Summer surge brings business to Dallas VPC - vehicle processing center busy shipping cars - Brief Article

Translog: Journal of Military Transportation Management, July-August, 2001

As the days turn hot in early summer the workers in the Dallas Vehicle Processing Center get ready: the summer surge is ahead.

The second-busiest center in the United States is soon to be overrun by service members sending or receiving their vehicles.

The Dallas center ships an average of 7,000 vehicles a year as part of the Military Traffic Management Command's Global POV Contract. The center's vehicle volume is second only to Hawaii. On one record day, 16 car carriers visited to load and unload vehicles.

Bill Antonelli, Vice-President of American Auto Logistics, Inc., shakes his head in amazement at the numbers.

"The fact is, we handle the vehicles the same way all over the world," said Antonelli.

Antonelli's Monroe, N.Y., firm is the prime contractor for the shipment of 75,000 vehicles every year for MTMC.

Off the dusty streets of Texas State Highway 121, about 15 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, the customers come--and keep coming.

Ron Pepka, Manager, and his four clerks and eight inspectors are ready.

"The cycle starts about the 1st of May, when things really begin picking up," said Pepka. "June, July and August are extremely busy.

"I've had 65 people in a single day."

Customer service is stressed, said Pepka.

"Customer service is what drives the whole operation," said Pepka, who manages a center for contract subcontractor Unified Aircraft Services, Inc.

Why is the center so busy?

"We cover a big area," said Pepka. "We cover all of Texas.

"We have service members bringing in their vehicles from as far away as Wichita, Colorado Springs and Albuquerque."

Among the center's customers on April 3 is Staff Sgt. Anthony Magiera, of the 1st Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood, Texas.

Magiera, a tracked equipment mechanic, is shipping out to a prepositioned equipment center in Brunssum, the Netherlands.

This is the first time Magiera has shipped a vehicle overseas.

How did it go?

"Great!" exclaimed Magiera, a veteran of Bosnia peacekeeping duty. "These guys were outstanding."

Inside, clerk Michelle Wederstrandt is helping a new customer: Lt. Col. Mark Simpson, of Dyess Air Force Base, Abilene, Texas.

Simpson is headed for a new assignment at Anderson Air Force Base, in Guam.

"This is working out very well," said Simpson.

United Aircraft Services operates other centers in Atlanta; Charleston, S.C.; Orlando, Fla.; Seattle; St. Louis; and Guam.