A permanent change of station comes with a report date and a car that has to get there too. Whether the government ships it depends on your orders. This guide covers both routes and how to plan the car around the move.
What your orders may cover
Your installation's transportation office can tell you exactly what your orders pay for, and it is the place to ask before you book anything. The general rules are these.
For a move to or from an overseas station, the government ships one privately owned vehicle at its expense, through the vehicle processing centres run under the Defense Department's POV contract. The official site is pcsmypov.com. A second vehicle needs an approved exception, or you ship it yourself.
For a move between two stations in the lower 48, the government generally does not ship your car. If you drive it, you are paid a mileage allowance for the trip. Shipment at government expense between CONUS stations is allowed only in narrow cases, for example when a family has more than one car to move and everyone travels in one of them, or when a medical reason stops you driving. Your transportation office applies the rules in the Joint Travel Regulations to your orders, and the answer in your case is theirs to give.
Notification of an assignment is not yet authorization to move a car at government expense. Wait for the orders, then ask.
Shipping it yourself
Within the 48 states, most service members who want the car there without driving it ship it themselves. The family drives one car and the second one goes on a truck, or everyone flies and the only car ships. We plan the pickup window around your report date and leave slack at the delivery end, because the car must not be the thing that makes you late.
Service members, veterans and military spouses get $100 off. Choose the military discount when you get your price, and a coordinator checks your military ID, DD-214 or orders before dispatch. Keep the agreement, the bill of lading and the receipt from your order page. Some units reimburse part of a self-arranged move, and the paperwork is what they ask for.
Florida bases
Florida has large installations across the state, and cars move to and from them all year. In the Panhandle, NAS Pensacola and NAS Whiting Field near Milton, Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field near Fort Walton Beach, and Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City. On the First Coast, NAS Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport. On the Gulf side, MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. On the Space Coast, Patrick Space Force Base near Cocoa Beach. At the far end of the Keys, NAS Key West.
Delivery is usually to an address off base, or to a lot or a commissary parking area the gate allows, because most installations do not let a commercial car carrier through the gate without sponsorship. Give us the address you want the car at, and if that is on base, tell your coordinator, who will arrange a meeting point with the driver.
When you cannot be there
A spouse, a friend or anyone you name can hand over or receive the car. They walk around it with the driver and sign the bill of lading for you. Give us their name and phone when you book, and the driver calls them, not you, on the day.
You see everything from wherever you are. The pickup photos and the signed bill of lading go on your order page within the day, an email tells you at each change, and the driver's name and phone are on the page if you want to call. When the car is delivered, the delivery photos join them, so you can see how it arrived before you do.
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