Summary: As the manager of the worldwide personal property moving and storage program of the Department of Defense (DOD), the Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC) is responsible for periodically evaluating the program's overall efficiency, economy, cost effectiveness, and adequacy. MTMC is proposing to automate carrier evaluations nationwide under its carrier evaluation system (CERS) and to expand CERS worldwide. CERS was developed to quantifiably measure the level of service that carriers were providing. To promote quality improvements, it offered more shipments to higher performing carriers. It was also designed to standardize implementation of quality control policies. Performance factors considered are ontime pickup and delivery, absence of loss or damage, customer satisfaction, and shipment handling and administrative procedures. In making allocations, both cost and performance are considered. Although performance is a key factor in tonnage distribution, rates are the first consideration.
Although the CERS objective of high quality service at reasonable cost is good, current implementation practices preclude DOD from attaining this objective. GAO found that while administrative costs are increasing, additional benefits attributable to CERS are questionable. GAO also found that: (1) DOD emphasis on awarding shipments by cost over quality of service limits the usefulness of CERS; (2) the current evaluation process is unreliable; (3) the scores and rankings of CERS do not reflect quality of service; (4) the complexity of CERS causes confusion and diverse implementation; and (5) CERS does not appear workable in the peak shipping season.
