Daycos News

Daycos is proud to offer our first ever webinar, covering the topic of the 400NG Linehaul calculation. We will attempt to explain what items affect this complicated line item, how each item is calculated, and take some of the mystery of the rating of this item. We will also cover the Alaska Linehaul calculation, and what additional factors occur in Alaska shipments.

Please join us for this no-cost webinar. Space is limited, so please do not delay registration. Please contact support@daycos.com with any questions

Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/831984945

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

The price of fuel was $2.86 per gallon as reported on Monday, March 1, 2010 making the upcoming FSC rates for the period 3/15/10 through 4/14/10 as follows:

GBL Domestic HHG / International HHG & UB - 4%
GSA Domestic HHG - $0.36
GSA International HHG and BAG - $0.36

In preparation of the upcoming DPS rate filing, the DPS 400NG tariff and the International Tender have been updated for the 2010 rate cycle and published on the SDDC website. Daycos has reviewed the tariffs, and we have identified some areas which have changed.

Note: This article is not intended to be a comprehensive list of changes; it merely highlights some of the many changes in the updated tariffs. TSPs should thoroughly and completely read the updated tariffs prior to filing rates.

Items Eliminated from Billing
There is a lot of language that eliminates the billing of services that may have been previously billable. Some of these services are:

• Third Party Crating (Crating must be billed at tariff rates, even if services are performed by a third party)

  NOTE 5: Crating is not recognized as a third party service. TSPs must bill the appropriate item code 105B and/or 105E and will only be paid according to the charges in Item 105.

  400NG, page 34

  Billing Note3: Crating is not recognized as a third party service. TSPs must bill the appropriate item code 508 and will only be paid according to the charges in Item 508.

  Intl Tender, page 86

• Servicing of Front Load Washing Machines

  NOTE 4: Third Party Servicing DOES NOT APPLY to washers (e.g. front load) and other household articles that require bracing/stabilization (and de-bracing/destabilization) of moveable parts IN or ON such appliances. The cost of this service is considered to be part of the TSPs transportation charge.

  400NG, page 34

  c. Third Party Servicing DOES NOT APPLY to washers (e.g. front load) and other household articles that require bracing/stabilization (and de-bracing/destabilization) of moveable parts IN or ON such appliances. The cost of this service is considered to be part of the TSPs SFR.

  Int'l Tender, page 20

• Full Pack/Unpack charges on shipments coming out of Non-Temp storage (TSPs are able to bill a “Storage Inspection Fee” and Unpacking on these shipments.)

  Full Service Packing and Unpacking charges do not include crating service and will not apply on shipments that the TSP does not pack (e.g. shipments released from Non temporary storage[NTS], shipments from SIT where the GBL has been terminated). In lieu of full pack/unpack, an inspection fee of $3.03 per actual net cwt will apply for shipments that pickup from storage warehouses and are already packed.

  400NG, page 42

• Customs and Agricultural Inspection Charges

  Transportation SFR INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING SERVICES:
  ...
  5) Customs Clearance:
  ...
  c) Customs and agricultural inspection charges

  Int'l Tender, page 30-31

• Pier Pass Charges

Transportation SFR INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING SERVICES:
...
11) Pier Pass (https://www.pierpass.org) or related charges levied in an attempt to reduce truck traffic and pollution during peak daytime traffic hours and to alleviate port congestion.

Int'l Tender, page 30-31

• CON/COF charges on Codes 5, J, & T shipments

  NOTE: Air fuel, Bunker, War Risk, Port/Terminal Security Handling (COF), and Port Congestion (CON) surcharges are not applicable on shipment codes of service T, 5, and J.

  Int'l Tender, page 35

• Attempted Pickup (Attempted Pickup item code was never in 400NG, and now the item (Item 511) has been eliminated in the International Tender)

  Item 511 Reserved for Future Use

  Int'l Tender, page 89

Items Made More Restrictive
In addition to these items being eliminated, there have been some other changes which we believe will have the effect of making it more difficult to obtain approval for these billing items:

• Waiting Time

  a. Waiting time is a service that is subject to the availability of the TSP to perform such service and is only applicable if requested/preapproved by the PPSO and performed beyond the free waiting times
  indicated in this item
  
  b. Charges for waiting time, when not the fault of the TSP and when requested by the PPSO...

