Household Goods Shipments in Excess of Military Servicemembers' Authorized Weight Allowances

GAO reviewed the traffic management procedures for the movement and storage of personal property shipments and the weighing and reweighing of such shipments. Specifically, GAO determined the percentage of these shipments that exceeded the military members' authorized weight allowances and what measures could be taken to reduce the incidence of overweight shipments.

The statistics from the different branches of the services were compared and GAO found that: (1) in fiscal year 1979, the percentage of household goods shipments that exceeded the authorized weight allowances equaled 5.7 percent; (2) the majority of servicemembers were able to stay within their authorized weight allowances, but this did not mean that hardships were not created because of the limits; (3) the proposed increase in weight allowances was based on erroneous assumptions; (4) there are inequities in the amounts allowed for junior enlisted members and higher ranks; and (5) premove counseling could be improved which would reduce the number of overweight shipments.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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