Senator says he'll 'get to the bottom' of vehicle-shipping problems

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/senator-says-he-ll-get-to-the-bottom-of-vehicle-shipping-problems-1.310536

Senator says he'll 'get to the bottom' of vehicle-shipping problems

By Mike Fitzgerald
Belleville News-Democrat
Published: October 26, 2014

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (MCT) -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced he will begin looking directly into the problems plaguing International Auto Logistics LLC of Brunswick, Ga., a federal contractor that received a nearly $1 billion contract from the U.S. Transportation Command, based at Scott, to ship military members' privately owned vehicles.
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Durbin remains "deeply concerned regarding the performance of International Auto Logistics," according to a statement he issued Friday. "It shouldn't take six months of inquiries and complaints for IAL to meet its obligation to our nation's servicemembers and the basic requirements of its contract," Durbin said. As chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Durbin continued, "I have begun inquiries into the performance of this contract, and I intend to get to the bottom of what went wrong and how to make sure it does not happen again."

Almost as soon as IAL took over the private vehicle shipping contract in early May, complaints from military families started pouring into both Transcom and the Army Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, also based at Scott, about missing cars, late delivery dates and problems with customs paperwork. Another major source of frustration was IAL's many failures to communicate with bewildered and stressed-out troops looking for their cars.
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Transcom reported that the on-time delivery of military members' privately owned cars had improved sharply. Even so, plenty of complaints persisted, especially from military members who had entrusted their cars to IAL before Aug. 1.
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These complaints led to a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., between Selva and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., to "discuss the unacceptable burden thousands of service members returning from duty overseas are experiencing" due to vehicles misplaced by IAL, according to a statement Warner released. Warner called the meeting with Selva after receiving calls of complaint from 160 constituents who had asked for help, according to Warner's statement.
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