Success Stories: FastPack
Saving Time & Money with FRC's FastPack Service
In 2005, Otis Air National Guard Base in Falmouth, MA was running
out of space to store their Superfund site related records.
"We had been storing records on the base since the early
1990s for these sites," said Bob Power, a Contract Specialist
at Otis. We had hundreds of cubic feet of records in various
locations on base-in 40 ft metal storage containers, office
space, and other places. The records have retention periods
of fifty years or more, and we did not know how to best manage
them."
Enter Boston FRC Director Paul Palermo and his staff, who stepped in and helped the Air Force solve their storage-related problems with FRC's FastPack service. "FastPack is a full-service solution," said Palermo. "We do everything it takes to move records from your filing cabinets to the FRC shelves. We come to your office, pack and label the boxes, fill out the forms, create indexes, and transport the records to our center."
"It was amazing," said Power. "Paul came down right away, explained process and costs, and gave us a free estimate. They took truckloads of boxes to the FRC. I could not believe how easy it was!"
Palermo noted that many Federal offices create a lot of records, but don't have a lot of space to store them. "FastPack helps agencies solve their space management problems by getting the records organized quickly. It also helps them 'do the right thing' with respect to preserving their records in accordance with good Federal records management principles," he said. "The staff were wonderful," said Power. "They were prompt, courteous, and thoroughly knowledgeable about Federal records".
Customized FastPack Services for Specific Needs
Other agencies have used FastPack to help solve situation-specific
challenges. When a New Hampshire-based contractor finished
tabulating a large EEO survey for the Department of Labor,
it was up to Program Analyst Forrest Horak to figure out what
to do with the hundreds of boxes of paper surveys from the
project. "We at the national office send records to our
local FRC (the Washington National Records Center in Suitland,
MD) all the time'" said Horak. "These particular
transfers technically belonged to the national office, but
were physically located in one of the regions." The survey
contractor offered Horak a quote to send the boxes to Washington
via FedEx. "The price was incredibly expensive,"
said Horak. "Plus, we would have had to then rebox and
transfer the records to the FRC. And besides, we had nowhere
to put the records."
Once again, FRC FastPack provided a solution. With permission from the Department of Labor Records Officer, Horak decided to transfer the records to the Boston FRC in Waltham, MA. "Using FastPack made great sense all around. From a financial standpoint, it cost less than doing it ourselves or getting a contractor to do it. It made sense from a productivity standpoint as well, since I did not have to take time to travel to Boston to manage the project. It also gave us peace of mind from a records management standpoint-after all, if the FRC is filling out the forms, we knew they were going to be done right."
FastPack can also save agencies money on rent, personnel and shipping costs. Office space is expensive, and using FastPack expedites the transfer of records to more cost-effective space in the FRC. Using FastPack makes good personnel management sense as well. Says Palermo, "It doesn't make sense to have GS-12s from our customer agencies spending their time packing and hauling boxes. FastPack frees these agency personnel to focus on program-related tasks." Finally, pricing for FastPack is extremely competitive. Horak said "The quote the FRC gave us for the entire project was less than what a contractor gave us for just boxing up the records. And when the final bill came from the FRC, it was actually less than what they had quoted us."
Free, no obligation FastPack quotes are available from your local FRC director. Call today for more information!
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— Bob Power, USAF "Using FastPack made great sense all around."
— Forrest Horak, DOL