[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 188 (Monday, September 29, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55947-55948]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-24612]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army


Proposed Mandatory Use of US Bank's PowerTrack System by 
Department of Defense Personal Property Transportation Service 
Providers

AGENCY: Department of the Army, DOD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC), as the 
Department of Defense (DOD) Traffic Manager for the Household Goods and 
Personal Property Program, proposes the mandatory use of U.S. Bank's 
PowerTrack System as the transaction and payment system for all DOD 
Transportation Service Providers (TSP), beginning with the 
implementation of Phase I of the Defense Future Personal Property 
Program, (Families First). Furthermore, the use of MTMC's Centralized 
Web Application (CWA) will also be mandatory. Implementation of 
PowerTrack at all Military Services and Coast Guard installations is 
the goal of Families First, which is the first step in moving toward 
the reengineered Personal Property Program of the future.
    This announcement is being made to provide responses to comments 
received from the Federal Register notice published on June 5, 2003 (68 
FR 33683) proposing mandatory use of U.S. Bank's Power TrackSystem by 
Department of Defense Personal Property Transportation Service 
Providers. The Electronic Billing and Payment portion of the Families 
First Web Site is located at http://www.mtmc.army.mil, under the 
Personal Property Program. The site offers industry access to updates 
on the Business Rules, Concept of Operations (CONOPS), and System 
Interface Specifications. The initial rollout of PowerTrack and CWA is 
proposed to begin October 2003.

ADDRESSES: Headquarters, Military Traffic Management Command, ATTN: 
MTPP-PD, Room 10N35-58 (George Thomas), Hoffman Building II, 200 
Stovall Street, Alexandria, VA 22332-5000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. George Thomas at (703) 428-2237.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In response to the notice published June 5, 
2003 we have received three sets of comments, one from an attorney 
representing a carrier association, one from a senior official 
representing a carrier association and one from a senior official 
representing an independent transportation Service Provider, within the 
30-day comment period. A synopsis of these comments and responses 
appear below.
    Comment: Application of Prompt Payment Act (PPA) needs to be 
addressed and clearly defined before implementing PowerTrack.
    Response: As indicated in a 15 May 2003 letter from Defense Finance 
Accounting Services (DFAS) to the three major Industry associations, it 
is DFAS policy that PPA interest should be paid when a proper invoice, 
as defined in 5 CFR part 1315, is not paid within 30 days from receipt 
by the designated billing agency office. The third party billing agent 
will be the designated billing agency in the reengineered process. If 
there is a dispute over information on the invoice, to include price, 
quantity and/or compliance, the carrier will be notified within seven 
days of invoice receipt. This notification effectively stops the clock 
for computing PPA interest. Payment will be made within 30 days of 
receipt of corrected invoice to avoid payment of PPA interest. MTMC is 
working with DFAS and U.S. Bank to develop business rules which will 
outline and define the prompt payment process in Phase I.
    Comment: Industry raised concerns about the proposed timeframe of 
Phase I implementation. Specifically, they do not believe October 2003 
is a realistic date and believe the date should be moved to early 2003. 
According to Industry, adequate time was not given them to make 
computer-programming changes.
    Response: According to plans, we are moving forward to implement 
PowerTrack in the current Personal Property Program in October 2003. 
Industry has been participating for the past year as members of the 
Electronic Billing/Payment Team. It has been communicated from the 
start what our plans were and on one occasion, we slipped the start 
date from July 03 to the current target date of October 2003. The 
initial rollout will be from limited shipping sites with only certain 
carriers participating.
    Comment: Industry does not see the benefit of implementing 
PowerTrack using the current Military Rate Tariff (MRT) and suggest 
using the 400N Commercial Tariff during the Phase I Evaluation Period.
    Response: Currently, we have a Rates Solicitation Team as part of 
the Families First program who are receiving the 400N Commercial 
Tariff. It is the intent of MTMC to negotiate with industry to use a 
modified version of the 400N Commercial Tariff in the Defense Future 
Personal Property Program as part of the overall Families First. 
However in the interim, our goal is to implement PowerTrack as part of 
the Phase I Evaluation Period using the current MRT. In the interest of 
time, we do not believe it is feasible to incorporate the 400N in Phase 
I since we have not completed our analysis of it. Instead, it will be 
part of our Phase II rollout plan.
    Comment: Industry has raised concerns regarding the PPSO workload 
during Phase 1. Primarily, the PPSO's ability to perform additional 
workload during a time of downsizing, difficulty in completing their 
job timely in the current environment, and adequate training and 
assurance that sufficient resources will be provided TOs to ensure 
prompt payment.
    Response: Presently, we are working with the Military Services to 
determine if there are additional workload requirements associated with 
implementing Phase I in the current program. The Services were asked to 
provide any data they may have to support their concerns. Our 
recommendation is to move forward with the Phase I Evaluation Period in 
order to establish the validity of these perceived workload concerns.
    Comment: Industry wants to know what type of compensation will be 
given to those Transportation Providers who volunteer to participate in 
the Phase I Evaluation Period and how will they be compensated for 
added cost.
    Response: All Transportation Providers participating as volunteers 
during the Phase I Evaluation Period will receive compensation. This 
will come in the form of a percentage adjustment similar in kind to the 
fuel surcharge. Participating TPs will apply the percentage adjustment 
on a shipment by shipment basis.
    Comment: Industry believes that GSA request for hard copy 
documentation is a duplication of effort and TPs required to submit 
duplicates should be

