On March 7, 2025, the International Association of Movers (IAM) and the American Trucking Associations Moving & Storage Conference (ATA-MSC) jointly issued a formal communication to General Randall Reed, Commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, urging a response to an unanswered Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted in November 2023. Despite multiple follow-ups and appeals to federal oversight bodies, the request remains unresolved. The FOIA request is an effort to gain insight on TRANSCOM’s methodology for how DP3 rate ranges are set during the annual DP3 rate filing.
Below is the full text of the letter sent to General Reed:
March 7, 2025
General Randall Reed
Commander
U.S. Transportation Command
General Reed,
The International Association of Movers (IAM) submitted a freedom of information act (FOIA) request to the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) FOIA office November 6, 2023. To date, this request has not been answered.
We have engaged the USTRANSCOM FOIA office several times over the past 16 months. We have appealed for support to the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Joint Staff FOIA Public Liaison office. We have notified the Office of Government Information Services, who are the federal FOIA Ombuds. Our FOIA remains unanswered.
Our FOIA request (24-0017-F) seeks to understand the methodology used by your Defense Personal Property Management Office (DPMO) to establish their annual “competitive ranges” for the various shipping channels and codes of service where the moving industry rate files rates in support of the Defense Personal Property tender program or DP3. We are NOT requesting cost or pricing information, or trade secrets or any confidential business information. We are seeking the methodology used to determine how the DPMO establishes the various competitive rate ranges, that has historically been referred to as “rate reasonableness” ranges.
In light of the annual rate filing for the tender program that begins on March 9th, we believe the transportation service providers who support DP3 should have confidence that the competitive ranges being set for rates that will be effective from May 15, 2025 to May 14, 2026, are established using some consistent, legitimate, repeatable, and sustainable methodology to establish the ranges, and not an arbitrary process created on a whim based on your staff’s desire to reduce spending by some pre- determined percentage.
The moving industry represented by IAM and the American Trucking Associations Moving & Storage Conference (ATA-MSC) request your engagement to see that an answer is provided to this legitimate FOIA request. Thank you.
Sincerely,
