Suddath CEO: Congress should take a closer look at changes to military household moves

The Southeast is home to the highest concentration of military bases in the country, including three major installations in Jacksonville alone. As president and CEO of Jacksonville-based The Suddath Companies, one of the largest moving companies in the United States, I have a unique perspective on the complexities and critical importance of efficiently relocating military families.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing our industry’s ability to continue to service military communities is the pending implementation of the Global Household Goods contract by the Department of Defense’s U.S. Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM. The new program places a single private consortium, with limited experience in military moves, in charge of coordinating all military relocations.

Implementation of the contract threatens to upend a military moving industry responsible for moving over 400,000 service members and their families each year around the U.S. and abroad. This switch to an untested monopoly jeopardizes the military’s ability to efficiently relocate its service members, in turn potentially impacting military readiness and retention.

TRANSCOM’s original purposes were well-intended — to improve the level of service to our military families — a goal that’s been largely achieved without the Global Household Goods contract and the upheaval it will bring.

To TRANSCOM’s credit, it has worked with the industry over the past few years to improve performance and give more business to those movers who achieved the highest standards. Besides customer satisfaction surveys and price, movers are now rated for on-time pickup and delivery, as well as claims ratios.

They suffer penalties such as imposed blackouts for nonperformance. All this promotes healthy competition, which is good for the service member and for our industry.

The results demonstrate that the current program is producing strong results. By its own measures, TRANSCOM reports an 88.9% satisfaction rate during the peak season and 93% satisfaction in 2024 so far. Given that, the risk-vs-reward of throwing out a system that is working doesn’t add up.

Over nearly 75 years, Suddath has moved more than 1 million active-duty military families to and from Florida’s military bases. We strive to make every moving experience as smooth as possible, which is why we continue to invest in people, process improvements and technology to elevate moving experiences for our military community.

The best providers in our industry continue to make this effort, even in an unprecedented global pandemic. This has contributed to marked improvements in the program over the past five years.

This industry has undergone significant changes since the concept of the Global Household Goods contract was introduced in 2019 — including the pandemic, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions and rising fuel costs. Thus, its original rationale no longer aligns with current realities. As a result, many established moving companies, including Suddath, have so far refrained from committing to the contract.

If the contract is fully implemented, the government contractor will have a de facto monopoly in the military moving industry. TRANSCOM’s back-up options for conducting service member relocations will also be extremely limited.

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The Moving and Storage Conference of the American Trucking Association has rightly called for a Government Accountability Office review of the Global Household Goods Contract before moving forward with implementation. Grassroots organizations such as Movers for America have echoed this call.

A strategic pause to evaluate the program and analyze the industry’s grave concerns about viability — and its potential negative impacts on service members — is fully warranted, given the potential ramifications of full implementation.

Suddath and many others in the moving industry have long been dedicated partners with DOD and TRANSCOM, contributing to our national security by proudly and efficiently relocating military families. This is not the time to ignore the universal concerns of an entire industry and trusted partners, especially when doing so could put our service families and our nation’s security at risk.

Mike Brannigan, president and CEO, Suddath Companies

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.