Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Department of Defense (DOD) policies and practices for procuring commercial transportation services for small lots of hazardous or sensitive cargo.

GAO found a number of problem areas in the management of small-lot shipments of hazardous and sensitive cargo that resulted in excess transportation costs and lost opportunities to use the best possible transportation services. Specifically, GAO found that: (1) most of the cargo had been routed to truck companies, although air taxi rates and services were competitive with truck rates and services; (2) a specific air taxi operator received a greater portion of the traffic than another operator who was in a position to compete effectively; (3) military routing officials had not followed DOD policies and criteria on routing; and (4) overall and specific DOD cargo shipping requirements, such as the location of the traffic and its pickup and transit needs, were not being adequately transmitted to companies wishing to compete for DOD business.