Movers unload a box on Scott Air Force Base, Ill., June 17, 2026. (David Phaff/U.S. Air Force)
A trade group representing the moving industry is opposing a proposed Pentagon rule that would make access to military installations more difficult for trucking crews.
The Defense Department’s Personal Property Activity, or PPA, issued proposed changes for 2027 for the Defense Personal Property Program. It is seeking comments on the draft changes before issuing final rules next month.
One proposed rule change says movers would be “explicitly prohibited from requesting sponsorship from Armed Forces personnel.” Violation would result in “punitive action,” the proposal states.
Under such a rule, moving crews could not reach out to service members or other household members to facilitate entry, Katie McMichael, executive director of Movers for America, said in a phone interview Wednesday.
“It just seems counterintuitive for PPA to make base access more difficult than it already is,” she said.
The organization on Monday submitted formal comments on the proposed rule changes to PPA.
In January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced PPA’s formation to oversee the relocation of service members’ possessions during permanent change of station moves following a slew of complaints from customers and movers in recent years.
Base access has long been challenging for movers because installation commanders set their own, differing levels of security, McMichael said.
Access became a much more acute problem early this year as security for domestic installations was beefed up after the Trump administration launched its war on Iran on Feb. 28.
“As an industry, we 100% recognize that the base commanders set their own protocol, their own security standards,” McMichael said. “We completely understand that national security is obviously paramount.”
Moving trucks, however, already face unpredictability when arriving at installation gates, she said.
“We’ve had crews where they’ve gone onto base in the morning, no problem, and then they leave for lunch, and by the afternoon the protocols or the security level is changed, and then they can’t get back on the base in the afternoon,” she said.
Movers sometimes contact service members or their family members to escort or sponsor the truck and crew’s entry onto the base, McMichael said.
Some service members avoid hours of waiting by escorting shipments through installation gates, she said.
Movers for America said in a Wednesday news release that PPA should “collaborate with industry on solutions to smooth base access, rather than increasing penalties which only restrict capacity in an already strained market.”