• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

PCS Thread

alabama_matt said:
Does anyone recommend a place that I can actually weigh my vehicle at?
Click to expand...
Naval Station Newport has weigh scales...no charge. :D You can usually get it done at big truck stops where you see the big CAT signs. Also, moving companies sometimes have scales you can use as well. Just have to open the phone book and find out where they're at.
 
Hmmmm...tips from 6 PCS's?

-Penske Truck Leasing They have new, well cared for equipment, guarantee your equipment reservation (what you asked for is what you get when you want it), offer free changes to the reservation (which allows you to reserve waaaay in advance saving lots of money and then change the reservation as needed), guarantee a diesel truck above 20' (again, saving money), offer free unlimited mileage (as opposed to a mileage quota), and are generally a good company to do business with. UHaul does none of this!

-Always do a partial DITY. As specified above...my method is for the wife and I to start packing things early, and stop when we get tired of it. We don't pack things that we find valuable (free full replacement insurance with the gov't move), are a pain in the ass to pack...or things that we just don't feel like packing. Moving all the "easy stuff" my wife and I usually end up moving about 2/3'ds of what we own and have averaged making about 3 grand depending on mileage.

-Storage units Generally I am all for savin gevery penny I can...However on the last two PCS's the wife and I put everything we moved ourselves into a storage unit at our cost. Why? Well, if you have alot of stuff, having all of it in dissaray at you house at once can be alot to manage. We set our moves up so when the government delivers, we unpack what they bring...This enables you to get the basic house tidy and functional, then, as your time permits, you can go get a load of stuff here and there and then unpack it in a fairly organized house. This has saved us alot of hassle and discomfort. Also, if the government movers can't deliver for some time, it allows you to still have some of your house set up and maybe functioning while you wait. Well worth the 100$ for the storage unit IMHO.

-Know what you are entitled to Its your repsonsibility to maximize your PCS benefit. There are receipts worth keeping. When you get your advanced operating allowance and final payment, they are witheld at 28% (I believe). The idea is that the government wants to tax you on your PROFIT. You can get some of this money back by knowing what you are entitled to. The cost of weighing your goods twice (usually about 10$ total), the cost of renting equipment, gas (huge), tolls, oil, boxes, tape, dolly etc...are all direct moving expenses and will not be subject to tax witholding if you submit the receipts! Don't give away money that you don't have to!

Also wanted to reiterate some of the above...

5. Get the packers, loaders, unloaders lunch and drinks. It is hard work and these guys aren't paid that much. They will really appreciate it.
Click to expand...
This is solid gold. Treat people decently. Cold drinks and a sandwhich go a hell of a long way to getting movers to give a rat's ass about your stuff...and its the right thing to do.

6. Don't hover, but keep an eye on the packers and loaders. Things like CDs, DVDs, video games, etc can easily walk away.
Click to expand...

It is after all, your stuff...be polite, be courteous but protect yourself as well. Most of the movers I have worked with are professionals. Simple, salt of the earth folks...but hard working and professional. Some aren't.
 
alabama_matt said:
Does anyone recommend a place that I can actually weigh my vehicle at?
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's still there, but there was a place up off 29 I went to when I moved to San Diego. Had a full pad that you could roll your vehicle onto. If you google what you want, you may come up w/ the answer, since it's pretty common to have to get vehicles weighed, I just can't remember the name or even the cross-street the place was on. Probably around 9 Mile, since I lived on University.
 
If you call the property office they'll give you a list. I went to a little place on Navy Blvd where it curves up to Garden St. called Gulf Coast Box & Tape, I think. Pretty easy in and out. Most bases usually have a free one somewhere but these can sometimes be a hassle. At NASP, I think its up by POL. If all else fails just get weighed at a truck stop before you pull off the interstate.
 
Norfolk PPO TIP:

Learned from recent experience with this less than stellar office. When completing the smart web move application, copy and paste your orders directly into an e-mail vice attaching them. They used the excuse that they couldn't open the attachment to complete my package and schedule the movers, it only took them 11 days to finally tell me this. (good luck getting anyone on the phone at that place.....30 on hold each time i called) If you find yourself getting ready to deal with this particular PPO.......go wait in line and talk in person, electronic communication of any kind is a recipe for disaster.
 
Have a list made up ahead of time with all the expensive items in your house on it......before the movers leave make sure everything on your list is clearly annotated on the movers inventory. Detail is key....Xbox 360 with 12 games, 42 inch Sony TV-model XXXX etc. Should greatly decrease the chance of your stuff disappearing in the move.
 
