With this year's problematic peak moving season over, U.S. Transportation Command is looking ahead to avoid a repeat next year of delays in deliveries of troops' vehicles to and from overseas assignments.
Officials have given the contractor, International Auto Logistics, a deadline of Feb. 1 to brief the command on its plan to deal with next year's summer surge, Air Force Gen. Paul Selva said in a Defense Writers Group breakfast meeting Thursday.
"We will do an assessment of that surge plan and determine whether or not we believe — based on what we've learned about their capacity and their ability to operate inside the contract — about whether they've put a plan in place that's sufficient to get them through the summer surge," Selva said.
But he said he is keeping his options open regarding the future of the contract for moving troops' POVs to and from overseas locations. His options include maintaining the status quo, recompeting the contract and terminating the contract.
He declined to say which option may be getting heavier consideration.
IAL's performance has "improved markedly" over the last several months, Selva said, but the company's on-time delivery isn't where it should be, and he's "not letting them off the hook."
November's on-time delivery rate for vehicles was "in the mid 60 percent," Selva said, while the contract calls for 98 percent on-time deliveries.
"They know I'm not happy. Basically all the interested parties in this contract know I am not happy with their performance," Selva said.
IAL has been plagued by problems virtually from the day it took over the Defense Department contract May 1, with troops complaining about late deliveries and problems tracking vehicles online. Selva took over TRANSCOM four days later, on May 5.
The contract was awarded in October 2013, but due to protests from the previous contractor, IAL couldn't start until May, the beginning of peak moving season.
In mid-November, an IAL official said the backlog of vehicle deliveries had been substantially cleared, and the Web-based system that lets troops track their vehicles also has been improved. Wait times for those who phone the call center have substantially declined.
Asked if he thought there were any mistakes made in the contract award process, Selva said he hasn't found any, but he'll continue to look at his command's game plan. "There are no process errors that I can put my finger on, but that doesn't mean they're not out there," he said.
Selva said TRANSCOM has learned a lot about how to manage a contract of this magnitude, the command's such changeover in almost 20 years. The previous contractor had the contract for roughly 19 years.
"To be fair to everyone, we got very comfortable with the processes. Some of those processes we got comfortable with, we had to relearn. We have done that. Part of that has been just imposing hard-nosed oversight on the contract."
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
