[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 201 (Wednesday, October 19, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60797-60798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-20900]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army


Publication of Families First Business Rules

AGENCY: Department of the Army, DOD.

ACTION: Final notice.

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SUMMARY: The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command 
(SDDC), as the Department of Defense (DoD) Traffic Manager for the 
Personal Property Program published the Defense Personal Property 
System (DPS) Phase II Business Rules for Industry comment. These rules 
were posted to the Families First Web Site located at http://www.sddc.army.mil under Families First.
    This announcement is being made to provide an overview of the 
comments received by SDDC from the Federal Register notice published on 
April 26, 2005 (70 FR 21401). All stakeholders were given 30 days to 
review these draft business rules and provide SDDC their comments. 
Responses were returned in several ways, including letters, 
spreadsheets and the Frequently Asked Question process.
    SDDC received approximately 1300 comments from the industry. Some 
of the comments were unique, but there were many duplicates.
    After the initial review of the comments and identification of 
duplicates, the comments were assigned to SDDC Subject Matter Experts 
(SME) in each of the associated Functional Areas related to the 
development of DPS. These SME's performed a detailed review of these 
comments to determine if revision to the business rules were 
appropriate.
    Our review indicated that there were approximately 800 duplicates 
and 500 unique comments. Some of industries major concerns were: the 
new best value traffic distribution methodology, establishment of 
minimum performance score, claims metrics, issues with CWA/invoicing, 
prompt payment, hard copy documentation, low response customer survey 
response rate, lack of statistically valid number of Transportation 
Service Providers (TSPs), non-availability of interface with TSP 
systems, 13% cost growth limitation on the new program, access to rate 
filing instructions, tools required to perform rate filing, inadequate 
time to test the new system, shipment management, TSP/agent 
relationship and access to multiple SCACs.
    Our review indicated that all the comments required clarification 
to the business rules. SDDC is currently in the process of providing 
these clarifications in the business rules and will publish the Final 
Business Rule when incorporation of these changes is completed. In the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section, SDDC has identified Industry's major 
concerns.

ADDRESSES: Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, ATTN: SDPP, 
Room 10N35-29 (Judith Tarbox), Hoffman Building II, 200 Stovall Street, 
Alexandria, VA 22332-5000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Judith Tarbox at (703) 428-3004.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Industry's comments ranged from questions, 
suggestions, rewording of business rules and requesting of additional 
information. SDDC will continue to work with Industry to clarify 
interpretations of the program and develop the understanding necessary 
to make the implementation of DPS a success. During the review of these 
comments, several consistent themes emerged, including:
    1. Requests for the release of SDDC proprietary information. As 
part of developing rules/logic for DPS; SDDC has developed several DoD 
specific logic, formulas, and additional information to assist our 
System Integrator (SI) to implement our new Personal Property System. 
For example, some of the logic involves computation of targets per 
market to keep the program cost growth under 13% etc. This is DoD 
specific proprietary information and is therefore acquisition sensitive 
thus cannot be released outside DoD.
    2. Questions that SDDC believes have already been addressed. Many 
of the industry's comments are addressed in other sections of the 
business rules or other business rules documents. For example, 
distribution of shipments, spread and blackout dates, filing and 
settlement of claims, new rate filing process and timeline etc.
    3. Recurring questions. Several unique questions were asked by 
Industry, but most of these questions were recurring questions from the 
past two years that have been previously responded to by SDDC. SDDC 
believes that these questions reveal areas where Industry may need more 
information, and SDDC will provide responses as part of the FAQ section 
of the Families First Web site. Additionally, topics of some of these 
questions will be considered for future Families First info-grams.
    4. Documentation Edits and Changes. Industry identified areas in 
the documentation where editorial changes or updates to the 
documentation are necessary that are not related to the content of the 
Business Rules. Where applicable, SDDC will make all appropriate 
updates to the documentation to correct these items. For example: 
mileage guide reference in the new domestic 400NG tariff, business 
rules and international tender language changes for clarity and some 
changes to footnotes in the business rules and cross referencing of 
business rules etc.
    5. Industry opinion. In many cases Industry reiterated opinions and 
concerns with regards to the Families First Program. SDDC continues to 
provide a monthly In-Process Review (IPR) to the Industry to discuss 
these concerns and work towards a better understanding and resolution 
of issues.
    6. Business Rules Changes. In some cases, Industry identified 
perceived gaps in the business rules or divergent business rule 
explanations in the documentation. In such cases SDDC will work to 
provide clarification to the business rule document. For example: 
Historical tonnage will be provided to all DoD qualified TSPs per 
market.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    This action is not considered rule making within the meaning of 
Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601-612.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3051 et seq., does not apply 
because no information collection or record keeping requirements are

[[Page 60798]]

imposed on contractors, offerors or members of the public.

Steven L. Amato,
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force, Deputy Chief of Staff for Passenger 
and Personal Property.
[FR Doc. 05-20900 Filed 10-18-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710-08-M