Survey: Feds less satisfied than private employees with moving services

A survey released Tuesday by J.D. Power and Associates suggests that federal employees and military personnel who have relocated are less satisfied with their experiences with moving companies than their counterparts in the private sector.

"Part of it tends to be that the use of such things as storage facilities increase likelihoods of damage," said Michael Drago, the senior account manager for J.D. Power's real estate and construction industries practice.

Drago said he believes that government and military personnel are more likely to put their belongings in storage during a move, and as a result, they "incur damage more frequently than [private sector] personnel."

On a scale of 1 to 1,000, with 1,000 indicating the most positive experience, nonfederal employees rated their satisfaction with moving services in long-distance moves at an average of 812. Civilian federal employees scored their experience at an average of 756, and military personnel had an average rating of 717.

For local moves, nonfederal employees' satisfaction averaged 780, while civilian and military government employees put that number slightly lower, at 743.

The survey covered 7,000 people who had used a full-service moving company in the previous 18 months, and took place between April and July of this year.

The Defense Department has been trying to address service members' problems with relocation since the 1990s, and began working to develop software called the Defense Personal Property System in 2004 to support a new moving program, Families First.

The system was designed to help service members find not just the lowest-priced service, but the one with the best value, by using Web-based customer satisfaction surveys to determine which companies deserved more Defense business.

Families First also attempts to address one source of dissatisfaction identified by J.D. Power by increasing the size of reimbursements for lost or damaged belongings. Previously, service members received the depreciated value of the item, which was often not enough to purchase a replacement.

The 2007 Defense Authorization Act gave the military until March 2008 to implement the new reimbursement scale.

A May Government Accountability Office report said the Defense Personal Property System was two years behind schedule, and that "DoD's personal property program faces many management challenges -- especially staffing, in addition to program requirements and funding problems -- because it has not employed comprehensive planning."

In his response, Jack Bell, deputy undersecretary of Defense for logistics and materiel readiness, said the Pentagon concurred with GAO's recommendations, and planned to report to Congress on the program's status in August.

The Defense Department could not confirm Thursday afternoon whether that report had been sent to Capitol Hill on schedule.