but not both.
When a discrepancy exists between your orders and the regulations, the orders will prevail. Therefore, it is important to check with your local TMO/HHG office to confirm the accuracy of the entitlements specified in your orders. Errors should be resolved ASAP.
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