  400NG, page 45

  b. Waiting time service is subject to the availability of the TSP to perform and is only applicable if requested/preapproved by the PPSO and performed beyond the free waiting times indicated in this item

  Int'l Tender, page 85

• Debris Removal

  a. Debris Removal Charges apply when the PPSO requests that the TSP perform debris removal of unpacked cartons subsequent to the date of delivery and the service is performed.
  b. Debris Removal Service is utilized by exception only as provided by Services guidance (e.g., Blue Bark,etc) and only upon specific request and preapproval by the PPSO/PPPO.

  400NG, page 43

• Attempted Delivery

  NOTE 1: Attempted delivery will normally NOT APPLY as deliveries are usually arranged directly between the TSP and customer. Only in circumstances where the delivery date in question was scheduled by the PPSO may the TSP request attempted delivery. In DP3, the TSP is responsible to maintain continuous contact with the member/employee.

  400NG, page 28
  Int'l Tender, page 88

• Shuttle Service

  NOTE: When the shipment is picked up by the tsp/agent or delivered from SIT, shuttle service will not normally be
  approved, unless there are unusual circumstances and the government has reviewed and approved the request.

  400NG, page 46

A Few Other Changes to Note

• Reduction of number of performance periods to 4
• Addition of a item (Item 506) for Debris Removal in the International Tender
• General Price Adjustment language in 400NG was extensively revised. Among other changes, the language has been altered to indicate an adjustment is not required and is done at the discretion of SDDC
• Added language to 400NG Diversion item stating that if shipment is in destination SIT, diversion will not apply and TSP must perform a long-delivery out of SIT at the GBL rate to the new delivery point.

As previously mentioned, this is only a quick overview of the tariff changes. Daycos will continue to review the tariffs in preparation for the start of the upcoming DPS rate cycle.

The Daycos February Monthly Newsletter has been sent out, and can be viewed here. A few of the topics in this month's newsletter include:

Updated DPS Tariffs Reviewed
Daycos Introduces First Webcast
DPS Shipment Statistics: A Year in Review

If you did not receive an email with this month's newsletter, but would like to receive it directly each month, please feel free to subscribe here: Daycos Newsletter.

PowerTrack has posted the following message to their portal to inform users of the upcoming changes to their site.

New Look, Same Service

We are excited to announce that on February 22, 2010, you will see some changes to screens within PowerTrack. As you may be aware, PowerTrack has become Syncada from Visa. As a result, many screens will now display the U.S. Bank and Syncada from Visa logos.

You can still process invoices and make payments as you always have, and U.S. Bank continues to be your resource for relationship management and customer support.

Also posted to their portal today was the following message regarding scheduled site maintenance that will allow for completion of this transition.

The PowerTrack system will be temporarily unavailable due to planned system maintenance from 12:00 p.m. U.S. Central Time until 10:00 p.m. (CST) on Saturday, February 20, 2010 (6:00 p.m. GMT Saturday until 4:00 a.m. GMT Sunday, February 21, 2010). After this time, please use https://network.syncada.com/usbank to access the portal site.

The DPS 400NG-2010 Tariff and DPS International Tender-2010 have been posted to the SDDC website. Judging by the amount of red ink contained in each of the documents, there are a lot of changes which TSPs need to be aware of before the upcoming rate filing.

Daycos is reviewing the updated tariffs and we will provide some comments later concerning some of the changes.

During recent DPS invoicing conference calls, there has been some discussion of the applicability date of the fuel surcharge. We have always applied the fuel surcharge based on the date of the service, but we have noticed the DPS rating engine is applying the fuel surcharge for linehaul service based on the original pickup date, even if the shipment was placed in origin SIT. It was a minor difference, but one we asked SDDC to clarify, since the TR-12 Fuel Policy, which governs the application of fuel surcharge, is unclear on this point.

SDDC addressed this issue during the invoicing calls, and stated DPS is rating these shipments correctly, and the linehaul fuel surcharge should always be based on the pickup date, even if the shipment went into origin SIT. During the subsequent discussion of this issue, some statements were made by SDDC personnel that led many on the call to believe that SDDC was saying that the pickup date always governed the fuel surcharge application date, even on deliveries out of destination SIT. This would have been a major change in policy and potentially impact a large number of shipments.