[[Page 55948]]

compensated. They feel this is inconsistent with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act.
    Response: MTMC's goal is to eliminate hard copy documentation that 
TPs are required to submit for processing invoices. We are working with 
the Services and GSA to come up with a solution that is amendable to 
all parties involved. To that end, we are moving forward to begin 
automation of the hard copy documentation in Phase I.
    Comment: Industry believes the concept of pre-authorizing 
accessorial is a bad idea and wants to know if local agents will have 
access to CWA. They want to reserve the right to comment on CWA until 
more is known.
    Response: The idea of pre-authorizing accessorials in CWA is to 
streamline the pre-approval process and make it more manageable and 
efficient for PPSOs and Transportation Providers. The current process 
of notes and sticky papers is cumbersome, tedious and unorganized. Due 
to the limited scope and functionality of CWA, local agents will have 
not have access to CWA during the Phase I process. However, they will 
have access during Phase II and implementation of DPS. We held several 
demonstrations of CWA and PowerTrack for Industry to preview. We will 
continue this process as we move forward with Phase II.
    Comment: PowerTrack is an electronic billing and payment system 
that was designed for general freight shipments, not personal property 
shipments. The key difference between the two is the number of line 
items on an invoice, as personal property shipments have numerous 
accessorial charges that all need to match up accurately under 
PowerTrack's ``matching'' model. It is not an oversimplification to 
observe that it is much easier to ``match'' an invoice when only a 
handful of data points need to match than when there are hundreds of 
line items that must match.
    Response: The process designed for the Families First program 
recognizes the differences between freight shipments and personal 
property shipments. For personal property shipments, the TP invoice 
will first be processed by PowerTrack to add a unique line item 
identifier code which will then be provided to CWA and returned with 
the corresponding line item of the BOL/GBL. The line item identifier 
code will allow for accurate matching of line items. Changes have been 
made to incorporate personal property business processes.
    Comment: There have also been some reports that PowerTrack may 
offer carriers a reduced fee if they meet certain data transmission 
requirements. If this is true, the requirements for the discount need 
to be released publicly so all carriers can make plans to comply. The 
requirements also need to be reviewed to ensure that they do not 
discriminate against small businesses, which may not have access to the 
same equipment as larger companies.
    Response: U.S. Bank makes available to Sellers two pricing options 
as fully described in the PowerTrack Seller Agreement. Preferred 
Pricing provides lower processing fees and requires the Seller to meet 
certain qualifications. Namely, transaction data must be provided to 
U.S. Bank either through the PowerTrack Web site or through an EDI--
formatted electronic transmission over the Internet complying with 
PowerTrack's data format and protocol standards. The two methods allow 
any seller, regardless of size or technical capabilities, to qualify 
for the preferred pricing. In addition to providing transaction data to 
PowerTrack through one of the two methods, the seller must also agree 
to process payment requests within the PowerTrack System for any 
PowerTrack-capable buyer as requested by such buyer. For sellers who do 
not comply with the terms and conditions of Preferred Pricing, U.S. 
Bank makes Basic Pricing options available.
    Comment: PowerTrack states that they will only hold payment data 
online for 13 to 16 months. The Statute of Limitations allows both the 
TP and the DoD/GSA the right to bill or deduct up to three years after 
a transaction; keeping data online for only 13-16 months invites more 
problems. PowerTrack should hold data online for the three years 
required.
    Response: PowerTrack provides all customers, Buyers and Sellers, 
with 16 months of online transaction access. Each PowerTrack customer 
must decide what they want PowerTrack to do with the data after this 
point. Each PowerTrack customer has the option of paying PowerTrack to 
provide the long-term archival storage or receiving an archival extract 
and taking responsibility for their own archival storage and retrieval. 
PowerTrack's standard Archival Extract Files have been designed to 
provide each customer with 100% of the data PowerTrack has captured on 
their behalf for every type of document managed by PowerTrack in which 
the customer participates as either a Buyer or a Seller.
    Comment: There is to be a new user interface from PowerTrack, their 
interface number 3.0, that is not yet been shown to TPs. It is stated 
to be ready in September, far too late for enough time for all 
`Volunteer' TPs staff to be trained properly before the proposed start 
date.
    Response: PowerTrack's Release 3.0 has been in production since 
January 2002. Enhancements and additional capabilities are being 
developed to support Personal Property shipments but much of the 
existing functionality, available today, will be utilized. PowerTrack 
along with MTMC are working to provide training to all TPs prior to 
them processing payments in the Families First Program. Training will 
include a Families First program overview, along with CWA and 
PowerTrack training. Training will be conducted prior to 
implementation.
    Comment: We believe that there is a serious deficiency when 
PowerTrack only allows the Origin PPSO access to the shipment 
information. If there is a problem that can only be resolved in 
PowerTrack involving Destination PPSO charges, then the Destination 
PPSO must contact the Origin PPSO and ask them to work with the TP
    Response: Functionality within PowerTrack and CWA has been designed 
to support the Origin PPSO role. Under the current Phase I process, 
audit exceptions will primarily be managed through CWA where both 
Origin and Destination PPSO's have access. This will minimize the 
number of problems that can only be resolved in PowerTrack involving 
Destination PPSO charges. However, MTMC and PowerTrack understands the 
concern regarding this design and is exploring new capabilities and the 
technical feasibility to allow Destination PPSO access to PowerTrack.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    This action is not considered rule making within the meaning the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 USC 601-612.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 USC 3051 et seq., does not apply 
because no information collection or record keeping requirements are 
imposed on contractors, offerors or members of the public.

Thomas Hicks,
Chief, Personal Property Division.
[FR Doc. 03-24612 Filed 9-26-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710-08-M