Pcola04/30 said:
Have a list made up ahead of time with all the expensive items in your house on it......before the movers leave make sure everything on your list is clearly annotated on the movers inventory. Detail is key....Xbox 360 with 12 games, 42 inch Sony TV-model XXXX etc. Should greatly decrease the chance of your stuff disappearing in the move.
Click to expand...

The movers are also supposed to put the serial # on the inventory.

Also, anything expensive and small (like jewelry or the baseball signed by Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale my Grandpa caught at the LA Coliseum) I move myself. Pack it in a suitcase, lock it in your car while the movers are there and take it in the hotel with you on the road. Alot of times the movers are very professional but the packers or helpers are picked up locally and might as well have been picked up off the street. My last move I had to throw one dude out for yelling at my wife and we caught a female packer stuffing things down her sweatpants. Of course, you get a voicemail at the PPO.
 
Pcola04/30 said:
Have a list made up ahead of time with all the expensive items in your house on it......before the movers leave make sure everything on your list is clearly annotated on the movers inventory. Detail is key....Xbox 360 with 12 games, 42 inch Sony TV-model XXXX etc. Should greatly decrease the chance of your stuff disappearing in the move.
Click to expand...

I'll be dealing with the Norfolk PPO here in a week or so. I'll be taking all of this into consideration when the mover's come. Hopefully this PCS will go smoother than when I PCS'd to Norfolk three years ago.
 
Don't forget to request the DLA when you get to your destination if you are going PCS to PCS or married. It's through PSD not PPO and as far as I've seen its usually about an extra $2000 in your pocket.
 
Advance DLA. Same money, but it's in your pocket for gas money en route, deposits on arrival, etc.

If you're willing to do the extra paperwork, Partial DITY is a great deal. The Navy pays you to move the stuff you were going to move yourself anyway (i.e., all the need-right-away crap in the back of your car). Biggest hassles are the loaded/empty weight tickets (mostly a hassle finding the "Navy authorized" weigh scales) and the literally months-long wait for the money to come back. But hey, it's all Yankee Dollars, just don't expect it any time soon.

Norfolk PPO office: dealt with them for my last move. When you do the WebSmartMove, it gives you the option of emailing them a copy of your orders or walkng them in to the office. WALK THEM IN. Go there with five or six copies of your orders, NOT the originals, and watch them put the copies in your paper file.

Movers: Most common "fast ones" they like to pull are:
1. "We don't do unpacking". Yes they do, they're required by the contract to unpack everything and set up your disassembled furniture, and more to the point, they've been paid to do it.
2. "We don't haul away the boxes". Ditto. One move, they pulled a "call this number, they'll haul away your boxes" scam on me, which I'm embarrassed to say, I fell for. The number they gave me was the PPO office.
3. "All our movers are certified". The company and the driver/gang boss will be, but not necessarily the crew. When I left San Diego, the packing crew didn't speak English and didn't know what they were doing - I'm pretty sure, in hindsight, they were just guys picked up from the day-labor lot.
 
While doing a partial DITY once, I pulled off the interstate into a truck stop that had a CAT scale to weigh the car. Pull up to the scale, and the control panel was located so that a trucker could operate it from his window, and there wasn't one ground level. Ended up balancing on top of one of those poles that are in front of gas pumps in order to use it. I'm sure if a trucker saw me, he was laughing himself silly!

Oh, and even better - I forgot to send in the paperwork for the partial DITY, so it was all for nothing!
 
phrogpilot73 said:
While doing a partial DITY once, I pulled off the interstate into a truck stop that had a CAT scale to weigh the car. Pull up to the scale, and the control panel was located so that a trucker could operate it from his window, and there wasn't one ground level. Ended up balancing on top of one of those poles that are in front of gas pumps in order to use it. I'm sure if a trucker saw me, he was laughing himself silly!

Oh, and even better - I forgot to send in the paperwork for the partial DITY, so it was all for nothing!
Click to expand...

10 bucks says that the people inside could have done it for you from their position, but they just wanted you to make an ass of yourself.:D
 
Dla

What is DLA supposed to cover exactly? Seems like a nice chunk of change and I'm definitely not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'm just curious.

Any former Mids have gouge on whether or not we actually get this, the site I was reading made it sound like we didn't used to as recently as a few years ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top