DSC saved shippers more than $1 million last year - Brief Article

Translog: Journal of Military Transportation Management, Jan-Feb, 2001

Celebrating substantial savings for its customers, the Deployment Support Command recently recognized its Carrier Audit Team members for saving shippers more than $1 million in calendar year 2000.

DSC's CONUS Traffic Management Division, which oversees the audit teams, examined more than 4,500 government bills of lading throughout the year and found $1,026,547 in errors that shippers otherwise would have had to pay.

Tony Sinisi, a member of the audit team, explained that before 1989, the General Accounting Office handled post-audits well after carriers had actually been paid for shipping. Because of this, any money recovered went into the U.S. Treasury.

Now, money saved by the pre-audits performed by the Carrier Audit Team stays at the installation that originated the shipping.

The audit team stewardship of the process, through a maze of complicated regulatory requirements, resulted in accurate and timely audit submissions to three different finance offices. All types of technical, procedural, and policy disputes between shippers, carriers, finance offices, and the General Accounting Office were resolved by members of the carrier audit team.

Not only did the auditors save dollars, but their work also added value through the identification and correction of shipper service errors, unproductive installation procedures, conflicting regulations, and policy in such wide-ranging topics as pallet allowances, car substitution documentation, and duplication of services.

According to Lu Ann Bernard, DSC's lead Traffic Management Specialist on the Carrier Audit Team, auditors are always on the lookout for better business practices and developing trends.

"We have to use sound judgment to ensure DSC's effective use of commercial freight services in CONUS," Bernard said.

In addition to Sinisi and Bernard, members of the DSC Carrier Audit Team are Rich Parker, Bob VanDerveer, Lynn Senerchia, Harold Ozinitsky, Burt Soled and Linda Hartage.