The Chairman's Corner

By Jesse Chabot

August 2023

As of now, on my third article, they seem to be due faster and faster. I guess time flies when you’re having fun. I believe the overall theme of the summer is to expect the unexpected. As we think next week is slow, then suddenly, it’s booked up. I think at the end of every week we look at the next week with a little bit of shock that we don’t have any jobs, and then out of nowhere, we are able to fill all our days.

So now that summer is here and the temperatures start rising, so does the temperament of our guys. This always happens—crews get overheated, a little overworked, and get frustrated. We always have a little bit of blowback from the guys over their frustration with this thing or that thing during the summer. Maybe somebody’s not carrying their weight grabbing the heavy stuff or somebody doesn’t want to run stairs, and saying that, I don’t think that frustration or airing your frustration is a bad thing. This brings me to the biggest issue now facing our industry, the new Global Household Goods Contract (GHC). Let's take a little look back.

I remember when I started in the business, military movers were in the TOPS system, and we did a little bit of military, some office moving, and some locals. As I started, with the help of other CMSA members, I got pretty good at booking in the TOPS system. You had some slow days, but when that happened, we would stop by the base to talk to some of our friends down there, and then the next thing you know you would walk out with some jobs. When they started to announce the new DP3 system everybody was up in arms. I remember dreading the military breakout session that was at the CMSA convention that year, lots of frustration, lots of yelling, and a little bit of drinking obviously because of the uncertainty of what was to come. I remember telling a person from a move management company that was taking me out to lunch that when this new DP3 system comes I’m going to have to go to you and take you out to lunch. He laughed and said he would always take care of me (which was not the case). Under the new DP3 system, our military shipments slowly went down as agents with SCAC codes and larger hauling capacity would get work first, understandably. I will say, even going into the new DP3 system that there were guidelines of how work would be handled. So even though we were going into the unknown, we did have some kind of map on how it was going to be whether that was your quality score or how your rates were. And during the process, we had industry leaders involved, able to discuss it and explain how this new world was going to be.

We come into this GHC era with a lot of unknowns. Many movers have been reading social media moving groups, which contain a lot of comments from drivers who are frustrated about the unknown. They speak of the ability to drop their moving trailer and pick up another industry trailer and move on about their business, but they also seem ready for the fight. They are sharing the emails of GHC individuals so they can complain. Many are wondering why agents aren’t all up in arms like they’ve been before. Some agents will lose monetary value if they had SCAC codes because those will become worthless. SCAC holders also had leverage with move management to book more work. Now that goes away. Agents that are large haulers have always had more bookings because of their ability to haul under this system. Who’s to say their drivers will not just sign up with GHC directly causing hauling agents to lose more drivers?

As for agents who have a good relationship with a move management company or a van line, who’s to say that that will continue? Many just don’t understand as an industry why we are not asking more questions, and why we are not demanding to be a part of this process, seeing how this will literally be the biggest change to our industry ever.

If a lone agent speaks up they might have a concern that the GHC system, or any other system, might take some form of retribution. Several movers I have spoken with think that’s why a lot of people are just going with the flow. I believe this is where the leadership of the CMSA can have a positive impact. We should be pushing for the ATA MSC & IAM to be actively involved in protecting our interests. They should ask the hard questions, without fear of blowback. It is highly unlikely that their actions will stop the move to the GHC, but their efforts should be to look out for the collective interests of the movers who have the assets and provide the service to our military members. CMSA, ATA MSC, and IAM are the industry’s advocates, let them know our concerns.

August 2023 - CMSA Communicator