Minutes of the Industry Council Meeting January 24, 1996
Attendees-

Joseph Harrison, AMC
Scott Michael, AMC
Greg Wakefield, Alaskan Movers <
Peggy Wilken, NMSA
Don Mensch, HHGFAA
Alan Wohlstetter, HHGFAA/HHGFTB
David Germroth, HHGFAA
James Grohan, Mayflower Transit
Gary Cunningham, Unigroup, Inc.
James Calderwood, Zachert, and Scoutt
Bill Hobson, GSA
Carla Young, GSA
Judy Schroyer, GSA
Sam Skare, GSA

The meeting was called to order by Bill Hobson, Centralized Household Goods Traffic Management Program, General Services Administration, Kansas City, MO. It was announced that Judy Schroyer and Carla Young will begin conducting the quarterly meetings. Mrs. Schroyer will be working with the domestic issues and Ms. Young will be working with the international issues.

 1. Carrier Affiliation.

Since the household goods industry and marketplace have changed in the past few years, GSA is re-examining its present rule on carrier affiliation. As part of this examination, GSA has concluded that the present rule has been effective in keeping the program from becoming cluttered with "paper companies" that do not add capacity to their program. However, GSA may need to add additional criteria based on operational considerations to determine what is a "paper company" and what is an allowable carrier affiliation that provides additional capacity. In an effort to resolve this issue, GSA is seeking comments on how or whether to reframe this rule. The issue will be discussed further at the next Industry Council meeting, in March or April. One approach that is being considered would take the rule from the old ICC that each carrier who handles at least 100 COD shipments per year must file reports. Under this concept, any carrier who handled independently at least a certain number of shipments would be considered independent for GSA purposes. Qualifying shipments could either be COD shipments, national accounts, or some combination of those shipments and government shipments. This approach would ensure that only carriers who have independent operations and thus additional capacity to offer would be permitted to participate in the program.

 2. Tender of Service Reissues.

GSA is in the process of reissuing its Domestic Tender of Service. The next reissue is tentatively scheduled for October. Two changes are incorporated into this reissue: $85 shipment charge is replaced with a reference to Item 57 of the Government Rate Tender 1-W (which is presently $45); and the AIC code provisions are amended to reflect the reformatting of the AIC format from three digits to four digits. All old AIC codes are changed by adding a 0 to the end of the code.

The quarterly summary reports for the 3080s will be mailed to carriers shortly for the previous quarters that have not yet been distributed. AMC requested that GSA extend the deadline for federal agencies to return 3080s to GSA for scoring because of delays caused by the federal government shutdown. GSA indicated that it would consider this request.

 4. Customs Service.

GSA reported that 28 carriers filed rates for Customs Service shipments. The average discount for Customs Service shipments was 5.64% less than the average discount for domestic shipments under the GSA program. In the offshore area, the average Customs discount was 3.39% less than for GSA. Intrastate bids averaged 4.14% less for Customs than GSA. The Customs Service has accepted these bids. There is a likelihood that the services sought by Customs in this bid will be extended to other GSA participants in the next bidding cycle, despite the higher bids.

GSA reported that the Alaska program is working fine. There has been some confusion regarding the OTO program, especially among Federal agencies. OTOs are not to be used for locations that are accessible by road from one of the named points in the tariff. GSA is also reviewing who is eligible to bid on OTO shipments, specifically whether carriers who are not approved by GSA may participate in these bids. Please provide comments on this issue to the Associations.

 6. Self-funding Initiative

GSA has been receiving revenue from the shipment charge. They have been unable to detect any loss of participation from Federal agencies who might be concerned about the cost of this charge.

GSA anticipates replacing the CHRIS bulletin board with a World Wide Web page on the Internet within the next six months. The address for the site is http://www.kc.gsa.gov/fsstt/.

 8. ITOS Changes

The International Tender of Service will be changed to reflect the change in the shipment charge from $85 to $45.

GSA is reviewing the possibility of combining the Domestic Tender of Service with the International Tender of Service in a help file format on the computer. The rules that are common to both programs will be located in one section, and provisions specific to either program will be included in separate sections.

 10. Printing of International Rates

The International Rate Report will be available from GSA in the first part of February. The cost for a one year subscription is $125. GSA has also sent out a survey asking its customers what types of information they would like to receive in the future, and whether they would be willing to pay for this information.

 11. Customer Satisfaction Indices

Performance Indices (PIs) for international carriers have been developed using a variety of information provided by traffic managers, in addition to a few GSA Forms 3080 that have been sent in on these shipments. These PIs are in effect now, and are being used as one component in the sequencing of carriers on the international cost comparisons. They are combined with carriers' rates in a 70/30 split of quality/price. New PIs will be calculated using the same method each year, effective October 1 of each year. GSA will not be making this information available. GSA will develop an international customer satisfaction index (CSI) to replace the PI, effective October 1, 1998, based on shipment information collected starting January 1, 1997. On the domestic side, GSA is also reviewing the existing procedures for CSIs. One possibility is to separate intrastate, interstate, and off-shore CSIs.

 12. Restructuring International vs. Domestic

GSA is considering moving the offshore and Alaska shipments from the domestic program to the international program and Canada from the international program to the domestic program. These changes would reflect the type of service provided to these regions. Carriers should provide comments to the Associations on these or other proposed restructurings, including the treatment of Mexico.

 13. International Service Area Pair Assignments

Carriers were assigned service area pairs (SAPs) in the international program on the basis of two criteria: to ensure coverage to all countries and to give carriers areas where they have a strong commercial presence. GSA is willing to consider requests from the Associations that SAP assignments in countries where rates were not solicited would not count against the carrier's limit of SAPs. Thus, carriers who were given SAPs in remote locations with limited business would also be eligible to service shipments in locations where there is likely to be business, if this restructuring concept is approved by GSA.

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