We asked for further clarification from SDDC on whether it was their intent to have the fuel surcharge application date always governed by pickup date, even in cases of destination SIT. This morning, we had a chance to discuss this issue with SDDC personnel and they stated that it was not their intent to make that change. They stated that the fuel surcharge on linehaul (DPS Item Code 16A) should be based on pickup date if shipment went into origin SIT, but that in cases on delivery out of destination SIT, the fuel surcharge for delivery out(DPS Item Code 16B) should be based on the date of the delivery out, not pickup date.

While we still believe that the fuel surcharge should always be based on date of service, we will accept their interpretation that fuel surcharge is based on pickup date in cases of origin SIT, and will change our programming accordingly. We appreciate their efforts to clarify the larger issue, and we were very relieved to hear they were not making that policy change.

The price of fuel was $2.78 per gallon as reported on Monday, February 1, 2010 making the upcoming FSC rates for the period 2/15/10 through 3/14/10 as follows:

GBL Domestic HHG / International HHG & UB - 3%
GSA Domestic HHG - $0.28
GSA International HHG and BAG - $0.28

Last Friday, SDDC announced that the DPS rate filing schedule for the upcoming year. Round 1 will be March 10-20, 2010 and Round 2 will be March 29-April 2, 2010. You can view the entire message on SDDC's website.

There are a couple of other resources posted that may be of interest as well.
• They have also posted a Rate Filing Overview (pdf) containing an overview of the rate filing process, instructions with screen shots, and frequently asked questions and answers.
• Also, there is a Rate Filing Instructions (pdf) document, dated 1/21/10, although the change log does not indicate any changes.
• A Channel List and sample Rate Filing Files
• Finally, they have posted and updated Rate Filing Rules (pdf), with the following changes noted in the change log:

  Editorial corrections and additional clarifications as indicated. Replaced “Families First” with “Defense Personal Property Program” and “Rate Reasonableness with “Competitive Range” throughout

Late last month, SDDC posted an Excel spreadsheet containing the 2010 400NG baseline rates to their website. It was the first time the rates were posted by SDDC, instead of provided by AMSA, but the real difference was not who supplied the rates, but how they were supplied.

SDDC posted the rates on their website, in a publicly accessible document formatted in Excel. It is likely this method and format was chosen to make it easier to be viewed by the human eye. Previously, the 400NG had always been considered an “electronic tariff”, meaning that the baseline rates were only accessible via computer software. If you wanted to calculate a rate, you fed the shipment parameters into a computer rating engine, and the computer did the calculations. The baseline rates were there, but they were hidden from human eyes, intended to be read only for computer systems. To manually calculate the rate for any line item was virtually impossible.

Now, the baseline rates are available to everyone with an internet connection and Excel. However, this does not mean that now it will be easy to manually figure every line item on every 400NG invoice. It is important to remember that the 400NG was designed to be an electronic tariff, and it was always assumed that a computer would be making the calculations, not a human using pen and paper. Ease of calculation and clarity were not primary goals in the design of the tariff. This is apparent if you try to do the manual calculation of a 400NG invoice. While this publication of baseline rates makes it possible to manually calculate rates, it does not make it practical.

The risk that TSPs face with the publication of these rates is that PPSOs may attempt to verify line item amounts using this spreadsheet. While SDDC has long held the position that the only responsibility of PPSOs is to verify that services were performed in the quantities billed, many of the PPSOs feel that their fiduciary responsibility compels them to verify that the amount billed is correct. Since the 400NG has been an electronic tariff, it has been impossible to do this, which has led to frustration by some PPSOs.

The posting of this spreadsheet now gives the PPSO the opportunity to verify rates. However, given the complexity and design of the 400NG, it will be challenging for them to do this. Manually calculating these rates could lead to incorrect calculations, which could cause accurate invoices to be incorrectly denied. Even if a PPSO disputed a charge and asked for explanation of a discrpency, the process of walking someone through a 400NG rating calculation is difficult, cumbersome and time consuming for both parties.

In general, Daycos is supportive of the move by SDDC to make the 400NG more accessible. However, merely posting the baseline rates can only be a first step. Either clear guidance needs to be give to PPSOs about how to utilize the rates (or guidance to not utilize them), or SDDC needs to take steps to simplify the tariff, which could be a daunting task.