Lighten the load when moving household goods

So, you’re about to move to your next assignment. You’re standing there staring at the colossal pile of boxes and furniture you’re about to load into a truck or trailer.

If you’re in the military, you’re asking yourself, "How much does our stuff weigh?” And the next question is, “Where can I find a scale to weigh, basically, a house?”

Most families moving across the country don’t have to ask that question, but military families do. Typically, movers charge based on the volume or size of your items, rather than the weight. But the military needs to know how much your stuff weighs to reimburse you for your move.

PPM, or a personally procured move, is a do-it-yourself move within the military. You are responsible for either packing/unpacking and transporting your belongings to your new location yourself or hiring your own commercial moving company. You can use portable moving and storage containers, rental trucks, or any other method of your choosing to conduct a PPM.

PPMs are especially recommended for any irreplaceable valuables you own, such as family heirlooms, photos, and important documents or for necessities you will need immediately at your new location, according to the Military One Source website.

“The question we get from customers is ‘Where can I have my items weighed?’” said Candace Hayes, traffic manager, Logistics Readiness Center, 404th Army Field Support Brigade on Redstone Arsenal. “We give them all the local scales in the area. Sometimes, for convenience, if a scale is closer than an installation scale it can be used if they are certified and approved, they can be used for transportation services.”

Now, you can weigh your car, trailer, or even a tank, at the newly repaired scales on Redstone Arsenal in front of building 8763 at the intersection of Buxton Road and Pershing Road.

“Say you want to move your own stuff from here to Germany and you want to move it yourself, you need a weight to make a claim for reimbursement,” Edwin Lopez, chief of ammunition for Redstone Arsenal's Logistics Readiness Center, said. “You can use this scale for that.”

It not only helps with reimbursement, Lopez gives you the official receipt for your PPM move, but it helps keep you safe as you move. By using the scale, you are making sure trucks and trailers aren’t overweight. An overweight truck can be dangerous and invite a hefty fine, an expense you probably didn’t work into your moving budget.

And while you’re looking at the tightly packed truck wondering if the scale can handle that much weight, it can.

Lopez is a pro at weighing big things.

“A bunch of tanks is the biggest load we’ve had to weigh. We get a lot of Humvees, the ones that are prepared for combat. We get 18-wheelers in here. We’ve weighed truckloads of (ammo) brass. NASA used to use the scales before, too,” Lopez said standing on the 18-wheeler length-industrial scale. “If someone needs to weigh some garbage, we can even use it for that. Anybody who has a need for something weighed they can come here for free.”

And saving money during a move is important. There are more expenses to moving than just the truck and trailer rental. There are the boxes, packing material, moving blankets and other incidental items.

“Most of the time we get claims for a truck, rental trailer, and boxes,” Hayes said. “A lot of people don’t realize you can have your vehicle’s oil changed and claim the oil that was used for your PPM move.”

But there is a little caveat, “You can’t claim the whole oil change, but you can claim the oil that was used for your PPM move,” Hayes said. “It’s little things that customers don’t necessarily know about that can save them some money.”

Also, when it comes to the scales, if they use a commercial scale and not the scale available on post, they can claim the weight ticket fees. Normally, the fees for a weight ticket are between $10 and $15 per claim ticket, according to Hayes.

“That’s one of the advantages of using the scale on base, when it comes to using the scales off-base they do charge a fee that the post scale doesn’t. But we remind members that is an allowable expense when it comes to a PPM move,” Hayes said.

You can come anytime and use the scale to weigh things. But if you need an official printout, you need to come when Lopez is working, from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. You can call Lopez at 256-876-1332 or 256-955-6028 and he will answer any questions you may have.

“People can come over here at any time,” Lopez said. “To get the official copy of the weight, they come in and check in with me. Bring the printout to me, and I stamp it and they are good to go.”

As an incentive to move yourself, the government will pay you 100% of the government’s constructed “best value” cost to hire a moving company on your behalf or perform your own move. If you can move your belongings yourself for less money, you get to keep the difference.

Who doesn’t need some extra cash to order the pizza to eat on the floor of the empty kitchen of that new home after driving across the country?