A Personally Procured Move is moving your HHGs (house-hold goods) on your own terms, with or without government assistance. This works if you pay close attention to the required tasks/documentation and have the time to do so (also if you only live within the same city as your new assignment...). The other option is a government move, where you can expect to work with the Transporation Office to organize a contracted moving company to go to your current residence, pack up all your belongings, ship it to the next location, and unpack it for you. This tends to be untimely at times, as perhaps the paperwork slips through cracks or someone fails to see your need for household items to arrive on time. I've experienced this as a former dependent of my father, but am now lucky to have some insight on what I want to do with my goods. Government moves aren't all terrible- sometimes they are necessary. Just ensure you take stock of what you own (pre-pack your own things if it gives you a peace of mind), and make sure you understand all the paperwork and tasks involve at Transportation. But that's for government moves, so I won't expound on that here.
So far, my PPM consists of:
- Contacting the local Transportation office. For me, it happens to be FSH. If you don't have one nearby, try contacting the one at the duty station you'll be assigned to. Chances are, you'll get more info from the BOLC personnel via email. They will give you, usually, step-by-step instructions on what forms or tasks you must do in order to even process a PPM. I took the initiative to start the process on my ow before anyone contacted me to do so (I could've asked my recruiter for advice on this, and I did initially). IAW FSH's instructions, I have to first request this type of move online. I had to send in another form (their own office's, not some DA or DD form) and a copy of my orders. Info on your order number and date on the order is also needed to fill out data on the online form on move.mil.
- I read instructions. Yes, in detail. Because there are options for a PPM such as doing completely on your own or having the government do some of the packing/moving work. I am doing it all on my own. I need to ensure I find and use approved weigh stations and get those reciepts of empty (tare) and filled (gross) weights of my vehicles transporting goods. It could be your own POV or trailer, or both, or a rental van (I'm choosing a rental since my itty Honda won't get the couch).
- Right now, I'm waiting for my request for my PPM to be approve by a counselor at FSH (after they see all my paperwork) before I get printed forms needed to record my move (see move.mil for these forms).
Seems more complicated than just having the government say be here, do this, do that, etc. But I'm up for it, as it can actually help you pocket money since the government doesn't have to spend more on you. A caveate to this is that some of this money you may get can be taxable income. It says so on the move.mil website. I'm going to play it safe and not record more weight than I actually move.
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