A Mandate From the Industry Largest Single Customer

The United States Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) has made it clear that they fully intend to require electronic inventories for all U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) personal property shipments starting May 15, 2023. TRANSCOM floated the idea of requiring their use starting in 2022, but received significant feedback from the moving industry that attempting to implement such a large requirement in such a short time would leave DoD without the capacity it needs.  Frankly, many do not believe DoD can maintain its current capacity even with backing up the mandate to May of 2023. It is estimated that the TRANSCOM sponsors about 400,000 shipments of household goods and personal effects annually making them the largest single customer of moving services in the world.

In their latest proposed draft changes (Dated Nov. 5, 2021 – scheduled to take effect May 15, 2022) to the Defense Personal Property Tender of Service which governs the procedural rules for service provision, they have included language which highly encourages electronic inventories which provide equal or better information than handwritten inventories. In addition, the document states that the “…use of electronic inventories will be mandatory effective 15 May, 2023.” The proposed rules are on pages 24 and 25 of the Defense Personal Property Tender of Service (Draft).

As the industry’s largest single customer, the procedures and rules for military moves can and do establish default industry standards which may be the catalyst the industry requires to finally speed up adoption of digital inventory technology.

Electronic Inventory Providers

List of ISO 17451-1 Compliant Electronic Inventory Providers

This list shows the electronic inventory providers who have verified that their product is mapped against the ISO 17451-1 standard, which is a requirement specified in the Global Household Goods Contract (GHC) Performance Work Statement (PWC). In TRANSCOM’s final version of the 2022 business rules it included an acknowledgement that electronic inventories would be mandatory 15 May 2023, but the business rules left out the explicit requirement with respect to ISO 17451-1. IAM has inquired with TRANSCOM whether they still intend to mandate ISO 17451-1 in the 2023 business rules on electronic inventories, and they confirmed they did as it is a requirement in the GHC.

List of Electronic Inventory Providers

This list shows the electronic inventory providers who have claimed their companies provide this capability on the IAMX.

IAM Sessions on Electronic Inventory Requirement

IAM’s U.S. Domestic Asset-Based (DAB) Mover Group will host a series of sessions designed to bring awareness on this issue to all impacted service providers. Join the session or watch on demand on IAM Learning.

Learn About ISO 17451-1

ISO 17451-1:2016 relates to the moving of household goods and personal effects. It provides the codification of items and their condition, the transportation modes and associated data relating to a shipment. 

The objective of ISO 17451-1 is to provide a common set of inventory codes which allow movers of household goods and personal effects to exchange shipment-related information with each other and with external partners.