[Federal Register: October 19, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 201)]
[Notices]
[Page 60797-60798]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr19oc05-38]
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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